How do you know what kind of fish is on the screen, bass, crappie or cat fish, drum, whites?

Watch you tube videos on it and you will learn quickly.

You will learn the way they set-up and roam. To me crappie & whites are the easiest to identify. I had a hard time in the winter telling the difference between stripers & largemouth, smallmouth. Might be because I was catching them together. Just takes practice and I am no expert!

miliken has a 2-3 hour video where he points bass out and talks about it. i seen crappie guys on youtube make videos showing crappie on the screen and explain too. I think its been out long enough that theres good content out there to get an idea.

definitely in for the replies...because to me it just seems like blob size, and how those blobs may be relating to cover is what gives insights into species. there was an interview someone posted on here with JJ and he said that lots of people cast at big carp thinking theyre bass. So i have a feeling its not as easy as it may seem from an outsiders perspective

I have used it for a year and it is certainty an effective tool. You can get way caught up in trying to watch your bait and fish reactions. It’s bad A$$ to watch them chomp it. However, I find it more effective in finding life & cover. Crappie fishing with it is a whole different story!!!

PS: it’s also great for finding outside grass lines, points and bare spots in submerged grass. I am not Josh Jones, and don’t care to fish that way. But it certainly played a roll in a couple of derby wins for us this year and a couple of giants. Just my .02!

I have a hard time with drum/largemouth, the rest are easier to tell due to their length or height.

Pretty sure I'm still in the casting at carp part of the learning curve...

This is all my opinion, hope this helps..

I like the transducer not mounted on the trolling motor. I like to spot lock and fish areas from different directions. It's a bit more work deploying but well worth it to me.


Crappie stack up like cars in a parking lot, they have a funny signature. They stack up side by side sometimes and are easy to identify. But they are a safety by numbers critter and will be tightly stacked up in brush. Only the king crappie of that brush pile will be the bold one to move out first. Sandbass are like bees. Unless they are moving thru the area, I find them stacked up on humps and when you hit them on the head they swarm your jigging spoon. The drum are easier to identify for me on the bigger fish, they will roam in pairs, and sometimes have a few small fish following. I see this allot along the dam on my local lake.

The big gar are long and rectangular when you get them on the scope.

The bass are a big "?" until you get a bait down to them. But if you have some kind of tree, or stick a bass will stick to it like its their security blanket. The bass that are moving or covering water are identified by their reaction to the bait. If they could care less, its probably a trash fish. If they jump on it, or go into attack mode it's a bass/or big sandbass.

Here is a video of a stubborn giant that I couldn't get to bite.



Here are sandbass stuck to the bottom.



Here is lone wolf sandbass cruising open water. Note the bait balls .


Here is a Bass or big sandbass checking out the crankbait. Note, towards the end of the clip you will see the big rectangle (gar signature)



Here is some February bass sniping on a ledge.

Cool videos Prosise! Do you normally run yours out to 90 feet? I got an active target and it tops out at around 60 or so to really see anything clearly.

Yes I can see fish out in the 90ft range, might not be much but I can get signals. Probably depends more on the water clarity.

When I am covering water I will keep it out to 90ft, but when I am specifically pinpointing a target it will come in to the 50-65 range. When I am playing with the sandbass I will go out further looking.to find a signature on the humps. fish stacked up on humps looks like grass growing out far, when you get up closer it is the fish stuck to the bottom (either on sloping edge of a hump, or ledge). Unless I am working vertically, its at the 70ft-80ft range most of the time. I can throw past that with a crankbait, so I will use it as a directional input on where to focus.

The real thing about livescope is you have to learn to just fish, in the beginning I was really focusing on the livescope and not fishing my normal way. I have so many clips of me getting a bite when I stop moving the bait, and I am fiddling with a setting on the livescope. You have to draw the line, and not try to watch the screen. I use it much less now, than in the beginning. But I would say I have well over 500 hours on the unit, and at some point you have to determine what you are looking for. 30-40 hrs on the water every week adds up.. I have sniped many fish, but it can really surprise you at how many fish see your bait, and don't give a darn about it. It's not the arrow, it's the indian who gets the bite. The way you fish the bait, really makes the difference. It is really hard to see fish on the bottom( the ones stuck in the structure, rocks, bolders, chunk rock). The second they come out of the structure they are easy to see, so even if you do not see fish doesn't mean they are not there. They are where you would think, but you have to get them to bite. I see so many fish come up and look at a bait, analyzing it before retreating to safety. They are kind of like a cat, it it's a moving bait they will go for the fleeing bait and sometimes you really have to change it up. Something small in the retrieve that causes the bait to do something different is the key "IMO". A slight pop of the rod tip, pause, or sudden faster reeling will sometimes generate the strike.

But in the end, you have to use it for collecting data, and trying to prove something. After you get a pattern, you really need to just turn it off. No joke, you need to find what your looking for and then just fish your pattern. The information is really good if you know how to take it in. I still think the HB 360 is more important for fishing, as I can keep my bait in the exact area. No wasted casts around structure. But the perspective mode with livescope is amazing, but I still favor the 360 for some reason. I have lots of perspective mode clips, and seeing the fish swim in an area is way cool to see. I tinker with settings allot, and will start from scratch allot just to try something different. Screen size is super important IMO, anything less than a 12" would be tough on the old eyes. I have the 1222 livescope package, and that's all it does. It sits right beside the HB Helix for the 360.

Prosise, thanks for the very good information.