Open Your Eyes and See…
By Mark Lassagne
Have you ever bought something and then wondered how you ever got along without them?
A few years back I installed Power Poles thinking these are cool but now after using them I will never have a boat without them.
Underwater cameras have been around for a while now but it seems there’s a lot of bass anglers haven’t embraced them like the ice angler’s do and you might wonder do I need one or is it just a cool thing to have. The same is true for this underwater camera – I feel lost without it.
About 15 years ago I
purchased my first Aqua-Vu a somewhat cumbersome piece of equipment, it had a battery, case, monitor, camera and long cord. Equipped with a hood because the sunlight would washout the screen – it was like looking down a tube to the underwater world. Unless you had two people in the boat it was difficult to look down the tube and maneuver the boat at the same time. None the less it opened my eyes to a new world.
FIRST REAL EXPERIENCE
I remember fishing Frazier Point at Clear Lake in Calif and after fishing the entire point for 30 minutes or so without a bite I lowered the camera and to my surprise I saw a school of five-pound plus bass swimming around without a care. After seeing this I backed off and tried again to catch them, this time with confidence they are there but still no luck, however, I learned a valuable lesson.
These fish were there, they are living there it just wasn’t time for them to feed. Armed with this knowledge I’ve returned to the spot many times over the years and caught a number of great fish. If I didn’t lower the camera down I wouldn’t have known for sure those fish where there or had the confidence to fish it.
THINGS HAVE CHANGED
Move to present day, now my Aqua-Vu (AV Multi-Vu) is connected direct to my Garmin (7612) (12” graph), no more tilting the screen to get the right angle or looking down a tube, just flip a switch, lower the camera and get a look at what’s below. See the video how to hook up your Aqua-Vu
With the camera hooked to my depth finder I can compare what I’m seeing on the graph and what I’m seeing on the camera in real time.
You’ll be amazed how different things look. For example, you might think you see a giant school of bait in 50ft of water just to find out its debris suspended in the thermocline or you’ll see fish only to find out they are carp and not bass. An underwater…
