Garmin Livescope - First Day on the Water

Wheeler Lake - Tennessee River @ Mooresville/Arrowhead Landing

Time: 7:30 AM - 12:30 PMAir Temperature: 37 - 58 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 42 degrees
Lake Level: 551.63' ~ 85,000 cfps
Weather Conditions: Light winds, 5 mph NNE.


Today was the inaugural Livescope day. It was perfect.


I set out to repeat my tactics from the last couple trips to Arrowhead, but to focus on learning the Livescoope this trip. Immediately when the transducer pole was deployed, I was getting good images. I worked to dial in the setting for the first hour to hour and a half. I was mainly playing with the gain controls and found for muddy water, mid 50's on gain was a good setting. I normally use minnows and corks, but for the purpose of today's tests, I went with a single pole, single jig setup for vertical jigging so I could target specific fish and cover.


I was absolutely amazed to see the fish on the livescope system. You can clearly see schools of fish swimming together coming on and off screen. You can see the panfish coming in and out of structure. I was astonished to see the fish behavior and to watch the fish swim up to the jig, follow its motion, and decide to strike or pass.


My setup was perfect and all the work I had done on the installation and rewiring worked perfectly. If I had any criticism, I'd like to see the pole mount to be a little more rigid, but that is a minor picky point. Overall, it was perfect.


I fished two blow downs almost exclusively with the single pole, single jig method and as floored to see how quick I was putting fish in the boat. I didn't have my counters ready and lost count on the first few fish, but ended up catching at least 27 crappie with at least 19 being big enough to keep. I only caught one fish other than a crappie and that was a nice white bass.


Action slowed as the day went on, and I could see the crappie had moved below the structure and was hanging tight to the bottom. At this point in the day, I was ready to leave, but being able to see where the fish moved allowed me to know how to change my technique.


I was concerned how my new battery setup would work, but I only lost 0.1 volt over 5 hours, so that was perfect. I can't wait to get out there again. My initial impression is simple amazement.

LIVEACTION!

Well, after about 3 years of want, lust, and unhealthy desire, I finally made a commitment to her and bought my darling Lowe boat a Garmin Livescope!

All jokes aside, I managed to save up the money and while I was at it, I figured I'd address some of my boat electrical issues alongside the install.

I was able to find the Garmin 93SV unit bundled with the Livescope black box and transducer as package deal from mygreenoutdoors.com.  Kevin is the owner and made an impression by actually texting me and carrying out a conversation about the system when I was shopping around.  Garmin marked the chartplotter units down to $599 for the holidays and the $1,400 Livescope system had a $200 mail-in rebate, so it was a deal I couldn't pass up.

I decided while I was at it, I'd rewire the electrical circuits in the boat.  Since I bought the boat, all electronics were wired to the cranking battery.  It came this way from the factory and I added to the circuit on the cranking battery when I installed the Lowrance units previously.  This resulted in having a significant amp draw on the cranking battery and I'm constantly having issues running the cranking battery down when using electronics on the water.

I decided to install a dedicated battery for all electronics.  In doing so, I wanted to also install a new fuse box to clean up the wiring.  It's a birdnest from the factory.

I decided to put in this 12 circuit fuse box.

I bought a new Diehard Gold 29MH for my electronics battery.  This massive battery has a 210 minute reserve, which was my driving reason for buying it.  Finding a place for the new battery was a challenge.  There isn't any more room in the back of the boat and I didn't need the additional weight in the rear.  I found that there was a hollow spot to the starboard of the front livewell that was directly in front of the steering console.  I cut open the firewall from the front storage compartment and the hollow area was the perfect size and shape to house this battery. Additionally, the location in relation to the steering console made it perfect for running wire to the console.

The new Garmin black box is really the brains and processor of the Livescope system.  I needed a safe place to mount this that was out of the way and secure.  I found that the deck stiffening struts under the front deck made a perfect place for a shelf, so I cut a piece of lightweight aluminum to fit the area and mounted the black box.

 

Next, I mounted the screen.  I made a mounting bracket that lifted the screen up and over the trolling metal foot well.  I think installed a ram mount and mounted the screen.  I was able to pass the power wires through the existing plastic panel where the trolling motor plugs in and feed the transducer cable under the foot pedal.  I installed the 54UHD transducer for side/down imaging and traditional sonar on the trolling motor.

Now that the major components were in place, I began the rewiring process.  I removed all electrical circuits off the factory fuse box and carefully labeled them all.  I installed the new fuse box under the console and reinstalled all circuits to the new, labeled fuse box.  Any circuits that needed new wire were ran with 14 AWG. I made sure that all holes drilled through the boat were lined with protective rubber grommets.  4 AWG battery leads were installed between the fuse box and the battery.  I also installed a new 5 amp on board charger.  I didn't want the cord getting in the way, so hid it behind a panel and wired a female recessed receptacle so I could simple plug in an extension cord when ready to charge the battery.  This installation was slick. Once everything was wired, I tested all the switches and circuits and everything worked perfectly.

 

Now that all the wiring was finished, all that was left was to install the Livescope transducer.  I wanted the transducer pole mounted such that it could be independently pointed and was not reliant on trolling motor direction.  I used 1" CPVC for the pole mount.  I used reducers to step down to a 3/4" PEX and slid the 3/4" PEX through greased 1" to act as a sleeve for the swivel motion.  I epoxied the PEX connections.  I installed a 1" coupling to the bottom of the pole because the Livescope perspective mount bracket fit that coupling diameter perfectly.  Once all assembled, I sanded the CPVC and applied paint.  I used a couple Scotty ball mounts and a couple U-bolts to attached the pole to the boat.  I made a vinyl arrow sticker to mark the direction the transducer is pointing.  Below is the final result.

 

I think with every expense accounted for, I have about $2,700 in the complete finished install.  I'm very pleased with the entire project and it came out very clean and professional.  Now to get it in the water and try it out!

Arrowhead - Round 2

Wheeler Lake - Tennessee River @ Mooresville/Arrowhead Landing

Time: 7 AM - 4 PMAir Temperature: 41 - 54 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 54 degrees
Lake Level: 551.63' ~ 60,290 cfps
Weather Conditions: Light winds, 2-4 mph SSE.


Based on how successful my 1st trip to Arrowhead was, I headed back down today for some crappie action.


I fished much the same way as I did last trip, except based on what I had learned, I didn't waste any time exploring and headed straight down to the mouth of the channel around the deeper water where I had had good success last trip. The water was about 2 feet lower, so the deeper water was a must.


I fished the same as last time with minnows under a cork in the blow downs. I immediately started pulling in the fish. I concentrated most of my day fishing the same 2 or 3 blow downs with solid success. I played a bit with vertical jigging and pulled in a few, but minnows were definitely the name of the game.


It was another solid day. I ended the day with 33 crappie (16 keepers) and 26 assorted bluegill, etc.

Shallow Water Winter Crappie

Wheeler Lake - Tennessee River @ Mooresville/Arrowhead Landing

Time: 7 AM - 4 PMAir Temperature: 37 - 64 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 54 degrees
Lake Level: 553.08' ~ 76,000 cfps
Weather Conditions: Moderate to Strong Winds, 5-16 mph SSE. Would have been difficult to fish had I been anywhere else.


Today I changed things up a bit and fished Wheeler for winter crappie. Based on a recommendation, I tried somewhere new today and launched at Arrowhead in Mooresville and fished the Arrowhead Slough. I'm glad I did.


It took me a little while to hone in on how to fish this area. It is basically expansive mud flats along the refuge with a narrow deep slough running right down the center. Reminds me of the Big Sandy River back home. Along the sides of the slough are numerous blown down tree tops extending outwards into the slough.


The day started off slowly as I tried various water depths along the slough. As the day warmed and I worked my way into deeper water, the action heated up. I finally found the crappie in a tree top extending out to about 10-12 FOW. I began working a minnow and cork in the 4-10 FOW depth fishing about 3-6 feet deep. BINGO.


These fish were HUNGRY! I immediately began getting hits and lots of action. I caught several but struggle with the hook set. These fish were con artists and stole almost every minnow I threw at them.


Over time, I managed to put several in the boat and caught several nice bluegill as well. I moved on down to another big tree top and got even better results. I played a bit with vertical jigging to try to discourage bait stealing and picked up a few that way. Not as effective as minnows, but still put a few fish in the boat.


The overall size of the crappie were pretty small. Possible that I wasn't fishing deep enough to catch bigger fish, but fishing any deeper with the wind would have been tough with jigging and corks. I pulled in a herring and realized a school of them had moved in so I took the opportunity to change over to a casting road runner type of jig and caught 12 herring. I kept these for future catfish bait. Never pass up an opportunity for catfish bait!


At the end of the day, I exhausted 4 dozen minnows and had to resort to jigs for the last few fish. I ended the day with 49 total fish: 28 crappie with 15 keepers, 9 bluegill with 3 keepers, and the 12 herring. I caught all but about 3 fish from the same two tree tops. It was an awesome day and I'm definitely going back!

My first trip to the "Big G" was a "Big Zzzzz"

North and South Sauty - Scottsboro - Lake Guntersville

Time: 7 AM - 1:00 PMAir Temperature: 39 - 57 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 58 degrees
Lake Level: 593.11' -
Weather Conditions: Moderate winds, 8-14 mph North. Cold.


Today was a repeat of what I intended to do on 11/13. I didn't write about that trip because no fishing every actually occurred... I'm not superstitious, but another Friday the 13th like that and I could be...To summarize: I was all excited to have a Friday off of work and go fishing. I'd never fished Guntersville before, and I wanted to check out the crappie action under the bridges. I made it on the water by 7:30AM and was motoring toward my destination when I stopped to trim my motor up to free the grass that had hung on the lower unit. That's when it all went downhill. I never got the motor trimmed down. I couldn't reach the manual trim bypass valve so I tried the fill valve and that didn't work. One hour later, I had trolled about 5 miles and exhausted all batteries as I reached the landing. I trailered the boat and got the motor down with the bypass valve. At this point, I now had water in my trim oil, so I drained some to see what the damage was. It was bad. I had to manually raise the motor and lock in in the up position for the drive home. Two miles down the road, the motor slipped down and drug across the pavement until I could get pulled over. The result: 3-4" of my skeg fin now gone. I spent the balance of my day draining, flushing, and filling my trim unit and tracking down a skeg guard to fix my issues. Then while heading to TN to get my skeg guard, my radio head unit quit. BAD. DAY.


However, no issues today. It was a Monday, so I was hoping for light boat traffic. When I got to North Sauty Bridge, it was packed. I tied up to the last remaining bridge pylon and gave it a go. It was absolutely packed with fishermen. I tried minnows under a cork and bouncing bottom, but it was slow. I pulled in 4 yellow/white bass and two crappie. One crappie was a keeper. The wind was whipping through the bridge and it was cold. No one was doing much good.


I left and headed to fish around a marina with no luck and headed to South Sauty to repeat what I had done earlier. No luck at all and it was also packed.


Probably the highlight of my trip was seeing how others had innovated ideas to fish under these bridges. Several people were using C-Clamps to attached to any point under the bridge. Others had cut boards that fit between the bridge spans and had attached eye-hooks and springs to their tie-off lines. Genius.


I called it a day and rode back. I saw 3 beautiful bald eagles on the way back. Very slow day and not what I was hoping for, but still enjoyed myself.

"We're gonna need a bigger boat"

Wheeler Lake - Tennessee River @ Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant

Time: 7 AM - 10:00 AMAir Temperature: 53 - 70 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 73 degrees in the discharge water
Lake Level: 554.86' - 38,436 cfps - Perfect conditions
Weather Conditions: Light winds, variable 3-6 mph


Decided to wet a line for catfish this morning. I pulled out 3 big frozen shad from the freezer to use for cut bait on rod and reel. I went over to my favorite spot at the Nuclear Plant to fish the drop off between the pipeline and the discharge boils. I was set up with a single pole with two hooks and bouncing bottom.


It was a beautiful, perfect morning with no current or wind to fight. This is good for this area of the lake. I got off to a good start and caught 2 channels, 2 blues in the 8# range, one little flathead, and the big one below!


She. Was. A. Tank. I knew when I set the hook that it was big. I was able to get almost the whole fight on film. It took about 12 minutes to land this fish. It didn't fight violently, but put it's head down and peeled line. I don't fish with a lot of line when I'm bouncing bottom, so I was worried about getting spooled. Somehow, I managed to keep it hooked and not run off all my line. This was a solid fish and one of the biggest I've ever caught on road and reel. The scales showed 33#, but I was convinced it was 40 or more. I guess they always seem bigger than they are, but still very nice.


I took some photos and turned it loose and picked my wife and son up at the dock for a joy ride. Very nice day. Fall bite is on!!

"Eric!!?? Sgo fishing!"

Time: 7 AM - 1:00 PM
Air Temperature: 65 - 84 degrees during trip
Water Temperature: 83 degrees
Lake Level: 555.82' - 31,152 cfps - Perfect conditions
Weather Conditions: Light winds, variable 3-6 mph

Kyle twisted my arm on Friday to go fishing on Saturday morning.  Ok, it didn't take much twisting... I just needed an excuse...

We did a repeat trip of what Joe and I did the prior weekend.  We launched at the house and put out 10 jugs on the flats in front of my house baited with a mix of chicken gizzards and cut shad.  We placed the other 10 out by the mouth of Mallard Creek.  We then headed to the nuclear plant to fish rod and reels.

As soon as I dropped line, I was pulling in a channel cat.  Fishing was a little slow, but I managed to catch 4 cats around the boil line across the channel.  We ran back fished the jugs and pulled in a nice fat blue clocking in near 20 lbs and another smaller channel.  The blue was bigger than the pictures made it appear.

We went back to the plant to the intake gates and I pulled in another good fish.  Soon after, we ran the other set of jugs and then headed to Lucy's Branch for fuel. We ran across to the bluffs and bounced bottom there and I picked up another fish, but it was slow and starting to get hot.  We decided to call it a day and headed back to pick up jugs.  I think we picked up 3 more cats on jugs to finish the day with 6 rod and reel cats and 5 jug cats.  Kyle took home a great big goose egg and I'm going to trash talk and remind him for a little while 😂.

It's been 2 years since we did this last and we had a blast.  Need to get out there together more often.