underwater cameras?

[Mikeel1987]

Was thinking of buying one like maybe an aqua-vu model anybody have one or experience with one to sway me one way or the other? Seems like it be way cool to use.

[Anglinarcher]

Yes, they are real cool, but not fool proof.

Most can and will fog up with hot cameras and cold water. Most can and will get some fog/moisture inside, but it will dry out.

They do not work if the water is cloudy, with plankton, etc. In other words, if you have cannot see but a couple of feet into the water, then that is all you will see with the camera.

You will find that deep water can be much dirtier then the surface, and once in a while clearer as well.

They are not great at finding fish, but they can identify fish once they are found. I have a few other tricks for mine as well, such as checking out cliff faces, under overhangs, etc.

Mine has the IR light. It is the Cabela's model, made by Aquaview.

[YellowBear]

I use mine alot, never have had it fog up.
Angler is write as they don,t see through cloudy water very well.
They are good for identifing sonar blips.
Great for seeing what may be under a dock or ledge.
They don,t work very well in deep water.
Great for ice fishing.
Got to watch a Crawdad migration in Soda lake this year.
I have one of the older Aqua view units with IR lights and temp that is good for locating the thermalcline.

[Bigbass Dez]

Take a look at this Camera Mikeel ,

My tourney partner and myself have been using this model for an entire season now and it rocks !! This cam will not fog up in any conditions, trust me we have used it from winter through fall . One of the coolest features is the small head design which makes for super easy use while on the boat .
The 360 view is awesome as well , we can see fish over 15 feet away from lens .
CHECK IT OUT : http://www.amazon.com/Aqua-Micro-Underw ... ynow01b-20" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Mikeel1987]

Thats the exact model I wanted to get even they have it on the aquavu website for 150 refurbished with 1 year waranty

[Bigbass Dez]

Pull the trigger on it brother and thank me later

[Mikeel1987]

I just did

[Bigbass Dez]

I just did

Quick tips for ya Mikeel ,

The head unit should come with a seperate attachment that will allow you to add a weigh to the camera head . This attachment is what will allow the camera head to sink to your desired dept for 360 viewing .
We decided one day to clip the camera head onto an light action rod and simply engaged the reel allowing the head to free fall right down to bottom . As it turns out this was much easier to get the head down faster than just allowing the head to free spool from the connected wire . Dont forget to come back to the site and give us your reviews on the new product

Take care BBD

[Mikeel1987]

I certainly will . But im a lil confused on your tip I guess I just dont quite understand what you mean lol.

[Bigbass Dez]

I certainly will . But im a lil confused on your tip I guess I just dont quite understand what you mean lol.

I kinda figured that would be the case ,sorry bud . It will make more sense to ya once you get the unit

[fishinChristian]

I have an older Aqua view, and it works great. I've retrieved 2 rods with it that would not have been found, and it is limited on finding fish, as mentioned, but great at confirmation. One of the best things I found: On points where current is flowing on reservoirs like Roosevelt, there appears to be fish present in great numbers, but if you view it, it turns out to be turbulent gunk swirling around. I long ago wrote off these sort of false readings, but it was nice to confirm what I suspected, without having to scuba to find out. Also, if you catch a "good 'un" in underwater cover, you can help establish a pattern by checking out what you caught it from. Crappie are the easiest to find and confirm when they school, and you can tell if they are just closed mouth and you need to find what they are hungry for, or if another non-interesting species is where you thought they were.
It's a fun gadget, and good for learning. Glad you're getting one.

[obryan214]

the one called fish tv is what we use at the kennedy creek salmon trail, they are about $100 and we get 2 or 3 years out of each. being that we use the 1 month a year probably means they suck.

been thinking about the go pro black edition, just waiting for a good sale and some extra cash.

[dea]

Did you buy one? I have an aqua-vue. But mine is the old style. I love it. I use it in small lakes to locate schools of perch. It's silly when you see the perch coming up to the camera to check it out...chuckle....I love that. I've seen schools of hundreds in Blackmans lake. I was so engulfed in watching them, that I could break away to fish. These under cameras are wonderful.

However!!! They work better when coupled with a depth/fish finder. The reason is the camera works in a narrowly scoped envelope. So, if you use your fish finder to quickly locate areas, then use the camera as your microscope to better check out the details of the structure and cover. I have so much fun with this camera.

[capers26]

If the conditions are right it will show you everything you want to see. If they're not right, it's wasted space on the boat.
I took mine out just one time last year because I was fishing the same area on Lake Washington for 3 days straight without a bass to show for it. I knew the area had to hold smallies. I was using my 12 footer, so I didn't have a FF or anything, but judging by the shoreline it looked great. Old trees, a gravel shoreline with some big rocks mixed in, it sloped dramatically in some spots. I figured there would be gravel, rocks, fallen trees and branches, a weedline, and some deep spots. But, like I said I couldn't get a bit from anything but perch.
I brought the underwater camera out and I saw everything I described, plus baitfish, AND bass were all over the place.
So really, all it did was make me feel like a terrible fisherman lol.

I just bought a waterproof goPro knock off and a 6ft monopod. I think this will be an easier solution to an underwater camera.