LIVESCOPE Crappie – Fact or Fiction?

I’m sure you’ve heard it, said it or received it. LiveScope is cheating. You need zero fishing skill, and you can clean out the lake.

Instead of diving into the emotional and psychological side of this debate, we’re just going to answer the questions directly. No matter your stance on the subject, the hope is that you leave this article better informed.

The simple answer here is, “no.” Technological advancements are a part of life, and forward-facing sonar is to an angler what a nail gun is to a carpenter, or a range finder is to a golfer.

The tool itself doesn’t make a person a better angler. Just because you can see the fish on the screen in no way guarantees that fish will bite.

The biggest advantage is that it allows anglers to eliminate “dead water,” speeding up their ability to pattern and catch fish while on the water.

Large crappie, 14 inches or bigger, tend to isolate away from schooling crappie. Prior to forward-facing technology, these fish were mostly caught by trollers and spider-riggers in lakes lacking a lot of structure. Or they were caught near the bank during the spring spawn.

During those times, spider-riggers were often referred to as “cheaters” for using multiple rods with multiple baits at a time. So, the suggestion of “cheating” is not new and tends to be used over the course of time toward those on the forefront of the latest in fishing technologies.

However, unlike the prominent era of spider-rigging, forward-facing sonar has taught us so much about crappie. Mainly confirming what fisheries biologists have long preached: Crappie are incredibly abundant and found across all environments in a body of water.

This leads us to the more pressing question about forward-facing sonar and crappie fishing: Is it having a negative long-term impact on crappie populations?

As in the previous section, the simple answer here is, “no.” However, it is more nuanced than whether using the technology is cheating.

In major reservoir and lake environments, it’s an unequivocal no. Crappie are a short-lived, high reproducing species. The ability to negatively affect the population through angling pressure is next to impossible.

Fisheries biologists will tell you that the key to a healthy, sustainable crappie population is through adequate harvest. An average crappie lives three to five years. By year five, a crappie has reached its peak size for all intents and purposes. It has also reproduced to its maximum potential.

Crappie populations are boom and bust in reservoir systems, where water levels can fluctuate dramatically during spawning season. Stable, typically close to full pool, levels are needed during the spawn to achieve maximum recruitment.

When bad spawns occur over multiple years, the following usually occurs in the third or fourth year. Lower density of fish, especially 8- to 12-inch fish, but higher numbers of fish of more than 12 inches.

We are currently witnessing that on Grand Lake, OK. A popular crappie destination usually defined by a high density of 10- to 12-inch fish, with few fish longer than 13 inches. However, two years of substantial drought have led to a scarcity of “eater-size” fish on a lake with a 10-inch minimum.

Notable Grand Lake guide Dustin McDaniel has been seeing this over the past few months but reports some of his best quality fish he’s seen on the lake in the past decade. This year in Oklahoma has seen record spring rains and inevitably will yield a dramatic rebound of 10-inch fish two years from now.

The question in smaller impoundments, 2,000 acres or less, is more controversial. Most monster crappie, including many state record fish, come from small bodies of water. They are typically few in numbers and when word spreads of the quality fishing on public bodies of water, we have seen a rapid decline in that quality.

More forward-facing units and pressure can quickly swoop out these fish until the fishery is abandoned by anglers. And deemed “ruined.” But the locals that stay after it, more often than not, report a return to “honey hole” status within a couple of years.

Leading back to the most important thing crappie anglers need to know – you can’t out-fish crappie.

If anything, anglers need to focus on harvesting the majority of there fish in the 8- to11-inch range where creel sizes allow. These fish are the most abundant and outcompete for the bait resource, especially in smaller bodies of water.

If anglers are worried about the “trophy” quality of a lake being ruined by forward-facing sonar, it is rarely because too many large fish are being taken. It is the opposite. Not enough “small” crappie are being harvested.

Too many similarly sized mouths to feed limit the population as whole’s potential to reach the quality 12- to 14-inch range that all crappie anglers are looking for.

14-plus inch fish are a byproduct of good genetics, unique eating habitats as young of year and ample habitat/forage. These fish are the exception no matter where you’re located. They are just built differently, and angling pressure has little effect on their ability to reach that size.

Another thing to keep in mind. Guides make up the vast majority of harvest on many lakes regardless of forward-facing sonar. They are on the water multiple days a week harvesting up to four limits of fish.

If you were to have 200 guides on a 2,000-acre lake harvesting four limits a day, 365 days a year, they still could not outproduce one year’s spawn on a bad spawning year.

There aren’t 200 crappie guides running that amount of pressure on any lake in the country. Even as the technology becomes more accessible and more affordable leading to more use by everyday anglers, the math will never add up to adversely hurting crappie populations on anything other than city lakes. And even that will be short-lived as mentioned above.

Yes and no. Unlike bass and several other American game fish, crappie are rarely educated. Being tremendous table fare, legal fish are rarely returned to the water, no matter the size.

However, guides across the country have noted that they notice more often these days the fish sensing the live sonar. Sonar is not an indetectable field. It sends a pulse through the water and returns to the unit to display the picture.

Fish can sense this with their lateral line system. Guides often report fish running from the sonar as they approach. Anglers for years have known that fish sense boat pressure and often flee from the shadow cast by the boat.

However, these same guides are also able to pull limits of fish even under the toughest of conditions. So, like the population question, this problem is mostly moot.

But after a decade of firsthand experience with the technology, one thing has become abundantly clear from artificial lure crappie fishermen. Smaller is almost always better, even for the largest crappie.

This is where the Bobby Garland Original Baby Shad, 1.75” Live Roam’R and 1.25” Itty Bit Series has dominated the soft plastics category in crappie fishing. Bobby Garland fishing staff has been instrumental in making 365-jig fishing a reality for not only top end forward-facing sonar anglers, but for anglers of all skill levels and techniques.

The ability to blend real-time data, with biological dietary studies and everyday usage has left no doubt that the future of crappie fishing is brighter than its humble beginnings of live minnows on a bait hook.

Check out the weekly live show “Today’s Bite” brought to you by the Crappie Connection or follow the channel’s of America’s most prominent crappie guides like Kayle Ward and Jerry Hancock for top insights into crappie fishing and forward-facing sonar.