Just talked with my BiL, who’s the best crappie fisherman I know. Fishes 5 days a week and goes home on the weekends. He’s getting a Garmin Livescope setup this next week. He mentioned something this morning that I hadn’t heard before. He said that his crappie fishing buddies are saying that the beam from the transducer makes the crappie “skittish”, so they have gone to longer poles (16’) and now set up further from the crappie.

Maybe this has been discussed before, but I didn’t see it. And maybe this is pure baloney. What do you long term experienced Livescope guys say about this?

Agree with Oscar Mayer.

Fish with mine 3-4 days a week over the past 18months.

Just my experience.

Sonar sensitive fish is not a new thing

IMO, crappie are not sensitive to a sonar ping. A boat slapping the water is another thing.

IMHO. , folks are just now seeing the fish. One of the questions has always been. , are they not there or just not biting.
Livescope answers that question. I stopped on a spot yesterday, loaded with fish , couldn’t buy a bite. Moved 40 feet to another pile and the bite was aggressive .

I suspect trolling motor noise and ( as already mentioned, wave slap, ) is more likely to spook fish.
Fishing further away from the spot can’t hurt, and a longer rod gives you more reach,, Depth of water is also a consideration.

I am still using 8 ft rods, I bought a couple of 10 ft , but they just don’t feel right to me. . I will save those for timber fishing.

Your mileage may vary.

Mo

They are as sensitive to sonar as I am to FM radio waves.

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Lol!!!

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You touched on a subject there that I don't hear much about anymore. Ever since the Ultrex (and related trolling mts) came on the scene, you don't hear much concern about trolling mtr. noise. I never was concerned about the noise but I remember it being a hot topic a few years ago.

It definitely affects fish west of I turdyfib...

I don’t notice the fish reacting to the sonar as much as the presence of the boat........especially in less than 15’ of water. They will certainly gang up under the boat on a sunny day if the shade of the boat gets close to them. Also the old adage of catching the fish off the top of the school is very much true. For the past month I’ve watched tons of instances where an entire school of fish will make for the hills as soon as someone catches one off the bottom of the school and pulls it up through the rest of them. Also getting hung up in the pile and yanking on the line will mess up a school of fish too. Best to try and slowly pull to straighten out the hook or break off rather than aggressively yanking in the limb. It’s much less disruptive to what’s going on down there.

I do not notice this with LS at all. I DO HOWEVER see it with the trolling motor. I can float up on fish 4 feet from the top and see them on LS and they are fine. If I activate the trolling motor to slow down or move, they take off. I personally do not believe there is anything with the LS and them running from that.

I do not agree that crappie react to the sound of sonar. I do knw they react to boat slap, trolling motor reversing, dropping something on the floor of your boat....and bass fishermen