Probably very dependent on the lake. Hard to dismiss the guys that have come along strong lately and they are scopers. Also takes a pretty young guy to be really good with the scope, it’s not an old man’s game!

Seems like it wouldn’t be much fun wandering about in open water but whatever floats your boat

I have well over 1000hrs on the LiveScope in the last year. In deep water it's like you go out in the garage at night with a flashlight looking for something. Now think about going out in the garage in the dark and doing the same thing without a livecheat. I use the 360 about 30% of the time, and the Live about 40%, and the remaining percentage is just spot locked/or easing down an area fishing. With that said, deep water fishing is greatly enhanced with livecheat. But if you get on one of the really shallow lakes, like the one the pro's fished earlier in the year. When you get into the 8ft and less depths the LiveScope struggles, unless you pull back the range and massage the settings. However when using the perspective mode it is like having a live mega 360. But, you loose the constant focus of your situational awareness with the sweet spots you should be casting at. In shallow water it's a reference, and it brings the fisherman/fisherwoman skills back to the front of the boat. It really is a fantastic tool to create a pattern with, and then just turning it off and fishing your pattern. You have no idea how many fish follow your bait, or are actively
playing the cat and mouse game with your lure. Seeing what they are doing, whether it's a flat out "nope", or a "what do we have here" reaction. But for those with a true passion, and I'm pretty "mad at 'em" . You have to turn it off, and just fish. It's pretty easy to miss the old grey herring standing on the rock unless your living and experiencing your fishing. Zoning out on the screen can ruin you. When it gets tough I scale down, and finesse fish with no electronics. It's stupid expensive, but the long term benefits are well worth it. You will learn things in the first year on your home lake that will surprise you. The most useful thing I use the livecheat for is finding brush. Whether it's a stick, or brush pile I mark them all.

If they removed the live from tourney's you might hear some new names, and allot of them salty names.

Now for the guys making a living, it's food for the table.


For crappie, it should be outlawed.. pure poison on the "redneck lobster"..

Yes, the only way to catch fish is with livescope. Y’all get away from the banks and get out there in the middle chasing those bait balls!

If you ain’t scope’n your just hope’n

Yep, to think that any part of Texas lakes are going to get less pressure in the future is incredibly naive.

You’ll have LS dominated tournaments just like you have sight fishing tournaments. I’m not afraid of guys fishing FFS at all. I do think those guys will rely on it so much that they will start to lose their natural ability. The fish will adapt. FFS isn’t magic. So my answer is also a resounding no, non-FFS are not screwed.

Not naive at all. I fish shallow a lot. It don't feel too crowded at all. My boat has LS and M360 as well but I always g9 shallow first. Since FFS has gotten popular I see it firsthand that there are less people up shallow these days.

Y’all believe what y’all want. FFS is as big a difference in the effectiveness of my fishing as spot lock was 4 years ago.

I have two really good examples from the last two weekends alone.

Last weekend was my 3rd time in 3 years to fish Ray Hubbard. The first two times it was windy and blowing from the south at 25+. I didn’t fish anything other than the bridge all day. I had 10 pounds and 8 pounds those two years. Last weekend, it was better weather and I was able to fish more effectively. I also have FFS. I tried a few spots and settled into a chain of boats fishing rip rap. Watching other boats was funny….they weren’t catching [censored]. I was using my FFS, beating the bank. I could find the fish, to within a half yard, that the other boats simply missed. The bluebird sky’s made the fish hug tight to structure. They wouldn’t chase. The other boats missed them and I culled 9 times for 17.25. I didn’t win, but I doubled my last success on a tough fishing day. I finished around 7th or 8th out of 82 boats with practically zero knowledge of the lake and fishing against people that are pretty good anglers that knew the lake. My FFS gave me much better confidence and the ability to put my bait on a fish…instead of just getting lucky.

Yesterday me and my fishing buddy went to Squaw. Yeh. It’s like fishing in a barrel. Except on the main lake with bluebird sky’s (again, post front…worst case scenario). After an hour or so of fishing, he was laughing at me saying he was beating me 8-6. As we were passing boats going opposite directions down the bank the other boats were complaining about how bad the fishing was. My partner starts ragging about how he’s “rear-ending” me on my boat, and how bad it sounded. About to fall out laughing. I turned on the FFS and started to look for the fish. They were in the outside of the boat from the bank. In 15 ft around the tree bases. Boats running over them. I told him I could catch him whenever I felt like it. I turned the FFS out to the deeper trees and told him there was 20 fish within casting distance. I hooked and lost 3 on my next four casts. Within the next hour, after I showed him what the fish were doing, the score was tied 20-20. Then another hour later it was 27-25. All the while others around us we’re struggling to find fish.

If two 50-something guys can go out without any practice or knowledge of a lake and have success, simply because of a FFS, I’d say it’s real deal.

The opposite of that is what I was trying to get at. We are two 50 something year Olds that went to a lake we had never seen before and just went fishing the way we like to fish and fishing our strengths. We did fine against guys using LS.

I am not against FFS at all. I have it but I don't think it's winning everything nor will it get to that point. It's a good tool for a lot of guys and a great tool for really good fishermen who take the time to learn it.

I feel it has it’s place every time on every lake. It eliminates dead water, wasted casts, and wasted time. Three things that will easily effect your day of fishing…and the chances of finishing in the money. It doesn’t replace knowledge of the lake or time on the lake. If a guy fishes the lake a lot, and knows the mechanics of fishing, he will automatically start out with the advantage. FFS allows guys like me to go catch numbers. Lots and lots of fish. It eventually will give me 5 fish that are somewhat competitive….in the event that I DONT KNOW the lake. I ran and fished Tuesday and Thursday nighters all this year. The lakes we fished I didn’t need the FFS. I made my milk run and won about 1/3 of the time. Finished in the money about 3/4 of the time. TOW is always gonna make the difference. However, FFS levels the playing field pretty quick if you know how to use it effectively.

Give someone like these pros, or yourself, that has both TOW and FFS? It could be game over pretty quick.

Finally.


It isn’t “bank beater” vs “livescoper”….nowadays they are one and the same. The shallow water guys can use it there too. It’s really that easy.

Where livescope shines (literally) is on suspended fish. This time of year if you aren't using it you are only screwing yourself.

Also those who say livescope is just a tool fail to understand its significance. Its unreal the amount of fish that never would have been caught without it. At this point to not have it is like having a flat tire without a lug wrench.

We were on Squaw Saturday as well and caught a little over 75 but no livescope, we just figured them out. Bite did slow down after 12:00 but had an amazing day.

I think as far as the pro fishermen go the FFS will dominate over 50% of the time, as far as the weekend warriors go I doubt it will be anywhere close to that.