Are fish really scared of the cam???

dragon · #1 01-03-2011, 10:24 PM

I've read on here that the whitefish at pigeon might be?

What about walleyes? Pike? Burbot? Perch?

gl2 · #2 01-03-2011, 10:35 PM

i am very careful with the camera...and rarely do i turn the light on. i do believe it spooks fish but its a fun gadget none the less.

terny · #3 01-03-2011, 11:03 PM

the camera confuses me as well, i do see and sometimes do catch perch on it, other days u wont see a perch come near it but in reality that could be just a bad day, i do however feel the camera brings in pike, the pike always try to eat the damn thing.

moosehunter3-0 · #4 01-03-2011, 11:05 PM

I haven't found fish to be afraid of the aqua-vu. I find the whitefish are sometimes reluctant to bite with the cam down the hole but will still swim by. Nonetheless I have still caught lots of whites with the use of the camera. Pike will swim right up to the camera and stare at it, and burbot constantly swim into your cord and will bump your camera.

chubbdarter · #5 01-03-2011, 11:14 PM

i think most fish are curious. and every fish is different. i find you only need the light at night and when you turn it on it looks like a snow storm of plankton and shrimp.
ive seen the light scare off schools of eyes.
i dont turn it on. but my wife loves to use it. i like to ask her when the picture begins to blurr without the light because if it is its supper time for the eyes. camera gets shut off never using the light and its go time with just flasher units

npauls · #6 01-03-2011, 11:21 PM

I have found the eyes and perch to spook and sometimes trout. I know this because if I am not getting bites I will take the camera away and fish for awhile. This year I picked up a flasher so we will see how it goes. I try and keep my camera as high as possible facing downward. This way it isn't so noticeable to fish that are hanging near the bottom.

nate

baptiste_moose · #7 01-04-2011, 12:04 AM

camera's blow. I can't believe they took off like that. Everyone should sell them and buy flashers. They are the only way to go.

DaveFish · #8 01-04-2011, 12:24 AM

More than once I've had jacks attack the cam, really neat seeing a big slough shark curl up his tail and spring into the camera. Only times I've noticed fish being afraid of the red light, is trout and whites, but maybe Im scaring off 90% of the fish that are in the area, never know.

Brandonkop · #9 01-04-2011, 02:41 AM

From my experience fish may not necessarily be scared of the camera. The will swim right up and take a look at it. Some like pike and burbot will try to eat it! I do find that the fish are slightly less aggressive when on camera. Especially walleye. I find when someone is using a camer in our group they have a great time watching fish but will catch less than the guy roaming around without a camera. This may also be because the guy is moving around more though too. Who knows, but it does seem to make a difference when you pull the camera up and drop a hook back down.

Brandon

CeeZee · #10 01-04-2011, 05:49 AM

I haven't had a chance to use mine on alot of lakes, but my usual trout hole, the first year i had my camera teh fish were scared of it(its the anti-spook tha looks like a fish) and i wonder if thats why.
One day i was catching the bows like crazy and thought i better get my cam down to see this action, soon as i got it down, no fish for over an hour, so i pulled it up out of curiosity and bango, the fish were on again!
But i do still think its cuz it looks like a fish. ?? opinions?

buckman · #11 01-04-2011, 07:16 AM

Looking for one that has different channels,so I can be specific in what I see and catch.

Alberta Bigbore · #12 01-04-2011, 07:55 AM

I find Battle lake whites are shy of the camera, and Pigeon seem to hold back a bit in my experience. Walleyes, pike, burbs and perch dont seem to mind anywhere I go

dragon · #13 01-04-2011, 08:55 AM

I guess it depends on location too... I try and put my camera is far away from the hole I'm fishing in so I can just barely see my hook on the screen.

I saw online you can get different skins... maybe if you painted it to look like a fish species in the lake you are fishing in... Since I only know how to finger paint I'll let someone else try that.

slingshotz · #14 01-04-2011, 10:31 AM

With my limited experience of my camera so far I have noticed that stocked trout and suckers don't pay any attention to the camera, had some even almost bump into it. Pike are definitely interested in the camera and will nose right into it. Whites don't really seem to mind it but won't swim really close. That being said, I did have one white swim right by the camera and inhale my wireworm 3 feet away without any hesitation.

Haven't had it long enough to see what burbs, perch and eyes do.

chubbdarter · #15 01-04-2011, 10:46 AM

its the lights that bother wary fish. ive tryed decorating mine with plastic aquarium plants

nicemustang · #16 01-04-2011, 10:50 AM

Burbs love the camera, they try to eat it. Although don't use the light, that seems to scare them away. Walleye in winter don't really like the camera, it makes them nervous. But can be useful sometimes. If you have a good camera, you can put it 10-12 feet away and still see everything but then it's not so close. Perch can be shy sometimes but other times it doesn't matter. It's nice to see the bottom while laker fishing because you get a lot of bottom huggers but usually i'm fishing up the water column and don't need a camera. Brookies are VERY camera shy. Whites are typically VERY camera shy as well. Pike doesn't seem to matter. Rainbows aren't bothered either.

Sundancefisher · #17 01-04-2011, 10:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slingshotz

With my limited experience of my camera so far I have noticed that stocked trout and suckers don't pay any attention to the camera, had some even almost bump into it. Pike are definitely interested in the camera and will nose right into it. Whites don't really seem to mind it but won't swim really close. That being said, I did have one white swim right by the camera and inhale my wireworm 3 feet away without any hesitation.

Haven't had it long enough to see what burbs, perch and eyes do.

I agree...trout care less about the camera. Perch swim up and bump the camera. Perch are a prey species so I think anything that is different makes them wary. I have seen pike attack perch shaped camera heads.

Overall...if the fish is a prey species...perch, whitefish etc...they should be more wary. Predators should more than likely...care less.

IMHO

burbotman14 · #18 01-04-2011, 03:20 PM

I think the only species affected by the camera are whitefish in my experience. It also depends on the lake. At wabamun the whitefish don't even care if the camera is there or not, but if you go to pigeon or other places it is a different story. The pike and burbot love the camera. The pike always seem to come and take a look and the burbot roll all over it and try to eat it. I got some videos of pike, burbot, trout, and whitefish if that will convince you . Keep in mind the whitefish, pike, and burbot videos are at wabamun and the trout are from carson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRRlP_w4-vE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUd92NlE4G0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jltvs4XQmm0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e8iIRH0rf4

chubbdarter · #19 01-04-2011, 03:55 PM

to be realistic i think national geographic would need to determine the real answer. no one with 1 cam or 3 cams can tell how many fish 10-25 feet away are sitting there pointing and laughing at our cameras. chit they may pull straws to see who goes in to get their picture taken....SMILE!

nicemustang · #20 01-04-2011, 04:01 PM

Burbotman, i love you videos...what do you use to capture the video. You have a Marcum, right?

And you didn't mention walleye nor have a walleye vid. But they are definitely camera shy.

dragon · #21 01-04-2011, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by burbotman14

I think the only species affected by the camera are whitefish in my experience. It also depends on the lake. At wabamun the whitefish don't even care if the camera is there or not, but if you go to pigeon or other places it is a different story. The pike and burbot love the camera. The pike always seem to come and take a look and the burbot roll all over it and try to eat it. I got some videos of pike, burbot, trout, and whitefish if that will convince you . Keep in mind the whitefish, pike, and burbot videos are at wabamun and the trout are from carson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRRlP_w4-vE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUd92NlE4G0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jltvs4XQmm0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e8iIRH0rf4

Well that sums it up there.... Its not the cam to blame for slow days

Rockymtnx · #22 01-04-2011, 09:49 PM

I have found that whitefish are camera shy to my Aqua-vu.
I have yet to see a Perch, Pike, Walleye, or Burbot that is scared of it though.

Ken07AOVette · #23 01-04-2011, 09:55 PM

I had an aqua vu quad cam and had great luck with jacks and perch, but never saw a single trout, yank the cam and the trout started biting

honker_clonker · #24 01-04-2011, 10:05 PM

Caught more big perch without the camera than with it.

rider pride · #25 01-05-2011, 06:16 AM

I have been using my camera for fishing trout and have hand them run into numerous times trhying to check it out. I have also used it later in the evening with the lights on and still caught fish. I guess it all comes down to how finicky they are being. Funny how different people are seeing differntly with them.

slingshotz · #26 01-05-2011, 11:04 AM

I think the shape of the camera also makes a huge difference. My Marcum is shaped like a Manta Ray so I'd bet that fish will react differently to it than a fish shaped camera. Whether it's more positive or negative is up to debate.

burbotman14 · #27 01-05-2011, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicemustang

Burbotman, i love you videos...what do you use to capture the video. You have a Marcum, right?

And you didn't mention walleye nor have a walleye vid. But they are definitely camera shy.

Actually it was a aqua-vu. I was really into recording my fishing action a couple years back and was not impressed with the video quality of the dvr. I actually used a vcr. It was quite the set-up but we had some room in a 4-man tent. By the way i have not really tried for walleye in the winter that much but in the summer I actually made a contraption with a clip 3 feet from the camera so you could actually clip your lure to it and watch the fish come and eat it. I got lots of footage off that but I had to use the dvr and the format is weird so I do not know how to upload it on youtube. Even though I say this I find walleye to be alot different in the winter than the summer behavior wise.

chubbdarter · #28 01-05-2011, 03:36 PM

i repeat there is no real way us simple fisherman can answer this.
we dont know what the fish that dont appear on the screen are doing.
sure some deer run out and arent scared of cars and get hammered.....how many in the woods wont?

whitewolf · #29 01-05-2011, 05:39 PM

i love the shots of those pike hitting the baits and those rainbows seem to mouth it a bit...i like when i saw the lakers hammering the bait at spray on my cam...its a fun little toy anyways....

drhu22 · #30 01-05-2011, 09:28 PM

Yes Definitely!
Fish are very self conscious...that's why they're so reclusive.
If you have any more questions just ask me...
Im a regular encyclopedia!