Is the Aqua View doomed?

[Questor]

With the price of side imaging sonar coming down, how long do you think it will be before people figure out it's a more useful concept than underwater cameras? Does this doom the Aquaview and similar cameras?

[Deitz Dittrich]

I hardly think so! The side image thing is cool... but I'm not 100% sure you could tell the species of the fish. I'm not sure you could see well between rocks. I'm sure technology will grow with the side imaging, but then again, I would be willing to bet so will the technology of the underwater cameras. I tel you what, I am not giving up my Aqua-Vu anytime soon.

[Questor]

Deitz:

Interesting. I don't know much about the cameras. What benefit do you get from them? In my world of fishing, there's so little visibility underwater that a camera would be practically useless.

Thanks.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Well, for me, My Aqua-Vu is like scuba diving without getting wet or having to hold my breath... I use it a ton, both open water and on ice.(however, more so in open water). I use it to see what the bottom content is. Whats down there, whats holding the fish in different locations, so that I can replicate it on other areas of the lake. I also look to see what size fish are down there, and the species. You can also tell how active fish are by how they are relating to that structure/cover. Which gives me a key to how to fish for them IE Active lures or slower, less active lures. Many of the lakes I fish have about 3-5 feet of visability.

[DEADhead]

maybe what's down the road is a side imaging sonar and camera combo, with the option of having side-by-side imaging. now that would be cool.

[Ryno29]

There must be something wrong with my AquaVu because I think it's basically useless. I can see at most 1 foot and what good is that? I'm completly unimpressed.

[gorrilla]

I see you are from Minnetrista.

It simply comes down to water quality and clarity. If you are dealing with algae blooms, tannic stained, or muddy water, forget it. But it you try them out up here in "God's country" on a clear lake, you'll have a blast. The cool thing about algal blooms is they usually clear out with winter water temps and ice fishing with a camera is even possible in southern farm country.

[Duffman]

Some lakes I don't even break out the camera cause I know I won't see squat, where as on other lakes I can see a shiner swimming under a tip-up 25 ft. away.

[federline]

I would agree with Dietz, in open water, knowing what kind of weeds and bottom content, baitfish and fish species is a huge advantage, something side scan simply can't offer. Once I map these attributes, I pull up the camera and use the sonar exclusively until I am confused by fish behavior that I am seeing (pretty frequent ocurrence :-). In winter, downviewing is the best thing since sliced bread - you can figure out very quickly what mood they are in as you try different lures, baits and actions and obsevring their reactions. Sidescan won't help there either. The camera is here to stay.

[Random guy]

Side image is great but it is hard to tell if I have a school of Crappies or a school of Whitefish, the camera can tell me.

[Kyle Sandberg]

You can't use side imaging in the winter. At least I don't think so. Hmmm?

[centralmneyeguy]

I love my Aqua View. I can't tell you the number of times that I have pulled in on a spot thinking I was sitting on some nice walleyes only to drop the camera and see a big school of CARP! They mark a lot like walleyes. I really learned a lot in a short period of time about what my graph was showing me when I started using an Aqua View. I don't use it as much as I used to because of this, but it is still almost always in my boat and a valuable tool in my opinion.