Looking Down On Ice

Sight fishing through the ice is not only visually exciting, it's also the best way to catch finicky fish. Fish sometimes bite so light that you never feel them and the only way anglers can catch them is to watch them inhale the bait, either by looking down the hole or using an underwater camera.

Down-viewing through the ice with an underwater camera is the latest innovation from Aqua-Vu. Redesigned for 2003, the standard Front-Viewing Fin included with every Aqua-Vu System now includes a down-viewing "hook." This makes it possible to change from horizontal viewing to vertical viewing in seconds. Simply lower it down the same hole you're fishing and position it two the three feet from the depth where you're working your bait. It's just a great tool for viewing and visually detecting light biters.

Because the camera is lowered down the same hole you're fishing, fish sometimes wrap the line around the cord. But I've never lost a fish. In fact, the line slightly tangled in the cord actually seems to tire the fish faster, making them easier to land.

The Temperature Connection

At various times of year, water temperature is critical to finding and catching fish. In summer, for example, springs produce a supply of cool water that attracts many fish species, but particularly big northern pike, striped bass, and smallmouths. When you're scanning the underwater world with your Aqua-Vu, why not get all the information you can?

The screen of the new Aqua-VU DT (depth-temperature) camera displays the depth of the camera lens and the temperature at that spot. Its uses are many. In winter, warm inflows from power plants or warm feeder creeks provide a warm sanctuary that draws baitfish and predators alike.

During summer, the Aqua-Vu DT also reveals the level of the thermocline. I've often found that this layer of water lies much shallower than I'd thought. And it often provides a barrier to downward movements by fish that favor high temperatures, like bluegills, crappies, and largemouth bass. The DT feature adds another dimension to your viewing, increasing the educational value and potentially your fishing success.

Verifying Sonar

When sophisticated sonars hit the market, anglers began to consider these electronic aids their "underwater eyes." The units relay valuable information about depth, bottom composition, cover, and fish intercepted by the sound beam. Based on the unit's display, we begin to form a mental picture of the underwater world.

Those who dive below the surface, however, immediately see that the underwater world is far more complex than the images on the flasher screens or those painted in pixels on a liquid crystal graph. Sonar is, after all, a distance-measuring device. Bottom features like sunken logs, rocky outcrops, small pits in the substrate, and other potential fish attractors cannot be discerned.

And what about that fish signal on the screen -- what is it really? Often, I've thought I'd found the mother lode of walleyes, only to lower my Aqua-Vu camera and come face to face with a pod of white suckers. No wonder they wouldn't bite!

To learn the most about the underwater world, you need to use a sonar and an underwater camera. Sonars provide great superficial coverage at high speed, but close inspection requires a clear visual signal of the underwater world.

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