High school bass anglers win big via on-the-water screen time

Kids today have been brought up in the screen generation. It’s a big reason so many young anglers have such a natural affinity for an underwater camera. A depthfinder can only show you so much, but put an Aqua-Vu in front of a kid and watch them light up. It’s pure excitement, but it’s also a great way to help these future anglers learn fish behaviors and how they react to lures.

– Kolt Ringer, Aqua-Vu owner and board member, Student Angler Tournament Trail (MN) 

As grown-ups will tell you, high-tech devices often come with the sting of confusion. That ‘overwhelmed’ emotion quickly turns to embarrassment when your son, niece or daughter picks up said device, taps two keys and smiles with total understanding. “See? It’s easy. Duh, Dad!”

Yet even for tech-savvy youth, interpreting sonar/fish-finder screens isn’t always so simple. For most anglers, it’s a constant question of “fish?” Or “something else?” And even when you’re sure the on-screen image is in fact a fish rather than a boulder, log or other underwater mystery, correctly sleuthing the right species feels like a shot in the dark. As competitive anglers of all ages continue to realize, however, an underwater camera offers an uncomplicated and immediately valuable path to more of the fish they seek. 

For high-school angler Zach Hapka and his partner Vick Moyer, an Aqua-Vu underwater camera helped reveal the big smallmouth bass that ultimately produced Hapka’s second Minnesota Student Angler Tournament Trail Tournament of Champions win in three years. Held August 23 on Central Minnesota’s Lake Mille Lacs, the Tournament of Champions hosted the top 80 qualifying youth teams from across the state. 

“We used the Aqua-Vu a lot in the days leading up to the championship,” noted Hapka, a Minnetonka, Minnesota high school senior. “We ran side imaging sonar over large boulder fields, dropping waypoints on spots that held the biggest rocks and where we could clearly see fish holding near ‘em. To stay in the running, we knew we’d need to find the big four and five pounders. By stopping on each spot and dropping the Aqua-Vu, we could quickly determine the size of bass living there.”

To further simplify his fish-finding gameplan, Hapka had equipped his Lowrance sonar unit with a Multi-Vu Pro Underwater Viewing System. The specialized HD camera system interfaces with any HDMI-video-ready sonar display, playing live, colorful Aqua-Vu video right on the sonar screen. The side-by-side sonar and camera interface provides instant comparisons between rendered sonar readings and real-world underwater video. 

“The Aqua-Vu showed us that a lot of the rocks we originally found with sonar held big numbers of smaller 2 and 3 pound bass,” recalls Hapka. “The camera also helped us stay away from areas that held mostly walleyes, as opposed to bass. The two can look really similar on sonar. But the real-live video makes fish ID a no brainer.”

Hapka also called out the underwater camera’s value in patterning the lake’s biggest smallmouths. “The Aqua-Vu made it pretty obvious that the bigger groups of 4-pound fish were all in 20-plus feet of water, while the smaller fish were shallower. We also learned that giant boulders the size of the boat’s casting deck—especially isolated ones sitting in sand, rather than gravel or rubble—definitely attracted the biggest smallmouths. Some of these fish were absolute giants.” 

On tournament day, Hapka and Moyer enjoyed the benefits of casting to fresh smallmouth bass that had not been subjected to lures and hooks during prefishing. “What happens is that a lot of anglers hook 20 or more bass during prefishing and then have a hard time catching them on tournament day because they’ve already caught the active biters in an area. The Aqua-Vu lets you prefish with your eyes only, while resting your best spots until tournament day.”

While the camera unearthed their location, Hapka and Moyer soon realized the big, tournament-winning bass were anything but easy to catch. “You had to put your dropshot rig right in front of the bass and just let it sit still before a fish would bite. We rotated our dropshot baits on every spot, showing fish different baits until we found the right combination.”  

Following a final year on the Student Angler Tournament Trail, Hapka hopes to eventually find a job in the fishing industry. “I definitely plan to keep fishing tournaments after graduation,” Hapka says. “I just love fishing and enjoy being around the sport and the people. Whether I find work as a manufacturer’s sales rep, full time angler on one of the big tournament trails or some other capacity, I’m just looking forward to continuing to learn all I can about fishing and underwater fish behavior.”

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“A lot of anglers still mistakenly believe underwater cameras are only for ice fishing,” says Bassmaster Elite Series angler Jeff “Gussy” Gustafson. “But if you don’t have a camera in your bass boat, you’re definitely missing out on big bass in a lot of waterbodies.”  

This past month, as the Bassmaster Elite Series, FLW and MLF / Bass Pro Tours have shifted to northern U.S. and Great Lakes venues, successful patterns have revolved around offshore structure, clear water and smallmouth bass that heft like sacks of sugar.

At the late July Elite Series event at the St. Lawrence River, eventual champion Chris Johnston spied on smallmouth bass through the lens of an Aqua-Vu HD7i Pro, borrowed from his buddy and fellow Canadian angler Jeff Gustafson. “I’ve used an Aqua-Vu for probably the past ten years,” noted Johnston, who earned his first Elite Series win, following years of near-misses, and the first ever for a Canadian angler. “To confirm fish species, size and their position without putting hooks into them in prefishing, a camera is invaluable.” 

To earn his St. Lawrence win, Johnston keyed on several rockpiles in 20 to 50 feet of water along a 500-yard stretch of river. He noted that certain areas held big 5-pound bass, while plenty of other areas contained drum or walleye—easy to identify on camera, but much more difficult if not impossible to discern with sonar.

“An Aqua-Vu is a huge player on that river system and people are just starting to realize its value and the power of what it can show you,” added Johnston. 

Earning a respectable 12-place finish, Jeff “Gussy” Gustafson credited his console-mounted Aqua-Vu for finding big bass hiding amid vast stretches of river. “The camera is such an efficient search tool in big rivers because you drop the optics below your boat and just do long drifts,” observed Gussy. “As you drift, the camera’s 90-degree optics reveal a wide swath of water in front of the lens. A special stabilizing fin keeps the camera facing whatever direction your boat is travelling. It’s a pleasure to work with in the current, allowing you to canvass a ton of water, dropping (GPS) digits on all the little sweet spots, such as each big boulder holding a 5 pounder.”

Gussy noted that while many river areas contained boulders that were easy to spot on side imaging, the bass themselves had a knack for hiding from the sonar beam. “In a lot of these current situations, smallmouths tuck right in close to bottom and you can’t see them on sonar. But they can’t hide from the camera lens. And you get to see how each fish relates to different rock and sand spots, which gives you little clues about how to catch them. 

“The key in the tournament was to find which boulders held the 5 pounders. Seemed like the spot either held a few big ones, or it had ten smaller bass but no bigs. Also, lots of spots held drum, which look almost identical to a bass on sonar, but stick out like a sore thumb on the camera screen.”

Interestingly, while first-time underwater viewers adopt the mistaken notion that the optics spook fish, smallmouth bass almost always display the opposite behavior, swimming over to investigate the lens out of curiosity. 

“Yeah, it’s pretty funny to watch bass and their reaction to the lens,” says Gussy. “They’ll swim right up to the camera, try to bully it like it’s a living thing. We see some pretty interesting stuff with the Aqua-Vu, including bass with jigs still in their jaws. We’ve also seen plenty of old boats, sitting half-buried on the bottom, encrusted with mussels. Some areas are absolutely filthy with gobies—you see dozens of them flying around, fleeing. For whatever reason, we’ve learned that these heavy goby areas rarely offer good fishing for smallmouth bass. Here, the camera helps us eliminate even more unproductive water—and gobies don’t show up on sonar, either.”

A week after the St. Lawrence event, Gussy lent his underwater cam to fellow pro Carl Jacumsen at Lake Champlain. “Gussy showed me just how powerful the Aqua-Vu can be,” noted the native Australian bass pro. “At Champlain, I learned more in one day using the camera than I could have in a year with other search tools.”

Notching his second-consecutive top 20-finish, Gussy spied big deepwater smallmouths at Champlain hovering near select boulders. “I learned a lot of the big boulders held two to eight smallmouths on them. In practice, I figured out that I could mark a boulder on side imaging and then circle back and drop the camera to check for bass presence and size, and not burn them with a hook in the jaw. If the boulder held bass, I’d lay down a waypoint and return during the tourney. If it was some other species, I could immediately cross it off the list. Eventually, I learned that drum, for example, were hovering a little higher off bottom than the bass, which proved to be another key detail that could’ve easily been overlooked had I not had the Aqua-Vu on board.”

To weigh nearly 55 pounds of Lake Champlain smallmouths, Gussy deployed a dropshot rigged 5-inch Z-Man Jerk ShadZ in 28 to 35 feet of water. As an interesting side note, eventual tournament champ Brandon Palaniuk observed several competitors using the camera and became intrigued by its potential.

“In the past, we weren’t allowed to use underwater cameras in tourneys,” noted Palaniuk. “But after the last couple events and listening to Gussy and Carl (Jacumsen) talk about the things they see on the camera screen, I realize it’s time to start using one. Just gaining a better understanding of exactly what I’m seeing on sonar and learning how to interpret the underwater terrain is super exciting. I’m excited to try the Aqua-Vu at St. Clair.”

“Safe to say, a majority of the top 20 anglers at these events—especially on the St. Lawrence—used cameras,” adds Gustafson. “Certainly, a lot of us will be dropping the lens as we roll into the Lake St. Clair Elite event. 

“Yeah, an Aqua-Vu is a cool ice fishing camera. But I think a lot of anglers are realizing it’s just as powerful for breaking down water while sitting in a bass boat.”

Evolved HD optics, water-clearing video software and more upgrades highlight Aqua-Vu® HDi Gen 2 Underwater Viewing Systems

At first ice, guide Brian “Bro” Brosdahl likes to go for a little swim. Call him crazy, but Bro chalks it up as research.

The most remarkable part of Brosdahl’s underwater exploration isn’t that he’s able to take the plunge without getting wet. Rather, it’s that this particular ‘trick’ reveals hidden fish and other enigmatic underwater details . . . right from the comforts of his ice shelter. In other words, Bro’s little trick puts him steps ahead of other anglers in a game defined by one’s ability to sniff out untapped pods of fish.

“That’s the genius of an Aqua-Vu,” says Brosdahl, a pioneering Northern Minnesota ice angler. “The optics of the new HDi Gen-2 cameras are so precise and tuned-in they can vividly display leaf colors on aquatic vegetation and the bugs living on them. My HD10i Pro shows me individual rocks so clearly that I should probably take up underwater agate hunting,” he laughs.

“More important, the Aqua-Vu displays big fish that try to hide in heavy cover. I can now see things like a swarm of zooplankton in the foreground, or a single crappie hiding behind stalks of coontail. Never before has a camera been capable of focusing in on such minute underwater details; no other piece of electronics can do that, including sonar.”

To deliver unparalleled underwater performance, Aqua-Vu engineers implemented numerous system upgrades. “We went the extra mile with our four gen-two HD cameras,” says Aqua-Vu vice president, Tom Maschhoff. “Everything from the quality of lens material and the physical optics to our internal software is next-level. We think anglers will benefit greatly by seeing the underwater world in unprecedented clarity and color.”

All new 1080p full-HD optics capture the tiniest underwater details. “The new 1080p HD camera greatly enhances details and image sharpness under varying light conditions,” says Maschhoff.

For a more accurate, vivid depiction of the underwater terrain, Aqua-Vu added special video software. “Essentially, our TrueColor Technology auto-adjusts the camera’s white-balance and adds natural colors back into the image,” he says. “The result is a picture that often looks as if the water’s been totally removed, as if you’re looking into an aquarium. The software helps project a truer image by removing heavy color casts, such as red or green hues that often highlight algae and other suspended particulate—and even clarifies the image in stained or tannic water.”

Maschhoff further adds that the new HDi Gen2 cameras use an enhanced multipoint exposure, which makes suspended and backlit targets—such as distant fish or your lure—easier to see.

“The new multi-exposure optics detect and display background images such as fish and vegetation in much greater detail,” he explains. “Instead of seeing just the silhouette of a bass or a walleye, you’ll discern the greens and the dark lateral bars along a largemouth’s body. Or the greens and reds on a stalk of submerged vegetation. The lens differentiates color contrasts between fish and cover, so anglers will easily spot fish hiding in grass or timber, even in stained water or imbalanced light conditions.”

To help deliver a sharper, crisper focus on underwater objects, Aqua-Vu upgraded the optics with a new, prescription-grade OptiRX lens “The OptiRX lens has a smoother surface and much clearer prismatic finish,” notes Maschhoff. “This premium-quality lens provides the purest picture of what the optics detect, with near-zero distorting or obscuring.”

From lens to LCD, Aqua-Vu HDi Gen 2 systems project a super-bright on-screen image, utilizing up to 2,200-nits for maximum visibility in sunlight. A new Power Saver feature allows the user to add up to 40-percent more run-time, particularly when viewing the LCD in lower sun conditions, including inside an ice fishing shelter.

The first to engineer a high-definition underwater viewing system, Aqua-Vu HDi Gen 2 models include HD10i Pro, HD10i, HD7i Pro and HD7i. All four HDI Gen 2 Series cameras include Aqua-Vu’s patented XD™ Camera Housing, compatible with all Aqua-Vu XD accessories. Each system comes complete with a Super-Bright 7” or 10” LCD, 75- to 125-feet of camera cable, built-in adjustable infrared (IR) lighting, and a 12-volt battery with charger. All HDi Gen 2 Camera Systems are ice fishing ready as well as RAM Mount compatible for direct in-boat wiring. MSRP ranges from $599.99 to $999.99.

“To go beneath the surface and observe these amazing creatures without stressing or harming them is simply incredible,” proclaims Steve Rendell, a whale watching enthusiast from the Commonwealth of Dominica.

A largely undiscovered, under-touristed paradise, the island of Dominica—referred to as the Nature Island— lies between Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Lesser Antilles. Surrounded by the Caribbean Sea, Dominica’s tropical waters house the only year-around, non-migratory population of sperm whales in the world.

In Spring 2017, working with Dive Dominica Watersports, Rendell and his wife Patti were granted the rare opportunity to snorkel with sperm whales. Passionate about promoting Dominica as a tourism destination, the Rendells, who operate Salisbury Hill Productions, began searching for a better way to treat whale watchers to a unique underwater experience, sans scuba mask.

Rendell’s search lead him to underwater camera innovator Aqua-Vu, and eventual purchase of an Aqua-Vu HD10i Pro underwater viewing system. Mounted to a steel pole deployed off the bow of the whale-watching boat, the high-definition underwater viewer plays live sub-sea footage on a 10-inch Aqua-Vu LCD. The camera has become an attraction in itself, compelling tourists to huddle around the view-screen for a whale and dolphin play-by-play.

“On most whale-watches, guests only get to see a small fraction of the animal when it comes to the surface, maybe for a fleeting second or two,” notes Rendell. “Watch boats must also maintain a certain distance to avoid stressing the animals.

“The Aqua-Vu really takes the experience to the next level, showing whale watchers the animals’ fascinating underwater behavior, in addition to their spectacular surface breaching.”

To further enrich the experience, Dive Dominica and Salisbury Hill Productions offer each guest a special souvenir video of their whale watch, providing both above- and underwater footage. “This has been a big hit and a huge benefit to the guests’ appreciation of these wonderful animals,” adds Rendell.

Daniel Perryman, owner of Dive Dominica, says the Aqua-Vu camera has helped make his whale watching expeditions the number one rated tour on the island. “The quality, durability and precision of this camera are amazing,” says Perryman. “It projects a crystal-clear picture and shows our guests amazing real-life imagery of our underwater friends. Unquestionably, the Aqua-Vu has pushed the envelope of the whale watching industry in our area.”

Populated by 22 different species of cetaceans, Dominica’s deep coastal waters provide feeding grounds for short-fin pilot whales, false killer whales, pygmy sperm whales and humpback whales—as well as huge pods of dolphins. The sperm whale is the largest predator on earth, reaching 70-feet and weighing 60 tons; Dominica is the only country in the world where the oceanic giant can be sighted year-around. Juvenile and female sperm whales do not migrate, while mature males roam to and from polar regions, mating in the warm waters of the Caribbean.

Adds Rendell: “We believe that the more people who safely experience the magic of these creatures—from our above-water perspective as well as from the animals’ own underwater viewpoint—the more we’ll invest in protecting the future of the species.”

Aqua-Vu^®increases convenience with patented micro Revolution™ and TurnTable Camera Spooler innovations

Crosslake, MN – National ice fishing champions Ryan Wilson and Brandon Newby call it speed-finding. “When we arrive at a new lake, we don’t just look at a map and drill a few holes,” says Wilson. “We use a powerful fishing-searching method that puts us on the best schools of fish.”

If you ask the nine-time North American Ice Fishing Circuit (NAIFC) tournament winners and three-time Team of the Year to reveal how much of the lake they fish, the answer can be a little shocking: “The whole thing,” replies Newby. “Seriously, with tools like our super-tuned ice augers and micro Revolution underwater cameras, we’re often drilling through and spying beneath over 400 holes per day. We couldn’t do that without Aqua-Vu’s Revolution camera reel.”

Engineers of the first smartphone-sized underwater viewing systems, Aqua-Vu was recently awarded a patent for its micro Revolution camera reel (U.S. Patent #D832,084). Integrated into the back of micro Revolution 5.0 and micro Revolution 5.0 Pro systems, the special camera spool deploys and retrieves the optics as easily as a fishing reel casts a lure. The micro Revolution reel represents the eleventh design patent granted to Aqua-Vu within the underwater viewing system category it created in 1997.

Adding the same level of convenience and cable management to its full-sized HDi Seriescameras is Aqua-Vu’s new XD TurnTable Camera Spooler accessory. The simple-to-install, smooth-operating TurnTable works as effortlessly as it sounds. Rotating on a liquid-smooth carousel, the swiveling TurnTable instantly dispenses, retrieves and manages camera cable.

“Both the micro Revolution camera spool and the TurnTable Camera Spooler make underwater viewing faster, more user-friendly and enjoyable than ever,” says fishing electronics professional, Dr. Jason Halfen. “It’s no longer necessary to peel off a bunch of extra camera cable prior to lowering the optics. Instead, you simply pull on the cable to rotate the spool as the camera descends in the water column. The spooler releases as little or as much cable as you need. This little device saves valuable fishing time and ultimately, helps you find more fish.”

At the December 2018 NAIFC National Ice Fishing Championship, Wilson and Newby relied heavily on the clarity and convenience of their Aqua-Vu cameras. “We used sonar a lot, but only the Aqua-Vu showed us what species and size of fish were down there,” notes Wilson. “Same deal for finding those small sweet spots that produce the biggest fish.

“In the tournament, we found a tiny weed clump with the Aqua-Vu that had somehow eluded the other teams. It was loaded with fish. We sat down on it and popped good crappies and bluegills for an hour. The area all around the clump had gotten worked hard by other teams, but this little diamond-in-the-rough produced six key fish and a tournament win.”

For Newby, Wilson and thousands of other anglers, it’s as easy as deploy, reel and reveal.

About Aqua-Vu
The Original Underwater Viewing System, Aqua-Vu® is manufactured by Outdoors Insight, Inc., and has led the underwater camera category in design, innovation and quality since 1997. The Central Minnesota based company builds other popular outdoors products, such as the iBall Trailer Hitch Camera (iballhitchcam.com). For more information on Aqua-Vu, visit www.aquavu.com.

Advanced 1080p HD lens, plus new firmware and upgrades highlight HDi Gen 2 Underwater Viewing Systems

Crosslake, MN– Technologists call it augmented reality, a digitally enhanced video display that enriches the real-world environment and increases user entertainment.

For Aqua-Vu engineers, the only “real-world” that matters is the one that lies hidden beneath the surface; goals perpetually focused on maximizing enjoyment of anglers and underwater explorers. On the eve of unveiling its next-generation HDi Series cameras, the pioneering optics company has once again opened new underwater vistas.

Numerous upgrades to Aqua-Vu HDi Gen2 models deliver unparalleled underwater visibility—both in terms of what the lens perceives and what the user ultimately sees on the viewscreen.

Featuring Aqua-Vu’s expandable, modular XD™ Camera Housing, all new 1080p HD optics show even greater underwater details. “The new 1080p camera enhances details and image sharpness under varying light conditions,” says Aqua-Vu vice president, Tom Maschhoff.

“We’ve integrated advanced, multi-exposure optics that detect and display background images such as fish and vegetation in much greater detail,” Maschhoff explains. “Instead of seeing just the silhouette of a bass or a walleye, you’ll discern the greens and the dark lateral bars along a largemouth’s body. Or the greens and reds on a stalk of submerged vegetation. The lens differentiates color contrasts between fish and cover, so anglers will easily spot fish hiding in grass or timber, even in stained water or imbalanced light conditions.”

Complementing the camera’s crystal-clear 1080p resolution, the new optics include innovative firmware that auto-adjusts white balance and adds natural colors back into the video image. Auto-Clear Technology™ yields an enhanced underwater picture, clarifying the image in off-colored, stained or moderately dirty water.

“This proprietary water-clearing technology projects a truer image by removing heavy color casts, such as red or green hues that often highlight algae and other suspended particulate,” adds Maschhoff. “When you look at the surface of a lake and see stained or coffee-colored water, for example, the Aqua-Vu HDi camera will surprise you with a much clearer underwater image than you’d expect.

“Scuba divers who have tested Auto-Clear technology have captured footage that seems impossibly clear compared to what they see with the naked eye.”

Angler and underwater explorer Kim Stricker has been astonished by the power of Aqua-Vu’s exclusive water-clearing technology. “The difference in clarity between what I saw through my scuba mask and the lens of the Aqua-Vu HDi camera absolutely blew me away,” said Stricker, referring to diving in water that appeared almost dark at 17 feet deep through his scuba mask. “The image on the Aqua-Vu HD screen looked almost like aquarium water, as if I was looking at an entirely different lake. This is amazing, breakthrough technology.”

While the camera’s internal organs process and augment the underwater image, a high-grade lens further focuses the video. “Gen 2 HDi cameras use a prescription-grade lens we call OptiRX,” says Maschhoff. “This premium lens is akin to a pair of expensive glasses you special-order from the optometrist compared to those you’d buy on a display rack at the grocery store. OptiRX Lenses have a smoother surface and much clearer prismatic finish. This quality of lens provides the purest picture of what the optics detect, with near-zero distorting or obscuring.”

From lens to LCD, Aqua-Vu has also innovated what the angler sees on the other side of the surface. Each of four Aqua-Vu HDi Camera Systems project a super-bright underwater image, utilizing up to 2,200-nits for maximum visibility in sunlight. A new Power Saver feature allows the user to add up to 40-percent more run-time, particularly when viewing the LCD in lower sun conditions, including inside an ice fishing shelter.

The first to engineer a high-definition underwater viewing system, Aqua-Vu HDi Gen 2 models include HD10i Pro, HD10i, HD7i Pro and HD7i. All four HDI Gen 2 Series cameras include Aqua-Vu’s patented XD™ Camera Housing, compatible with all Aqua-Vu XD accessories. Each system comes complete with a Super-Bright 7” or 10” LCD, 75- to 125-feet of camera cable, built-in adjustable infrared (IR) lighting, and a 12-volt battery with charger. All HDi Gen 2 Camera Systems are ice fishing ready as well as RAM Mount compatible for direct in-boat wiring. MSRP ranges from $599.99 to $999.99. For more information, visit www.aquavu.com.

About Aqua-Vu
The Original Underwater Viewing System, Aqua-Vu is manufactured by Outdoors Insight, Inc., and has led the underwater camera category in design, innovation and quality since 1997. They were also the first with on-screen displays of water temp, depth and camera direction, LCD monitor, IR and LED light systems, DVRs and now Digital Zoom. The Central Minnesota based company builds other popular outdoors products as well, such as the iBall Trailer Hitch Camera (iballhitchcam.com). For more information on Aqua-Vu, visit www.aquavu.com.

Aqua-Vu’s elite Multi-Vu HD ProSystemadds underwater video to sonar and TV screens

Crosslake, MN– Similar to your tablet or smartphone, modern sonar units now offer an expansive array of interesting apps. Most valuable for anglers, top-end sonar-GPS screens now provide video compatibility, and the ability to play live underwater action when connected to an Aqua-Vu camera. For ice anglers who fish from luxury hardwater houses, the same simple connection fills the TV screen with crystal clear underwater video—a live fishing play-by-play that keeps everyone engaged in what’s happening below.

The ultimate in fish-finding technology for over two decades, Aqua-Vu recently introduced Multi-Vu HD Pro, a turnkey sonar- or TV-to-camera adaptor system that turns your LCD into a live underwater viewer.

“The Multi-Vu Pro system provides instant connectivity between my Aqua-Vu camera and my big screen sonar,” says professional angler and electronics wizard, “Doctor Sonar” Bruce Samson. “High definition underwater video gives me a superior view of my fishing area, in the sharpest, brightest, and most amazing sunlight viewable picture available. The ability to view sonar signals side-by-side with real-time underwater video is a remarkable advantage, confirming fish species and the true-to-life appearance and layout of structure.”

Complete with a high-definition Aqua-Vu XD™ underwater camera (with 75-feet of cable), Camera-Cable Shuttle and Control Module, the Multi-Vu Pro System (MSRP $699) features both analog (RCA) or digital HD (HDMI) video compatibility. Also included is a 12-volt power cable for connection to an auxiliary power source, such as an on-board battery.

Camera Control Module includes power on/off switch and infrared (IR) lighting dimmer switch for adjusting IR light intensity of the Aqua-Vu camera optics. For connection to HDMI or RCA enabled TV or sonar units, Aqua-Vu offers optional HDMI Video or RCA Video cords, with IP67 waterproof connections.

“The Multi-Vu Pro system is a powerful tool for tournament prefishing,” adds Mark Lassagne, who scouts with underwater optics on West Coast bass waters, such as Clear Lake and the California Delta. “If my sonar marks a fish, I can quickly drop the Aqua-Vu and see if it’s a bass, as opposed to a carp or other species. I can also uncover fish hiding in heavy brush or grass; these fish aren’t always possible to discern on the meter (sonar).”

The Aqua-Vu Multi-Vu Pro System upgrades any video enabled sonar or LCD with live, HD or analog video functionality. Run underwater video side-by-side with a digital mapping window and drop waypoints on individual big fish. Play live Aqua-Vu imagery simultaneously with sonar and remove all the question marks. The new Aqua-Vu is perfect for boat-mounted sonar displays or a TV inside a wheeled ice-fishing shelter.

Fully sealed and functional in fresh- and saltwater, the patent-pending Aqua-Vu XD camera housing features versatile underwater viewing options. Connected to the camera’s Quick-Attachment™ Slide Rail, XD accessories(sold separately) offer various underwater perspectives.

Multi-Vu™Pro System Specs:

• Aqua-Vu XD Camera, HD (720P)
• Auto-Clear Technology provides superior color and clarity in all water conditions
• Compatible with all Aqua-Vu XD Accessories
• Camera Low Light Rating .01 Lux
• Camera Field of View 120 Degrees
• Adjustable IR Lights
• Waterproof (IP67) RCA and HDMI Cables (sold separately)
• 75′ Camera Cable
• Compatible with select sonar models from Lowrance, Garmin and Raymarine
• Camera Control Module
• 12-volt wiring harness for in-boat applications
• Waterproof (IP67-rated) video cables (HDMI or RCA) sold separately ($39.99 each)

For more information about the Multi-Vu Pro Sonar / LCD Underwater Camera Adaptor System, visit www.aquavu.com.

About Aqua-Vu
The Original Underwater Viewing System, Aqua-Vu is manufactured by Outdoors Insight, Inc., and has led the underwater camera category in design, innovation and quality since 1997. The Central Minnesota based company builds many popular outdoors products, such as the iBall Trailer Hitch Camera (iballhitchcam.com). For more information on Aqua-Vu, visit www.aquavu.com.

Bassmaster Classic Champ Outlines Aqua-Vu Strategic Advantages

An increasingly important, though rarely talked-about tool in bass boats today, an underwater camera yields real-life fishing visuals that can’t be refuted. For 2019 Bassmaster Classic champion, Ott DeFoe, however, concealing a camera in boat storage is no longer an option, as his newest high-definition model is mounted right to the deck of his Nitro bass boat, alongside other electronics.

“In any tournament where we have decent water clarity, seems like I’m dropping the Aqua-Vu camera day-in and day-out,” says the popular, super-successful Tennessee angler.

“I’ve definitely got my eye on stages five and six of the Bass Pro Tour,” DeFoe recently remarked. “The Smith Lake, Alabama event at should be really interesting. A lot of the bigger bass are deepwater spawners. If it’s even the slightest bit choppy on the surface, you won’t see them, and can easily drive your boat right past them.

“A big part of my gameplan will be to scout with my Aqua-Vu HD10i Procamera. In scenarios like this, the Aqua-Vu helps me find, mark and study those bigger fish, in this case, spotted bass.

“It’s a lot like smallmouths on northern lakes. You see a few of these guys using ‘floggers’—they look like those big orange highway cones—to look at smallmouth beds. An Aqua-Vu is way easier to use and shows what’s happening down there in greater detail—and you don’t have to lug a big orange cone in your boat.”

DeFoe further notes that while side-looking sonar can help unearth deeper spawning beds, only the camera shows him the size, precise position or activity level of each bass. “For me, the Aqua-Vu reveals exactly where the bed is located, if there’s a boulder on one side or the other, and where bass are positioned relative to the bed. I can also see if bass are chasing bluegills off the bed or if the fish is pinned down tight. All these visuals tell me exactly where to cast, as well as clues about what lure to throw.”

While the Aqua-Vu camera can be deployed and manipulated via attached ballast weights and stabilizing trolling fin, DeFoe often makes use of another tool for precisely probing bass beds or peaking beneath boat docks and other shallow cover. “I can actually attach the camera optics directly to the end of my Superstick push pole, using an Aqua-Vu XD Pole Camera Adaptor. The pole telescopes out to 17 feet and lets me pan and aim the lens in any direction. I can even adjust the angle of the lens up and down for different perspectives. The pole cam is also a great tool for poking in and seeing what’s living under docks and shallow timber.”

Moving offshore, DeFoe says his underwater camera continues to yield invaluable fishing information on brushpiles, boulder fields and submerged vegetation. At last year’s Classic at Lake Hartwell, where DeFoe finished 6^th, the camera helped eliminate several unproductive brushpiles.

“I drove over several deep brushpiles and graphed what looked like a load of bass. I dropped the optics and immediately saw a bunch of crappies, but no bass. This is just one instance that saved me the time and effort of casting to the wrong species.”

At a 2018 visit to the St. Lawrence River—a late August Bassmaster Elite Series event—DeFoe called out a key advantageprovided of his Aqua-Vu. “Those fish on the St. Lawrence sit so tight to the rocks, that even with my space-age Humminbird graphs, I couldn’t always pick them out,” he said. “But the underwater camera leaves nothing to doubt. After dropping the optics, I could see the fish clear as day. It gave me the confidence to stay and fish. I was able to execute the right drift, angle and speed and eventually boated a smallmouth over 4 pounds and another at almost three.”

At another recent Elite Series event on Table Rock Lake, DeFoe’s sonar identified a massive school of sizeable fish, suspended in timber 20 feet down over 35 feet of water. “It looked like the mother lode,” recalls DeFoe. “I spun around and threw a swimbait through the zone. Fished this way for 15 or 20 minutes. I could see fish on sonar, grouped so tightly they almost cluttered out the screen. Finally, I dropped the Aqua-Vu, and saw . . . Gar. Piles of ‘em.

“For that reason alone—fish identification—I always keep the camera in the boat. Imagine how much time over the years we’ve spent fishing for the ‘wrong’ species, and wondered why they wouldn’t bite.”

DeFoe adds that he often simply uses the camera to confirm or disprove what he’s seeing on sonar. “It’s awesome for showing bass that get lost in cover—grass, brushpiles or under docks. I like to watch how they’re relating to the cover; how they move around and alongside it. Fun to watch all this on screen. My kids love it. But it’s also a great learning tool that can help determine patterns or even indicate what type of presentation will work best.”

“The good and bad about using a camera,” DeFoe laughs, “is that it finds them with 100-percent certainty, but doesn’t guarantee they’ll bite.”

Victorious anglers credit high-tech underwater cameras for unearthing game-winning panfish

Crosslake, MN – It was a dazzling display of underwater spy-work. Team Aqua-Vu anglers Brandon Newby and Ryan Wilson won the recent 2018 North American Ice Fishing Championship(NAIFC) and over $13,000, thanks to their relentless fish-finding approach. The two-day event (December 15 and 16) on North and South Twin lakes in western Minnesota saw 65 of the top competitive ice fishing teams in North America go head-to-head, each qualifying for the Championship via regional tournaments across eight states.

For Newby and Wilson, the win cemented their status as arguably the most successful anglers in competitive ice fishing history. In the past six years, the Wisconsin anglers have earned a total of nine NAIFC tournament wins, including 2012 and 2018 National Championships and three Team of the Year titles. Remarkably, just three days after claiming the NAIFC Championship, Newby and Wilson also won the highly competitive Frankie’s Minnesota State Panfish Championship on Chisago Lake.

“It’s pretty clear Brandon and Ryan are operating on a whole other level,” observed Hall of Fame angler and photographer Bill Lindner, who witnessed and filmed the action firsthand. “They’ve developed fish-finding strategies with technologies like digital mapping, lithium-ion drills and underwater cameras that will eventually change the way everyday ice anglers approach their sport.”

“A lot of our success this year came down to the sheer speed at which we operate and find fish,” said Wilson, who has fished competitively alongside his friend Newby for over a decade. “Brandon and I work a systematic fish-finding approach that centers on super-efficient ice drills and ultra-portable Aqua-Vu cameras. We’ve also been working with a radical sonar technology that helps us track moving fish—but the camera’s the only way to authenticate fish species and their size.”

To locate tournament winning bluegills and crappies on 900-acre North Twin Lake, the team drilled hundreds of holes with their Milwaukee ice drills, spying through each one via underwater optics. When asked how much of the lake they covered in prefishing, Newby replied: “All of it.”

“The color and clarity of the new Micro Revolutioncameras is huge in helping us determine fish size,” says Wilson, “You see a much more detailed, 3D-like image that shows the contours of a fish’s body. Gauging bluegill size is tricky, but by observing details like the size of their ear-flap in relation to the rest of their body, or the thickness of their torso, you get a good idea as to whether you’re looking at another 6-incher, or a healthy 8-1/2 or 9. That’s huge because lots of these lakes swarm with smaller fish.”

Wilson calls out another winning attribute. “A special reel on the backside of the Aqua-Vu LCD lets us pay out exact lengths of cable, drop the camera on fish and then wind it back in an instant. This awesome tool is a huge time saver and difference-maker.”

Yielding further portability, the entire camera unit fits inside a special viewing case designed by Newby and Wilson. “The Pro Viewing caselets us wear the camera, rather than carrying it.”

An unfortunate side effect of success, Newby noted, has been the tendency for the team to constantly attract followers. “Our strategy at the Championship revolved around avoiding crowds and finding new spots with fresh panfish. We fished these same two lakes at last year’s Championship, so we knew North Twin had the bigger fish. We also knew that to win, we’d likely need to build a decent lead on the first day to hold on and win.”

Site of the second tournament day, South Twin Lake is known for its plentiful smaller panfish. Newby believed scoring a big weight here would be difficult. Indeed, on day one at North Twin, the duo iced 8 sunfish and 8 crappies for 13.17-pounds, including a whopper 15-inch, 1.67-pound black crappie—enough for a slim lead over fellow Aqua-Vu pros and eventual 3^rdplace finishers Kevin Fassbind and Nick Smyers.

“During prefishing, we realized the spots we found last year were out of play, they’d become community holes,” Newby recalled. “We went into search mode and literally covered the entire lake in search of new fish. One of the things we try to preach is that every lake has multiple spots that hold good fish, not just the same old community holes.”

“Brandon and I like to go off in different directions, each armed with a drill and an Aqua-Vu and cover twice as much ice,” said Wilson. This year, the team employed a custom-made 3-inch auger bit—just wide enough to fit the camera optics, and yet small enough to disappear overnight and keep a sonar transducer out of the hole.

“For stealth reasons, we don’t fish for panfish during prefishing,” he continued. “But to break up the work of constantly drilling, we like to stop and catch a pike or bass every now and then. You don’t want to put any panfish on the ice because it’s just one more way to invite followers.

“Honestly, we weren’t looking for a motherlode of fish,” Wilson admitted. “We wanted to find spots with fewer panfish that other teams might overlook. What we found were a couple nice pods of bluegills and crappies slowly working soft-bottom basin areas beyond shallower decaying vegetation. We had our money spot almost entirely to ourselves— a rare luxury.”

Day two on deeper South Twin, a whole other pattern awaited. “The panfish on South Twin are constantly hounded by pike and bass,” noted Newby. “It keeps the ‘gills and crappies constantly on the move. You’d put the camera down and watch a school of bluegills moving at mach-10. You might catch one, but the school would be long gone by the time you made the next drop.”

With just an hour remaining on day-two, Newby and Wilson had their eight crappies, but only a few sunfish in their buckets. “We went into head-hunter mode, looking for one bluegill at a time with the camera,” Wilson recalled.

Then, like a diamond in the rough, a bountiful patch of vegetation appeared on the camera screen, full of sunfish. “As soon as we set up on the spot, we had two other teams pull up on us. But we managed to pop six bluegills just in time; that little sweet spot—and a few other tricks— absolutely won the tournament for us.” //

For more details on the North American Ice Fishing Circuit, including full tournament coverage, visit their website, www.naifc.com.

About Aqua-Vu
The Original Underwater Viewing System, Aqua-Vu® is manufactured by Outdoors Insight, Inc., and has led the underwater camera category in design, innovation and quality since 1997. They were also the first with on-screen displays of water temp, depth and camera direction, LCD monitor, IR and LED light systems, DVRs and Digital Zoom. The Central Minnesota based company builds other popular outdoors products as well, such as the iBall Trailer Hitch Camera (iballhitchcam.com) and Odor Check Moisture and Odor Control System (odorcheck.com). For more information on Aqua-Vu, visit www.aquavu.com.