Ice Fishing 2022-23

[kwackkillncrew]

If you haven't watched the off shoot meat eater show called the Canadian angle you should watch it. The host dude is pretty entertaining and he had quite a few ice fishing episodes using live scope and it looks tits. Makes looking at a vexilar boring as shit.

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[Fish Felon]

I dunno.....livescope is/are the shit.....buddy just got one, said he paid $3300 for it, thinks it'll make flashers obsolete. So if you want the newest fangled dangled tech gismo I doubt you'll regret buying one......


But.....


I can't help but think you'd be better off buying a nice rifle with some good glass on it instead. In five years a livescope might be able to fetch you $500 if you're lucky......but a gun will probably be worth equal if not more than what you paid for it.

I don't know.....I like to ice fish but it's not something that I think takes that much skill, and I've rarely ever been the guy who's drilling fifty plus holes in search of fish. I just don't care that much. When I know I can drill a handful and find something decent enough to sit and wait and catch fish. I guess I view fishing, ice fishing especially, where it's a game of being in the right spot and then waiting for them to come to you. All this ultra aggressive drink a shitload of Mountain Dew, be extreme, and drill a hundred holes to look around with a livescope and get "right on 'em" just isn't me......I think it's kind of gay actually. It's like competitive walking in the Olympics. It's fukcing gay to take a mostly passive activity that's chill and all about killing time during the shittiest period of the year.....and make into something gung-ho pro-staffey.

It's ice fishing......who the fukc wants to blow thousands of dollars for something that'll catch you more fish when ice fishing?

Fugggg.....when I started ice fishing none of the rods for sale had reels on them....it was a foot long single eyelet pole in an inch in diameter dowel rod that had two smaller dowel rods glued in and you'd wrap your line around them just like you wrap the cord up on most vacuums. Seems bizarre that in thirty years it's gone from that low level of sophistication to where dudes are dumping two or three grand in a single piece of electronics to use for ice fishing......but maybe that's just me.

I don't mind waiting five years until the shit is cheap....which happens 98% of the time on any new piece of electronics that comes out. Buy a nice gun now.....and then sell it in five years, buy a livescope then, and then surprise your girl with a nice trip somewhere warm......that's what buying a gun with it will probably be able to afford you in five years when Livescope is old technology.

[lanyard]

I still use a plastic jobber with line winder pegs on the handle and a stick bobber, but I lost the stick so I have to push the end of a match in it. not as cool as the Green Hornet from "Grumpy Old Men", but it was like 5 bucks. Hand setting a hook and pulling a fish through the hole is still the most fun a guy can have drinking beer in a dark shack with the glow of a heater alone.

Jig sticks, rattle reels, and tip-ups. Sh!t doesn't need to be complicated. Needless to say, I'm not Ice Castle's target market.

[Quack]

I don’t know the first thing about live scope but hopefully Nershi sees this and chimes in.

I’ve seen a couple groups with them and it just seems like a bunch more big stuff to lug around.

People are going to spend big money on their passions, so if this is you, go get a live scope. I just can’t get behind some of these things whether it’s fishing technology, food plots for deer, or whatever. But I’ve done some stupid things in the name of duck hunting because that’s my passion.

If I were you… I’d get a nice 20 or 12ga over under. Maybe that doesn’t float your boat but like FF said… at least a gun doesn’t depreciate like electronics.

Does live scope pick up bottom hugging walleyes and perch? I got the impression from someone that is not it’s strength.

[Nershi]

Livescope adds a whole new entertainment value to ice fishing. I bought it because I thought it would help me catch more fish and save me drilling so many holes which it 100% has. I drill maybe 10% of what I used to. What I didn’t realize is how much more fun it is to fish. Watching the fish swim and their reactions is so cool. Calling play by play when fishing in the same shack as your buddies is a blast. Having a way bigger field of view. You won’t regret your decision. I didn’t upgrade to the new ducer strictly due to its size. I haven’t tried it yet and maybe my mind will change on that when I do.

One of my regular fishing buddies is one of those guys that said he’d never get one. Well after two years of fishing next to me on several trips he picked one up.

If you get one I’d suggest buying a different shuttle and pole than garmin’s. I have a summit pole. I am still rocking the garmin shuttle but plan to buy summit once available. There are lots of other companies out there. Lots are sold out right now or at least were when I looked a couple weeks ago. Some guys hate on the 3d printing of summit but it hasn’t been an issue for me.

Quack it does pick up bottom crawlers the same or better than a flasher but you gotta know how to read it. Same as any electronics. I’ll tell guys with flashers that they have a fish on the bottom and they had no clue because they don’t know how to pick up on the subtle bottom differences in their readings. Same goes with livescope.

I bought a pole to use mine in the summer on the boat. I have really only used it to mark out weed lines. It is so much easier than using side imaging. It isn’t really practical for the species and the way I fish to try to locate and cast to fish. If I targeted walleye and bass I’d probably use it a lot more. I just don’t have the patience to drive around and stare at my graph all day when I’m in the boat. I do want to try it casting for trout on the Great Lakes next year.

If you have any specific questions let me know.

[Nershi]

I don’t see livescope coming down too much. They have come down slightly since being released about 5 years ago and may a little more but I don’t ever see them being less than around $1,500. That’d just a guess and I certainly could be wrong. There is just a lot more technology packed in to them compared to regular open water sonar and ice flashers.

Ice fishing units do not depreciate as much as open water. A flasher or livescope unit in good working condition still holds fairly decent value compared to what you paid for it.

[Drunk_Dynasty]

How much better is Livescope than Panoptix?


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[Nershi]

How much better is Livescope than Panoptix?


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My buddy has panoptix. He got it before livescope came out and was a big reason why I pulled the trigger on livescope. They both accomplish the same thing but panoptix has a lot less detail and clarity. Fish look like blobs on panoptix. On livescope you see the outline of the fish and can usually ID them. It allows you to tell the direction the fish is going and when it is turning around which you can’t see on panoptix. I can see my minnow wiggling on my jig on my dead stick rod but you won’t see that panoptix. Just detail stuff like that. My opinion is if you are spending that much money my as well just do livescope.

[Drunk_Dynasty]

After reading this, I think I will be waiting until my cabela's card money gets higher. Currently I am sitting at $2.2k in Cabela's money, and I don't really wanna spend the difference since the Livescope is $3,250 there. I will use my vexilar to get me thru until next winter, and then I will get the Livescope.

[Fish Felon]

What's the difference between Livescope (Garmin) and Mega Live (humminbird)? Same type of sonar just made by two different brands, right?


Decent demonstration of Mega Live at the 23:10 mark:

https://youtu.be/EgO3tCswgDY