eventually folks will have to think outside the box to catch fish, especially with catch and release fish.
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Live scope crappie
- Thread starter SEC
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eventually folks will have to think outside the box to catch fish, especially with catch and release fish.
fairchaser
Well-Known Member
My son has live scope on his boat and after two trips, we have a total of 3 keepers total. Four more trips and we should be able to have a small fish fry. It's not a slam dunk. Fish stare at your bait and swim off.
It's an all release fishery. The only way to legally keep a tarpon(in FL) these days is with a kill tag which is issued under the assumption that you will weigh the fish in an effort to break a record. I'd make a bet that there are less than 20 people left fishing for tarpon records.
I agree though, in spirit, with what you are saying. When I was a kid, releasing a snook was unheard of. Now, there is a grassroots movement to let them all go, even if they are within the slot during the limited season.
I truly believe there is a cultural difference between those whose first love is hunting vs those who grew up in an area where fishing is more popular than hunting. I always laughed at my grandfather who would ask "is that a keeper?" no matter what it was that he caught on my boat.
He also laughs at me when I tell him that if it was possible, I'd bring a deer back to life and let it go after I shot it.
It's definitely not plug and play like some people think.
TheLBLman
Well-Known Member
It could also be a difference that in times past most fishermen needed to justify their time (and expense) fishing by bringing home something to eat. Of course, these were times when we couldn't so easily just take a selfie pic proving what we caught.
When I was a child, we kept everything we caught. As a teenager & young man, I began releasing as many or more than I kept. Today, I don't fish as much, but do keep a few to eat, something I justify (at least in my small mind) simply by the fact I fish & catch a fraction what I did as a child & young man.
When I was a teenager & young man, there were countless days I caught a limit of 10 bass by mid-morning, and kept them all. I generally used heavy tackle (for bass) and big lures. Those 10 would commonly weigh in @ 35 lbs. I took out a lot of fish then.
Ironically, I did this without any the modern electronics. I just learned from my mentors, learned on my own, and fished hard & effectively. I still don't use any electronics when fishing by myself. May start fishing more in the future, may or may not keep or release more fish. Last year I kept enough bass for a couple meals, released the rest.
But a bigger point I'm trying to make is that there may be fewer bass, crappie, bream, and catfish being kept to eat today than decades ago. Not even sure the collective fishermen catch more today, despite those ever-becoming-better electronics.
Sometimes we worry too much about things that may not matter so much.
m r too ducks
Well-Known Member
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- Dec 6, 2014
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Up here on the smallmouth lakes people drop down on them damiki fishing. The fishing has changed the last few years as the fish are learning if a boat is above them then the baits are on the way down. Most times they will follow a bait then swim off
OLD timers kept alot more fish than most do nowadays!! I know older guys that kept every bass they caught and have seen old pictures of some of the biggest bass fisherman in the last 50 years with stringers full of big largemouth. It was common to keep everything back in the day.
You just had second thoughts and decided to let him grow a year before you killed him for good
LOL yes you have.
If it's legal, just do it.
You can't eat tarpon ……
TheLBLman
Well-Known Member
Can't or just don't want to?
So is livescope akin to fanning/reaping in the turkey woods? 
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
But if you're like my FIL, every time I go to east TN in the fall/winter, we are sinking crappie beds. It's nonstop. They're everywhere and he gets mad when someone finds one of his and I'm like…we sunk 70 of them….they're going to find a few
Many south and Central American cultures eat them. They make fish cakes out of them. Some Caribbean islands as well.
killingtime 41
Well-Known Member
Every time I see people using live scope. All I see them doing is bent over staring at a screen moving the transducer watching fish swim up to the bait that they can also see. I don't to each there own I guess. I'll never own one. I go fishing to relax. I don't always catch fish. But It's not the end of the world. If you can't take a fish finder with down scan and find places where fish should be. Then live scope isn't gonna make you a better fisherman.
Before LS most crappie fishermen I know always kept their eyes on some type of sonar screen looking for structure. So what's the difference? If you don't like LS don't use one. If you fish tournaments and want to be competitive you best learn to use one.
There is definitely a learning curve. My first 5 trips I caught less than 5 keepers total. My 6th trip I caught 12 keepers. People that haven't done it think it's automatic. Regardless of how easy the guys on YouTube make it look, it's not. In Mississippi we fish for suspended fish in open water. The fish are swimming. The boat is moving. The wind always blows. When your transducer is on the trolling motor shaft and you are trying to control the boat while keeping the fish and your bait on the screen, it's not as easy as it looks.
TheLBLman
Well-Known Member
This thread and the discussions about "Livescope" seem akin to
all the discussions about cell cams.
It's easy for any of us to make erroneous assumptions based on our own lack of experience and projection of other erroneous assumptions. So, I'm probably just saying this from a point of ignorance, but it would seem a Livescope is of more advantage to a fisherman than a cell cam is to a hunter.
Never mind I have no particular issue with either. Just haven't used a Livescope.
And just because you find the fish, doesn't make them bite.
