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I am interested in buying a Aqua- Vu camera system and had a few questions.
I have already decided to get the camera with the temp sensor included so that is settled. My question is this - How far can I expect to see with a Aqua-Vu camera? My home lake is muddy to clouded most of the time and this is a concern I have about buying the camera. Not much use in buying it if I can't see anything!! Thanks for your comments ahead of time.
Shaun
Same problem with my home lake. I wish i would have saved my money. I dont even take it with me any more. Could only see maybe half a foot on most of the days i used it. But i did take it to lake erie, icefishing, and could see quite a ways there. Water is so clear there i could see 10 ft down, without the camera. Good luck with yours if you get it.
Mosam, if you are fishing muddy water I don't know that I would recommend a camera. I do fish a lake that is very stained and can see up to 4 foot in it most of the time unless it is muddy. Then visibility is cut back to about a foot. But like I have said in the past, I have found that the temp helps me out more than seeing the fish.
I have noticed that when I take my camera out I catch less fish cause I spend too much time messing with the darn thing. Heck I have only seen a small bluegill on it so far. Its cool looking at structure or drop offs and seeing what is actually there, and Its good for ice fishing, but I think its fairly over rated unless you just want to look at stuff. I get frustrated with it and just say screw it I'm just gonna fish. If I had to do it over again I would have bought a vexillar for ice fishing
I had one and used it on KY lake. Couldn't see but about 1 1/2 foot. The best thing about it was that it taught me how to identify stuff on my depthfinder better. For example, when I would pass over something and didn't know if it was a rock or a stump, I would lower the old camera down and take a gander. Then make another pass and look at it on the depthfinder and remember how the echo looked.
I just bought one last Friday and used it Saturday for about 5 hours checking out my home lake.
I bought the Aqua Vu ZT50 that has the temp tech and its great. However, my home lake is rather clear even with all the rain we have had I can still see about 4-5 feet without the camera.
I was amazed at view I had. I could see probably 8-10 foot or more easy and I found brush piles and ledge's that I never new were there. I found where the bottom changes from smooth to chunk rock and found a few nice drop off's
I didn't see alot of fish and I looked in water anywhere between 5-48' deep the water was real cold still though. Surface said it was 48 but Aqua Vu said it was between 42-44 down from 20-48'
I did notice the bluegil were very curios and wanted to come in for a good look and the shad though i was one of the gang and just swam right along side me as the wind moved us around the lake.
I did see a crappie haning out around a brush pile which is great news for me because knowone has caught a crappie in this lake and they all swear that ther are none. I witnessed first hand there is one at least. :)
I cannot wait till the wate warms up some so I can look some more.
I'll admit it I spent 5 hours on the water and didn't drop a single line in the lake so that could be a problem.
;) I have an AquaVu that I bought mainly for ice fishing. The waters I normally fish are reservoirs that have a little to a lot of color to them. My experience has been that if the water is stained very badly you will not be able to see very far...maybe 3' at best. I also agree with the hassle factor mentioned above. Fooling around :mad: with the darn thing takes away from fishing time. However, it is nice :) to be able to check out brush piles or other spots to see what is holding on that spot....crappie? shad? carp? or who knows what. Once you know what is there you can make the decision to fish or not to fish. There have been times that I would not have caught fish if I didn't have the camera....most of the time though it sits in the box waiting.
slab happy
:D