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

[Bill Babler]

As I pointed out in the post, it is humbling as the amount of fish that turn down live bait is staggering   Even with all the technology the fish still have to bite and after you have these advances you will see how many just will not bite.

What I really like is being on fish and moving the Livescope and seeing more schools of fish or watching the fish you are on move.  You can track and follow them or find others that you would have never known were there.

Don't know if you all watched the BPT on Sturgeon  Bay but one of the major comments was how much the fish moved.  It's the same on the Rock, the fish are in constant movement and you can follow the school with the Livescope.

In speaking with the guides on Truman Lake they say the open water crappie that they are spider rigging  for are in constant movement and they can follow the schools with their Garmin gear.  One guide told me the number of crappie that don't relate to structure is about 10 times as many as the ones that do.  Watch Mike Baker videos on Lake O. of trolling for open water crappie and it will open your mind.

Watch Mike Baker catch open water crappie using Panoptix Livescope and you will be simply amazed.

It's a fantastic tool but it just that.  You still have to catch them and they still have to bite.

[slosh]

Gotcha. So sounds like in your opinion it won't hurt the fishery. That's good. Thanks for the reply.

[Sprint21fter]

Fish get educated and with the advances w electronics they still don't say that the fish are biting when you pull up.  It's been amazing to see how many fish you are around that don't bite.  I'm looking forward to next year using the livescope  to help snag spoon bill.  No reason to snag in the blind!

[Champ188]

On 8/4/2020 at 2:03 PM, Bill Babler said:

One guide told me the number of crappie that don't relate to structure is about 10 times as many as the ones that do.  Watch Mike Baker videos on Lake O. of trolling for open water crappie and it will open your mind.

My dad and I used to troll open-water creek channels in summer months on Lake Ouachita with Cordell Hot Spots, Big-O's and sometimes mid-size Hellbenders for bass and crappie. We caught a lot of fish that way and many were big slab crappie. We had no depth finder back in the 60s and early 70s.  

[rps]

2 hours ago, Champ188 said:

My dad and I used to troll open-water creek channels in summer months on Lake Ouachita with Cordell Hot Spots, Big-O's and sometimes mid-size Hellbenders for bass and crappie. We caught a lot of fish that way and many were big slab crappie. We had no depth finder back in the 60s and early 70s.  

I bought one of the first generation green boxes. I bought one of the first generation paper graphs. They helped, but only with my learning, not my fish finding.

If you do not learn where to look, and why, the electronics do not mean anything. They are only dream tools. If you use them to learn patterns and probabilities, you can save years in learning a lake.

For a beginner, I still say, go back and find old Fishing Facts articles. In Fisherman sprang from them. Then go out and use your graphs to find out about your lake. Troll. Drag worms. In less than ten years you will be an accomplished fisher person on your lake. I am now trying to apply that experience to a new lake. The pros and guides do it all year.