# Livescope on Erie



## ShaneMC (Nov 27, 2012)

Anyone use livescope on Erie for walleye? I see a lot of videos of crappie fishing on inland lakes around structure. Nothing really relevant to Erie walleye Can this be beneficial for Erie? I'm questioning my purchase.


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## Bluegillin' (Jan 28, 2009)

Not sure how deep you are planning to us it but here is a video of it being used in Green Bay for walleyes. www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT0ApJ5XrNA

If you search "Livescope for Walleyes" you will find a few videos.


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## dgfidler (Sep 22, 2014)

I do and I find it useful. Here are some of the things I use it for in Erie:

spring jigging. Of course you can watch your jig,but you can determine if you’re on a good spot because when you’re in a good spot the bottom looks ‘alive’
determine the depth the walleye are suspending at. From a distance of 100’ look around in all directions to see the real depth the fish are suspending at. In the spring, I’d ONLY fish in areas where you can find suspended fish. The best setup is fish suspending 5-10 down and empty screen on standard sonar.
monitor your dipsy/slide divers. If you have two divers per side, you’ll be able to see both. You can figure out how deep they’re running if slower/faster than published dive curves. You can watch the fish follow/hit your dipsy lines. Distance limit is 100ft. Out east you can use mags to keep leads under 100’
you can tell before setting any lines if dipsy lines even have a chance of working. Aim transducer forward. If you see fish ahead and they all disappear by the time the boat gets to them, do not even bother running dipsy lines because fish are being boat shy and its a day to run only boards.
fall walleye are evasive. During the brawl this year we were catching (fast and furious) on p10 30 back in Nov and NEVER saw any suspended fish on LiveScope. I wish I’d focused more on figuring out where these fish come from. I don’t know if they come from deep, come from the side, but you should know that in the fall you can catch fish way up high and never see them in LiveScope. My friend has a theory that fall fish have tremendous metabolism and are very boat shy.

I think it has the most value if you’re only on the lake a couple times per month, and don’t have a network to put you on fish. 


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## ShaneMC (Nov 27, 2012)

dgfidler said:


> I do and I find it useful. Here are some of the things I use it for in Erie:
> 
> spring jigging. Of course you can watch your jig,but you can determine if you’re on a good spot because when you’re in a good spot the bottom looks ‘alive’
> determine the depth the walleye are suspending at. From a distance of 100’ look around in all directions to see the real depth the fish are suspending at. In the spring, I’d ONLY fish in areas where you can find suspended fish. The best setup is fish suspending 5-10 down and empty screen on standard sonar.
> ...


Thank you for that thorough response on the benefits of livescope. You made good points. I will have to use livescope to check dipsy depth accuracy. I'm still learning trolling for walleye without a network. So this is valuable info. 

Thanks


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## dgfidler (Sep 22, 2014)

I’m ready to say that LiveScope is not as useful for determining when and when not to troll short leads as I originally thought. I’ve come across situations where walleye were predominantly suspending above 10 ft a couple times, but this does not happen often. If you can find that setup, make sure you fish it. Those fish are almost always aggressive biters . Last fall we were on a steady bite with p10 23 back and never saw a fish higher than 20 down all day. That day I watched an inside board line trying to see where the fish came from. The other lines would hit and I never saw it. On Saturday we were on heavy marks at 20 down but they weren’t biting. Occasionally you’d see one down 15 but not very often. I watched an inside board line that was 50 back but on a big board and the clip was 3 ft above water. The bandit was running about 10 down. I finally saw it. A fish that was 20 down turned, rose 10 feet and hit the lure. You can watch your LiveScope all day and never see a large mark at 10 down, but you can catch fish at that level. One thing that I almost always see when short leads are working is bait at that level. You don’t need LiveScope to see bait. It doesn’t scatter and you mark it on regular sonar. I’ve had good success running most lines five feet above the marks, but I think 5-10 above marks and at level of observed bait regardless of observed fish depth will work. The day we were catching on P10 23back in Lorain the lures were 15-20 above the marks. 

What’s this all mean? It confirms that the approach of starting with a variety of leads and letting the fish tell you what works is as effective as looking around the boat and observing the depths of all fish within 100ft of the boat. If the fish will feed up to 15 ft above, what use is knowing their depth? Maybe as a limit to not go deeper than? You’ll rarely find fish 10 down or less but if you do, you’ve got your own personal honey hole for the day. Fish above the marks, fish the level of the bait. That’s the first thing I learned from seminars many years ago long before LiveScope was invented. I’m still going to use it. I like knowing how deep stuff is running and I enjoy seeing a hit every once in a while. You can judge the density of fish in an area by noting how many fish at one time are visible in 100ft range. 1-2 is slow pick, 3-5 is steady bite and 6+ is fire drill provided they’re biting. 


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## rickerd (Jul 16, 2008)

Great info DG. Fish the bottom of bait and that is a consistent starting point. Walleye don't swim at 10 feet below with their mouth open for minnows, mayflies maybe but with minnows they ambush them from below. That is their element of surprise to bring success.

Rickerd


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## puge (May 14, 2009)

Trolling with Garmin Livescope


I finally got everything installed and had the chance to try it out trolling dipsy divers and spoons. I was quite impressed and definitely see how it could help with certain aspects of trolling. I haven't seen many reviews or videos showing trolling capabilities so I thought I would share my...




www.ohiogamefishing.com





Livescope can be a useful tool on Erie, however most of the time you can only see one inside rod.


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