Posts: 1292
Location: Walker, MN | I don't use Livescope for muskies at all, I take the transducer pole off of my boat when targeting muskies. I can tell you that I watch fish swimming away from the boat all day long when we're walleye and smallmouth fishing. At first, I thought it must be the sonar spooking fish. Then I wondered if the fish had always done this, and we just couldn't observe it in real time. The past couple of years, getting smallmouth and walleyes to bite within 50' of the boat has seemed harder, even when you can see that they are there. Targeting muskies (again without FFS), The bites seem further out as well (and yes, way fewer follows). My conclusion is: Between FFS, side-imaging, better maping etc, fish have been targeted much more efficiently the past 5-6 years, and they know what a boat is now. They've become much more wary of boats. There are still very good bite windows at times, and persistent anglers with good tech can still catch fish, but the easy bites are fewer w/o the best technology.
Can they feel FFS? I know they can feel the presence of the boat very well these days, especially within 40'-50'. I feel like fish can feel sonar, but I'm not convinced this is the main reason they are more boat shy these days. |
