Do cameras affect the walleye bite?

[BradB]

Talking to GizmoGuy who's in his shack right now, and we've noticed that the walleyes saunter through and aren't very catch-able with our cameras down. I use the AquaVu perch camera and he uses the Marcum something or other.

Anybody else noticing this? For sure perch don't care, but those white-tailed things seem to be a bit lackadaisical.

Any thoughts fellas? We'd like your opinion, even better some sort of statistically significant scientific survey. But we'll take what we can get.

[crappiegetter]

Yeah I get the same results on a few lakes I fish. when I use the camera I can catch a lot of fish but not the eyes. Go to the same lakes and don't put the camera down and I can get them, don't know what it is about a camera but eyes don't like being on them.

[Willy]

I have never seen it really bother them. In fact, it helps me catch them when they are a bit finicky as you can see what reaction your jigging gets out of them.

[leech~~]

I posted this same Q's back a few weeks. I just sold my cam since I had never in about 5 years of use caught a Walleye with it down. Like I had posted before. I think from what I have seen is that when one fish sees another close to the bait they back off or wait for the other one and since the camera looks like a fish they swim by waiting their turn at the bait but never do because the other fish "cam" never leaves? Who knows?

[mnsportsmanjr]

I have been using an underwater camera for about 3 years and haven't seen where the camera affects the fishing. Other then like stated above where I was able to catch the fish because I could see its reaction to jigging technique

[fishfearme]

I did notice the same effect about 8 years ago. I have been down viewing ever sence then and have not had a problem with spooked eyes. They just don't like seeing that thing hanging down there.

[Walleye Guy]

The thing with a camera is that you are only looking in one direction. There are fish that you never see, including the ones that spook. While a camera does help catch finicky fish, I have seen too many instances where the camera has scared the walleyes I could see.

I mostly use mine to check out structure and the type of fish i see on my flasher.