# Panoptix Crappie Hoover



## deerfarmer (Apr 21, 2012)

Went to Hoover yesterday by myself. Polebender is nursing a sore knee. Crappie are stacked in certain areas 8 to 14 deep. I was slow trolling at .4 and caught a bunch. In this video you can see my 3 hook minnow rigs at 10 foot in front of boat moving thru the water. As the rig is getting closer to the school you can see a crappie come off the bottom to look at the bait. You can also see a fish hit the middle minnow on rig and you can see him getting reeled in.


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## 93stratosfishnski (Aug 25, 2011)

hey that's funny, I played a fishing video game the other day too!


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## bumpus (Jan 17, 2015)

That's awesome I'd love to have one of those. I was feeling high tech for finally getting down imaging then I started seeing panoptix videos on YouTube and immediately felt sad about only having down imaging


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## RiparianRanger (Nov 18, 2015)

Looked like an alien abduction


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## Muddy (May 7, 2017)

Pretty cool.


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## guppygill (May 8, 2004)

Wait till you use it ice fishing, its addicting.


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## chaunc (Apr 11, 2004)

guppygill said:


> Wait till you use it ice fishing, its addicting.


I use mine in down view most, after I mark the school.


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## Bluegrasser2 (Aug 10, 2019)

Awesome.


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## kfi (Nov 11, 2013)

Pretty cool stuff. Definitely jealous. My son has been on my to get livescope for his bass fishing escapades. 

Interesting that the school doesn’t seem to spook at all when their buddy disappears to the surface. This school of crappie hasn’t seen finding Nemo 


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## EnonEye (Apr 13, 2011)

definitely cool deerfarmer, out of curiosity, what was the size of the fish in that school. Do you find like size fish in a school or just the ones big enough the others can't eat. Thanx for posting.


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## deerfarmer (Apr 21, 2012)

EnonEye said:


> definitely cool deerfarmer, out of curiosity, what was the size of the fish in that school. Do you find like size fish in a school or just the ones big enough the others can't eat. Thanx for posting.


That school was 9 to 10 inch whites. When the schools aren’t holding to any structure they seem to be mostly the same size. When they are holding tight to structure you can actually see mixed sizes in the same structure.


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## deerfarmer (Apr 21, 2012)

So this video is the same area at hoover as the first video. The first video was taken with garmin active captain app. and this video was just taken from my phone video. The active captain app is a lot clearer but it takes a couple minutes to set your phone up to record and most of the time what you want to record is past you by the time you get your phone settings set. So I record with my phone a lot. You know you are going to have a good day when you start seeing images like this.


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## RiparianRanger (Nov 18, 2015)

Those poor bastards don’t stand a chance


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## RMK (Feb 21, 2017)

deerfarmer said:


> So this video is the same area at hoover as the first video. The first video was taken with garmin active captain app. and this video was just taken from my phone video. The active captain app is a lot clearer but it takes a couple minutes to set your phone up to record and most of the time what you want to record is past you by the time you get your phone settings set. So I record with my phone a lot. You know you are going to have a good day when you start seeing images like this.


thinking more and more about taking this leap... how is yours mounted? to your trolling motor or did you get a "bracket" dedicated to your transducer?


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## deerfarmer (Apr 21, 2012)

I have a spot lock trolling motor. So my transducer is mounted to a pole


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## RMK (Feb 21, 2017)

deerfarmer said:


> I have a spot lock trolling motor. So my transducer is mounted to a pole


what size and model head unit are you running? i know with SI, a bigger screen is very helpful. do you feel a bigger screen as helpful/or necessary with the livescope?


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## deerfarmer (Apr 21, 2012)

I currently have a gpsmap 1022. Bigger and higher resolution is always better. But it all about what your budget is. My first unit was a echomap plus 93. The echo map was fine but I wanted a unit that was able to use the helm feature on active captain and the 1022 was the cheapest unit that had it. If I had an unlimited budget( like Lundy does) I would buy the gpsmap 8612. In all honesty the echo map 93 plus does everything you would need. The bigger screen and higher resolution would be nice but with the units I have if you have the settings set right I can see my minnow swimming on the hook and have watched the fish suck my minnow in and spit it back out before I could set the hook.


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

deerfarmer said:


> I have if you have the settings set right I can see my minnow swimming on the hook and have watched the fish suck my minnow in and spit it back out before I could set the hook.


That just comes with old age


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## RMK (Feb 21, 2017)

haha!


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

I have two of them on my boat, both on 93SV's, they work well, I've never had any issues with either. I did just upgrade to a 106SV Ultra for one of them because I want to see what the increased screen resolution offered and the new unit can handle the HD sonar without the HD box and the budget version of livescope LVS-12 transducer without the Livescope box. I have no interest in the LVS-12 but will utilize the HD sonar at some point.


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## Crappieking08 (Feb 4, 2019)

Looks awesome but I think that would take all the fun out of the sport..


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

Crappieking08 said:


> Looks awesome but I think that would take all the fun out of the sport..


Yep, just like sonar, 2D, 3D, 360, downview, sideview, real time mapping, GPS, tolling motors, spot lock, electronics linking, powerpoles, underwater cameras, Vexilars, braided line, flourocarbon, etc, etc, etc, etc.

In simplistic terms with my limited knowledge I can say that this technology is nothing more than sonar without the time delay all other sonars share and a much more advanced processor. It is much like a vexilar in time lag, but with multiplane transducers and a processor with the power and program with the capability to interpolate the signal and put an image on the screen with a VERY limited time lag. It is very close to real time time sonar, but it is still just sonar. It sends out a signal, gets a signal back and the head unit processes the received signal into what ever the head unit is designed to do, an arch, a blob, clutter or in this case a somewhat better representation of what is under the water. It is just sonar.


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## crappiedude (Mar 12, 2006)

I'm sure all you old guys remember when the old flashers were going to ruin fishing.
I feel the same way about Livescope as I did the old green box, it's a tool.
The good fishermen are already catching plenty of fish, this is just something new to play with.
I've used one before and they are cool but right now it's not for me. I like looking around too much.


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## rutty (Feb 5, 2007)

I also have the 93sv unit and I feel it works just fine for what I need it to use it for. i don't need HD at this time. Like Lundy said, it is just a sonar, just in "real" time, which makes it nice to see what is going on in front of you. I don't even have livescope yet on my boat, I use the "old" technology and just have panoptics. It works great, the only reason I would move to livescope would be to see the brush piles a little easier and what is going on in them. Livescope gives a better definition of the brushpile and easier to tell the type of fish hanging out.


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## Draggin along (Nov 8, 2012)

Absolutely amazing!


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## dgfidler (Sep 22, 2014)

‘The good fisherman are already catching fish..,’. I bought a livescope to become a better ‘rod in hand’ fisherman. I am primarily a Lake Erie fisherman and I believed (incorrectly) there would be too many small fish there this year, so I planned to get better fishing my local reservoirs. How has that gone? I’ve done a lot better on crappie, but I’ve still run into situations where I’ve found massive schools like the video in this thread but still struggled to catch those fish. I’ve found humps and other structure where you can see bumps moving around on the bottom (bottom hugging fish) and cast swimbaits over the structure. I’ve caught a handful of catfish and saugeye with this approach, but I’m not loading the boat. My point is I’ve gained a little edge by being able to see fish without having to drive over them and disturb them, but I’m still not that skilled at catching them. 

Now, on Lake Erie which I have more experience with, it’s doubled or tripled my catch rates. You can do stuff like verify the running depth of your divers, see the depth of shallow suspended fish up to 100 ft from the boat, etc. if you’re casting you have an idea what ‘countdown’ to use and if you’re trolling you have a better idea where to run your baits. You can see those schools of perch on the bottom that won’t bite. 

I agree with the idea that a good fisherman with a standard sonar can still outfish a mediocre fisherman with a livescope. I enjoy fishing more with the additional information from the livescope and I think I’m learning from using it, but the fish are just as difficult to catch as they’ve always been even when you can see them. 


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