8-3-20 Phil and Bill in the Walleye Woods

[Bill Babler]

 

My share, these were big fish that had to be chunked.  The 3 I cleaned were all males

Phil and I sneaked back up to the Knob this morning, launching at 0600.  Water temp at 85 and partly cloudy.

 Walleye and a Cruise Ship full of bass were where I left them.  Phil has a few pic's to post, but for the record we caught 11 and lost 3 or 4 more heavy weights that spat it back at us.  5 keepers that need not be measured, 15 gills and just a load of bass that we cursed for biting and released. 

I say cursed but Phil was teasing them into biting on the Livescope and there was quite a bit of giggling watching them courtesy of Garmin.

Fish today were in the 17' to 23' depth range on gravel and we were around them all day.   We never had a spree like I did Saturday, but it was more of a grind it out fishery today.  Loads of fish and bait but we worked harder than my clients did the other day.

I kept 3 walleye and 1 small channel and Phil kept 2 walleye and a mess of 15 gills.

Just a note on the Livescope.  It is totally the BOMB.  If your not on them watching them you are looking 360 degree and finding them.  It's like a bluetick hound after a raccoon, you can see them anywhere around the boat by simply turning the head.  It can be a bit humiliating as even though you find them they sure as heck don't have to eat it.  We are talking about live bait this morning and we had bushel baskets of refusals.  They would swarm up, over, around and turn and turn and turn it down.  But--- Sometimes they would eat it.  And the fun part is you could see them do it and watch the fight right there on the screen, both 2D and Livescope.

Fun morning on the big pond with my good buddy and his buddy Jack.

[Phil Lilley]

 

[Phil Lilley]

 

[Bgctrading]

That sounds just exactly like the fish I found yesterday morning. With a live scope you could set and mess with them and find the one that was most interested in it and target him and sometimes get him to bite.

[Bill Babler]

They can't for the most part read very well and won't bite just cause your boat is plastered with Garmin gear, but If you count the Force trolling motor this is new wave we have yet to even remotely have anything to compare it to.

That trolling motor is completely sick.  Lifts and lets down with a single finger.  Whisper quiet.   Fast as an alley cat with the dog catcher on its tail and positive locking within  inches.maintaining it thru any wave or wind.

Game Changer.  But they still got to bite your junk.

[Mitch f]

So you’re making me jealous, I can’t justify spending 6k on a trolling motor/fish finder combo. But I’m happy to hear how great it is. Maybe they will have some competition and drive the price lower.

[Bgctrading]

Less than 2k for a very effective livescope setup. I was really doubting how much it helped right after purchase but now that I have used it quite a bit it can't be beat for these deep water fish and deep water crappie at Truman.

[rps]

7 hours ago, Bill Babler said:

They can't for the most part read very well and won't bite just cause your boat is plastered with Garmin gear, but If you count the Force trolling motor this is new wave we have yet to even remotely have anything to compare it to.

That trolling motor is completely sick.  Lifts and lets down with a single finger.  Whisper quiet.   Fast as an alley cat with the dog catcher on its tail and positive locking within  inches.maintaining it thru any wave or wind.

Game Changer.  But they still got to bite your junk.

You are right. The trolling motor is very fast, even on 24v. I did not get the live scope, but can see a bit bt swiveling the side view transducer in the prop.

[top_dollar]

12 hours ago, Mitch f said:

So you’re making me jealous, I can’t justify spending 6k on a trolling motor/fish finder combo. But I’m happy to hear how great it is. Maybe they will have some competition and drive the price lower.

                          Most amateur anglers of middle class means cannot justify spending that much on top of the line stuff like that.  If you fish professionally than you'll be at a significant disadvantage without it, so any guide, or tournament angler has to justify it.  Mr. Wenners was with his friend, and the boat they were on must have been 50K or more, it was the nicest boat id ever seen up close.  He said they were playing with a new set up so he could point the trolling motor and the livescope in 2 different directions.  He pointed it around under the boat slips showing everything 75ft in front of him.  I probably could have seen his buddy jigging a spoon in the stall across from him if i looked hard enough lol.  It was incredible to see the bottom contours under the dock stalls like that.

                              That said, even though all that stuff is pretty great, there are plenty of fish to be caught for guys with crappy aluminum boats, paper maps, and a 2d graph.  The ipilot trolling motor was 1000% worth it though.

[slosh]

This post brought me out of hiding. I'm not a lake fisherman at all, have never even used a fish finder. Do you think these electronics will have a negative impact on the fishery in the future? I hope not. Maybe most lake fisherman don't have the electronics yet but they will in the future when the prices go down. Folks will for sure be catching more since it sounds like it's a real game changer. Do you think more people will keep more fish and cause the fishing to be worse since there's not as many fish? Or the fish are more heavily pressured whereas before, they didn't see near as many lures/bait. This is just interesting to me. Curious what the experts think. Cheers.