Downrigger camera

[bluedevil]

Just wondering if there is a market out there for an underwater camera for "your downrigger". I know Walker has them but you have to use there riggers but I personally dont like em and I know many of the other members here have there favorite downriggers.

My question is...

1...Would you purchase one that worked on your riggers?

2...What would be a resonable price range for you?

3...What feature's would be most important to you?

4...What feature's would you like to see avoided?

[salmonquest]

I would love to have one but I think the pricepoint would be the downfall for a luxury item. I do think you could really get some good intel on your spread and the reactions fish have.

[DIRTY DOG]

i was just wondering if any one has ever tried to yous a acua view , i bought one from my brother inlaw a few years ago and thought about trying to rig it to a rigger cable , has any one ever done this

[bluedevil]

i was just wondering if any one has ever tried to yous a acua view , i bought one from my brother inlaw a few years ago and thought about trying to rig it to a rigger cable , has any one ever done this

Aqua view does make a rigger kit...http://www.aquavu.com/Aqua%7B48%7DVu-Cam-Rigger-Kit/1/

Biggest problem I think is going to be the camera's cable with blow back and realing it back up.

[Priority1]

The technology is mind boggling. We have better sonar and GPS systems on our sport boats now than the Navy had just a few years ago. When the price gets right we will all want the cams. The difference between a man and a boy is the price of their toys. When I started fishing I couldn't imagine running ten or more rods, planer boards, Dipsys, GPS, Sonar, Temperature probes, riggers, etc etc. Computers link us with other fishermen to swap information, and a few tall tales. I'm getting too old for all this stuff. But, If ya Love It, Ya Love It.

[1mainiac]

Frank last year I spent over 20 grand fishing with the new boat and gear I can remember dreaming of a time when I would even make that much in a year of working. Never in my dreams did I ever see me spending that much on fishing and the sad part the next set of planned upgrades to the boat are just under 10 grand but unless i hit the lottery won't happen this year.

[Sea-Mac]

I've allways wanted to try running a aqua view on a rigger to but never have. I vision the cord meeting my prop. The cord and blow back would be a huge mess to deal with. It would be nice if they made some kind of reel for the cord...

[Nailer]

There's a great video from Strike Vision on this site

http://www.gettinghooked.net/Fishing%20Tips.htm

Go to the lower right corner.

[2UNREEL]

I have the cam rigger kit for my aqua-vu. I bought it about 5 years ago. Once I tried hooking it up to a downrigger with a 10lb ball in 3ft waves... I would suggest never trying that it was a mess. I have wanted to try it in calm water with my 12lb balls but never got around to it. There is a great deal of blowback involved so depending on how deep you want to go, you have to adjust the angle the camera is pointing. I have however used the camera perch fishing the big lake. That is amazing. In 30ft of water I have a sight distance of about 20ft or more. When you see a school of perch comming across the screen be ready for action. I also use it ice fishing if the lake is clear enough.

[Willie Bee]

I know of one boat that rigged a underwater camera, this was a few years back and it wasn't a cheap unit, some $2500 for just the camera. We finally convinced him to drop the camera and try it and he was discusted with all the fish that just follow the lures and swim in them without biting. After one use he had the camera removed, it was to much stress to see all those fish and not being able to trigger a bite. So far I hear with the newer cameras the visability has been a issue only being able to view things a short distance away doesn't show much action. I herd the new probes with the blowback it's hard to get them to point backwards, alot of the time there pointing up, just like the speed and temp probes do. There might be somthing out there with night vision technology. It would be nice to see once, but I would not want it on my boat. It's bad enough when you see them on the fish finder, I'd hate to actually see the smile on there face when they don't bite.

[slickwater]

Aqua view does make a rigger kit...http://www.aquavu.com/Aqua%7B48%7DVu-Cam-Rigger-Kit/1/

Biggest problem I think is going to be the camera's cable with blow back and realing it back up.

I tried a Cabelas camera on the downrigger and the blow back was bad. The cable vibrated so bad that the camera was shaking so bad that I couldn't see anything.

[willfishforfood]

I tried it last fall and found anything lower than 30' and a speed of 2.0 was all I could take. For the shaking I clipped the cam. cord to the d/r cable and took it out for the most part. Bringing it back up was a two man job with manual riggers.

Steve

[DiverDennis]

There's a great video from Strike Vision on this site http://www.gettinghooked.net/Fishing%20Tips.htm Go to the lower right corner.

Thanks for the link. That was fun to watch.

[KJ pluggin]

I would love to have a camera on my riggers but the price would be the main deterrent for me. There are way to many other things that I need to get before I can justify spending money on a rigger camera. With that said I think the insight on the mood of the fish and the action of the lure could be very valuable.

[Captjimtc]

I have had my aqua vu hooked up to my downriggers a bunch of times. I used releases with shower curtain hooks every 10' to hold the cable to the rigger line. I've had it as far as 75' down and was surprised to see how much better a silver spoon looked versus a glow spoon at that depth. Blowback was still pretty significant with the clips and I used a huge prototype ridgeback rattler as my downrigger ball. If this setup was built in to the dash I would like it but I spent too much time watching the screen instead of the rods....Not to mention laughing at watching salmon trying to hit the spoon. It's fun but I would want one that had a wireless transmitter for video.

[Twill23]

I have a walker strike vision camera, and to be honest its one of the neatest tools for seeing hoq fish really react to your presentations. The special rigger itself comes with a coated cable to totally get rid of the seperate wire problem. The great part about this rigger is you can use it as a normal downrigger when you are not using your probe. It also comes with a 10lb breakaway cable that attaches to the bottom of your probe. There is also a plug on the wheel of the down rigger that must be unplugged before you can move the downrigger either up or down. This is really a great safety feature to stop you from getting too excited, and ripping wires out of places they really should stay. The coated cable is quite a bit thicker than average downrigger cable, so what i have done is make another heavier break away cable so that i can use a heavier ball with the rigger. This is also a great too when your having problems with speed. Rather than counting on shear numbers from your fish hawk or other units, you can see what the fish really want. I will admit it is a slight hassle to clip the line to the cannon ball. Because of the length of the setup its hard to reach it even with a ball retriever. Another problem the unit has is the price for replacement cable. It can cost over $300 big ones to replace a single spool of cable. I can also forsee a problem if the downrigger were to be a side rigger. It could see the cable rubbing against the little metal guide at the very end of the downrigger. Also the unit does not have auto stop, you have to manually hold the button up or down. Overall if you have the money and are really interested in putting more fish in the box, its a great investment. Personally i dont use it much anymore. I have it sitting downstairs in my boat, and in its place is another walker downrigger