under water camera

i was in gander tonight picking out my cristmas presents and i saw a camera that was up on display and i heard a friend of dads say his went well with a vexlar and i figure hey redneck has a vexlar and we allways fish togather and he has a vexlar maybe i should be pulling my weigh too so any sugestions on what to buy where to buy and etc.
thanks alot

Sled, I have the Marcum 560 (I think) it has the motor drive above the ice to rotate the camera. Too many wires! Get the new Marcum that has one cord and the camera itself moves.

One thing about cameras. They are fantastic in CLEAR waters. I would leave my Marcum sonar at home and take the camera if I was going to square lake..(see at least 10 feet). On the other hand MOST waters I would take my sonar and leave the camera at home…if I had to pick just one.

Also, they have made some improvements in the lighting, but with my unit, when I get past the 15 foot mark, it’s too dark to see anything unless it swims right in front of the camera..almost touching it.

With that said…and again they have made improvements since I bought mine, I would rather own a good vex/marcum than have a great camera.

All of the above is IMO.

PS…check with Jolly Wade before you make a purchase. No tax…free shipping…site sponser… check him out.

I would agree with Brian. Last year, I purchased an Aqua-Vu ZT under water camera and only used it 3 times. I’ve owned a Vexilar FL-18 for 5 years and just love it. I will not go ice fishing without it!

You should have a flasher first, hands down, camera’s are neat, but nowhere as practical as a flasher, you can shoot through the ice with a flasher, to see depth, you’re going to have to do it the ole fashioned way with a camera. I have a camera and it’s basically a pain in the to use, yeah it works, and it’s kind of cool, but I’d go ice fishing without a camera anyday, but never without a flasher.

If you were to buy a camera, I’d say buy the cheapist one, I paid an extra $100 on my camera for the better lights, yeah brillant idea, because I’ll tell you at night the camera is worthless, all you see is plankton, which looks like snow, alteast on my camera. (aqua-vu mc2) Maybe it’s better on other cameras, but I doubt by much, who knows, I suspose someone will chime in.

You know…now that we are all knocking cameras… I know…poor choice of words…because everything said above it true…

I should point out…when bluegills get in their little mood…a camera does very well. Out does a vex/marcum.

I use a size 20 dry fly hook (pretty small…about the size of this “J”…maybe just a bit bigger) tipped with a waxie…dropped down a hole. Without a camera you would never know they sucked it in and spit it out. No cork will twitch, no rod tip wiggle…just set the hook when it’s sucked in.

Without a camera, i would have gone home empty handed!

Sonar first, camera second.

I have the Aqua Vu MC2, (has the infared lights). It is absouoltely amazing what you can see with it….In CLEAR water. Dirty water is dirty water is dirty water. If it’s not clear, you won’t see. General rule of thumb is, if you can see 2 feet down in the water with the naked eye, you will see double that distance (4ft) with a camera. Perch fishing with a camera set up on your bait is a hoot. Couldn’t get my house…or camera back after my buddies in our group had a chance to use it and see what they were missing.
Locating the areas walleye school up on the mississippi in the wintertime….(when the water is clear), which is from about the time the barges quit running…..to about the day they start!…is awesome. I have seen so many neat things with my camera on the river I never knew were there. From Schools of catfish….to huge schools of Gar. To schools of crappies, mixed in WITH the gar! To literally thousands of walleye and sauger!
Do I like my camera, you bet! But I will agree with the people above, the flasher will CATCH you more fish. The camera is a blast to use, and at times will out “catch” the flasher, but it’s more of a learning tool, than a catching tool. As to which one….they’re all good and have their pro’s and con’s. Don’t be afraid to check out the Aqua Vu website and look at the Scout XL or the Scout SRT. 7″ viewing screen on those units is really cool. Plus they have video output for recording. Off to bed. It’s late.

If you are going to panfish or pike fish any metro lake, you can keep the flasher. For me it is the camera all the way. There is no bigger thrill than jigging in a pike and watching all the action on a camera.

The camera will also put neutral to negative panfish in the pan for you, over a flasher, for you can see the negative fish come and lip your bait, where on a flasher you can’t “watch” the reactions of the fish.

The flasher will give you the immediate area below your bait, where the camera will scout out fish 10 feet away and you can jig them in. With the flasher, you would have never known a school of panfish moved in 10 feet from you.

At night, jigging for eyes or crappies, you need the flasher, but during the day on any metro lake, I can out-fish a flasher 10 to 1 with my camera.

Lastly, with the camera, you can target the individual fish you want to catch, meaning again, if they are negative, you can present the bait “just right” to get the fish to come and take your offering. You can watch how the fish react to your presentation, making the necessary fine-tune adjustments.

Last year on Prior, while chasing sunnies, nobody was catching anything in the area I was fishing. The fish wanted a specific color jig, presented a specific way. It was on the camera that I was able to decipher this. It made the difference of me catching fish and others going home empty handed.

Sounds like you already have access to a flasher so your team definitely needs a camera. Use your flasher to find structure and use your new camera to catch fish. You won’t be able to just shut off the flasher once you find the right structure. You will need it to determine where in the water column the fish are. If you are fishing for suspended Crappies, 20 feet down over 55 feet, you can use the flasher to set the depth of your camera. However, you really need both because it is very tough to fish not knowing where your tiny little jig is. Without the flasher you will be asking yourself is the camera facing the right direction? Did my jig already go past the field of view? etc. Not as big of a problem when bottom fishing and you have landmarks.

Cameras don’t work on Lake of the Woods by Baudette and they don’t work very effectively on Upper Red. Get on lakes like Mille Lacs or Winnie and get ready for some really cool visual stimulation! Nothing like seeing a herd of jumbos crawling over subtle mounds right toward your helpless fathead…

I have used the camera to watch my tip-up offerings when the panfish are pounding the waxies. Very cool to see a big Pike come up to a giant sucker and “nudge” it several times, while you and the guys are yelling “TAKE IT!” ( it didn’t )

i also agree, a vexilar is great for finding a spot quick, but after seeing “HOOKS” camera in action at the Hunters Point perch tournament last year, I went right out and bought a Aqua-View. He had it set up to see two lines and you could jig away from the smaller fish and finesse the big ones to bite !!! way too cool to let “HOOKS” have all this fun to himself.

G

Aqua View Scout is the cheapest. More money will get you a smaller unit and upgraded features but the scout works just fine. I used mine last year and have no intention of upgrading this year.

Perchin in the mid-winter, a camera is a great tool. Sometimes they just want it a certain way and you can way outfish someone just using a flasher.
Watching fish is fun too, but I do use my flasher a heck of a lot more than I do my camera.
I also have the Aqua-Vu scout. Best deal IMO.

I want to pipe in on some thing said so maybe the manufacturers will see it. Friend and I were using his camera on Big Marine ice fishing a couple of years ago and it was like he had it set up next to an aquarium. Then we popped over to Forest Lake and just like one of the guys was saying, as it got dark and the plankton started to come out, the IR lights on the camera blinded it. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize what the problem is, just drive in a snow storm once and be snow blinded by your head lights on the same plane as you. Why can’t they set the lights up on a rod a foot or two above the camera shining down in front.
One thing I did that helped with where the camera looked, in my opinion, was to buy several peices of small dia. PVC which I cut into equal lengths and drilled holes in each end. Then I linked them by running a screw through the ends of two lenghts and on till I had one long reticulated rod. We then just undid as much rod as we needed to get to here we wanted, usually the bottom, and grouped the rest in a bundle. I think I used a large rubber band. Then we could use the bundle as a rudder to stear where we wanted to look. When we got done, all you had to do was to fold it up like a folding ruler and off you went.
WarrenMN

As stated above it depends on the time of year you are fishing. In my opinion early ice is the time of year to be using yor flasher. As mid to late ice season approaches and the bite becomes more skittish i would recommend using a camera/flasher combo. Find out what area the fish are utilizing with the flasher then watch them bite you hook with the camera. It is a blast watching sunnies slurp your bait up and setting the hook on them, all the while your bobber doesn’t move an inch. Just my opinion.

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It is a blast watching sunnies slurp your bait up and setting the hook on them, all the while your bobber doesn’t move an inch. Just my opinion.

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THAT IS WHY you need a camera, because a flasher is going to tell you the fish are there, but the camera will tell you that they got it in their mouth.

I’m sure I want a camera, but this lighting question comes up. . .Which light works better, The IR or the SR? Has anyone worked with both?
Bob Plewa

speaking of tip ups. did anyone see them auto jig tip-ups at gander mountain ? they say they run continuosly for 12 hrs on a set of batteries. would get rid of icing up and sure would trigger more strikes i suspect. and they only run $17. gonna get a couple and try em.

g

something else to consider is the flasher doesn’t work that well in shallow water. For first ice when you in shallow and late in the year is also a great time for the camera you can see 10′ in each direction where with a flasher you lucky if you get 2′ on each side of the hole.

the guy at gander said that the spectral response (sr) works better than the infa red (ir)

thanks guys it really worked on my moms opinion now she wants to go fishing so i dont know if theres room in my 2 man ice house for redneck

Guys,

I bought the Marcum vs350 after seeing the Gander Mountain version in the store. What a blast! Used it on Monona Bay in Madison, WI. Definitely lets you know how the fish react to your bait and presentation. It also lets you see how the big fish play with your bait–which baits they respond to immediately, too. I still needed the Vex–felt naked without it. My biggest impression on cameras is that there are two types to choose from: 1)a basic camera–as cheaply as you can comfortably get it. It will get you started and help you decide if you need one. Better yet, borrow your buddy’s! And 2) The camera with depth, temp, and most importantly, direction. I found that coordinating your camera’s depth and direction with your bait is a challenge that will keep you from moving around–hole hopping . My goal is to learn all I can about the fish and get to a point where I no longer need to use the camera. I can see where you can come to rely on the camera and become less of a fisherman in the process.

Bob Plewa