Has anyone brought a livescope into the BWCA? If you have, could you please give me tips? Planning on going to Malberg Lake. I feel like livescope in the BWCA would be awesome, but I need to know if its worth the extra 20 lbs bringing it in.

Thank you!

Fishing with a live scope isn't fishing, it's catching. The fun of fishing in the BW is finding them and then catching. The day I need a live scope to fish is the day I quit fishing

I had to look online to see what a livescope actually was. Unless I'm looking at the wrong item, a livescope costs $1500. And you're saying it weighs 20#. I'm also trying to figure out how you power it.

We have a saying in our group: If you want to bring it, you carry it.

I know what they are and i've seen them...but to a point i'm kind of anti tech when it comes to fishing. I mean, I'm not out there with a stick and string trying to catch fish, but I still frequently use a canvas pack, don't like the carbon paddles...listen to my music on vinyl.

I like the intimate feeling of fishing from a canoe...I feel like bringing electronics would take away from the romanticism of it all.

So to tie all this back and answer your question - "Is it worth it?" Not for me.

There are multiple carries into Malberg; you might regret it. The only place we were able to find fish in Malberg was adjacent to weeds...would livescope see those fish? If it were me I'd save it for the big boat.

The whole point of canoe country fishing is that the fishing is ridiculously easy, I think a depth finder/basic graph to see the bottom and depth would be more than enough for a decent fisherman to tear them up. Livescope makes fishing more like a video game...VERY artificial. They also weigh a ton and eat batteries. Just my opinion.

I personally wouldn’t bring a Livescope.

I have no issue with anyone bringing one. I disagree with others on the ethics of use. Just for me the weight doesn’t justify bringing one.

It probably depends on how you fish. If you are really successful with Livescope that might be a different thought process.

When I have fished side by side with Live Scope people, I’ve outfished them. Don’t get me wrong…I want one, but my experience is it makes you look at the screen too much instead if actually FISH spots based on skill and experience. YMMV…

T

I would be far more tempted to bring it on a winter trip. I just don't think it gives you that much of an advantage over a regular sonar in the summer. In my opinion if you are going to a familiar lake in the summer sonar is not required.

Sometimes you wonder how much civilization-gadgets to we bring that turns the country-wilderness more into a city pleasure land. You know in ten years the available electronics will be unreal.

Do we start looking at and playing with our gadgets instead of looking at and enjoying nature? I know each to his own, but it bothers me when I see people showing live video while back in the BWCA at times now. It's sacrilegious.

Beyond my canoe, I can't think of any piece of gear that weights 20lbs that is worth bringing into the BWCA. If you need a livescope to successfully fish in the BWCA, you're doing it wrong.

YaMarVa: "Beyond my canoe, I can't think of any piece of gear that weights 20lbs that is worth bringing into the BWCA. If you need a livescope to successfully fish in the BWCA, you're doing it wrong. "

I agree, and this is what I was saying in my earlier comment, not that they were unethical, but that they are utterly unnecessary and would be a burden. I do see that they are a lot of fun for a lot of people, but try getting away from the screen for awhile and enjoy the scenery, save your toys (and believe me I have plenty!) for home, fishing difficult and pressured waters. Just my opinion.

I have a Garmin graph with my ice fishing bundle bag. The bundle has a large bag with a tilting screen mount. It also has a heavy 10 amp 12 volt battery. It is the smallest size fish finder that a livescope attaches to. Then you would need to bring that huge transducer and pole and mount it somehow to your canoe. That fishfinder is a huge power user. So you would not be able to run it for more than 6 hours before the battery is dead. So your options are turn it off after you find fish, take multiple batteries, or a couple of lithium batteries.

I would only consider this if I had a motor permit, an aluminum boat with a deep cycle battery. You will do just fine with a slip bobber, hook and a leech. You would spend too much time messing with the settings and staring at the screen, when you could be looking at loons, eagles, trees, clouds.

Savage Voyageur: "I have a Garmin graph with my ice fishing bundle bag. The bundle has a large bag with a tilting screen mount. It also has a heavy 10 amp 12 volt battery. It is the smallest size fish finder that a livescope attaches to. Then you would need to bring that huge transducer and pole and mount it somehow to your canoe. That fishfinder is a huge power user. So you would not be able to run it for more than 6 hours before the battery is dead. So your options are turn it off after you find fish, take multiple batteries, or a couple of lithium batteries.


I would only consider this if I had a motor permit, an aluminum boat with a deep cycle battery. You will do just fine with a slip bobber, hook and a leech. You would spend too much time messing with the settings and staring at the screen, when you could be looking at loons, eagles, trees, clouds. "

I agree, bringing livescope is really only an option if you are entering a motor permit lake. The weight of the whole assembly alone is too much to carry and portage around.

jaegerly: "Has anyone brought a livescope into the BWCA? If you have, could you please give me tips? Planning on going to Malberg Lake. I feel like livescope in the BWCA would be awesome, but I need to know if its worth the extra 20 lbs bringing it in.

Thank you!"

I brought mine in last year. Was it cool, yep. Not sure if I’ll bring it again this season tbh. What I did love about it was the map create feature and mapping the lakes as we paddled around. (Which you don’t need livescope for) Take a slightly different route to a spot there and back and finding main lake structure that isn’t on a map was worth it. Livescope ducer draws a lot on a battery but a gt56 ducer is very minimal.

cwallace: "

jaegerly: "Has anyone brought a livescope into the BWCA? If you have, could you please give me tips? Planning on going to Malberg Lake. I feel like livescope in the BWCA would be awesome, but I need to know if its worth the extra 20 lbs bringing it in.

Thank you!"

I brought mine in last year. Was it cool, yep. Not sure if I’ll bring it again this season tbh. What I did love about it was the map create feature and mapping the lakes as we paddled around. (Which you don’t need livescope for) Take a slightly different route to a spot there and back and finding main lake structure that isn’t on a map was worth it. Livescope ducer draws a lot on a battery but a gt56 ducer is very minimal. "

Cwallace, brought up a good point about the mapping feature. These newer graphs can actually draw you and save an actual map of the area as you go over the area. Most of the lakes up there are not mapped very well. Before the trip you can download the bottom topography from anyone else who has recorded the area. Then when you are there you record the area and save to your chip for a more detailed map. Then upload to Garmin later for others to use or just use the information as your personal map. Two of those small 12 volt batteries 8-10 amp batteries will get a week fishing with my GT56 transducer up in Canada. Livescope will eat one of those small 12 volt 12 amp batteries in 5 hours.

There is a fishing feature in Red Dead Redemption. Just stay home and do that!

A guy I work with has one and he catches tons more fish than me. He can pick a brush pile clean of crappies; he can literally bump a jig off the crappie and see it take it.

I think eventually these live scopes will have to be outlawed or we will all have a bag limit of ONE for all species.

Haters gonna hate, but I brought one last year. Sag to SAK. Two lithium batteries and a solar panel to charge them. My primary, secondary, and tertiary goal in the BW is to catch fish. I have plenty of spots on SAK that I really don't need FFS, but I learned so much using it.

For starters, there are sooooooooo many walleye suspended in the water column and those are fish we probably would never have found.

It helps rule out baits that aren't working. It's really cool to see what underwater structure that I've been fishing for years actually looks like.

We keep a couple fish every day to eat, and everything else goes back. FFS absolutely has it's concerns for sustainable fish populations, but the BWCA is the most insulated fishery we have. Even if every single canoe had FFS it wouldn't hurt the population imho.

Practically speaking, I use a ram claw mount to a GG fishing (see ebay) mount. I use lithium batteries and a dakota solar charger. It definitely adds weight, but for us it was worth it.

I am in the "unethical camp", Just because technology exists doesn't mean it should be used in the pursuit of wild fish/animals. Please spare me the "then hunt with a spear/clovis piont and catch fish by hand" arguments. A recent meateater podcast discuss the use of livescopes on muskee, "Muskee Wars" was the title. In Missouri anecdotal evidence indicates that livescopes have increased the winter crappie harvest to unsustainable levels in some fisheries. The science will catch up and laws will be passed.

I have Livescope and there's no way I'd ever take it to the BW at least in a canoe trip. Too bulky, too much power draw for a few days or more, and I like fishing "blind" in the BW. I'm in a canoe, paddling around by hand. The fishing is good enough without even a basic depth finder for me.

I have livescope and humminbird graphs for boats. I'm not putting any of them on a canoe for the BW. I love to fish but I also love going old school sometimes like up there.