STRIKE VISION

I remember a few years ago saying that I will continue to be amazed at some of the new technology being developed for the Sportfishing industry. Sure enough, every year something comes on the market that gives the fisherman more of an advantage over the fish.

I began fishing long before downriggers, fish finders and GPS units. Still, we caught a lot of fish. Now the downriggers provide opportunity to fish a great depths with light line and to hold the lure into the correct water column. The “flasher” recorders gave us a better idea where the bottom was and some indications that there was some sort of fish below us. The Loran moved us up a couple of notches from a simple compass and now there was no reason to get lost on a big body of water.

A number of years ago, I upgraded my downriggers to Walker’s and added two riggers that had temperature sensors built right in. This enabled me to clearly locate the preferred temperature zone and keep my lures within this band of water.

As time went on, I upgraded from a flasher fish finder to a paper graph unit (all Lowrance units) and finally to an LCD recorder. Two years ago I went full tilt & exchanged for a color unit with a built in GPS mapping feature. Depending upon the actual “color” of the fish on the screen, you can get a pretty good idea as to size. Particularly those fish in the deeper water. The fish in the shallow column don’t stay in the “cone angle” long enough to give you a true reading.

In the furthest reaches of your imagination, “what” could be coming next? Well, I guessed it a number of years ago, never imagining that it would become a reality. How about an underwater camera that allows you to view your lure as you fish and any fish that comes up to take a look at it? Yup, that’s Walker’s STRIKE VISION system.
There are a number of other cameras on the market (AquaView) that are or less stationary units. Great for ice fishing but not much use trolling as the camera is connected via a co-ax cable that just adds one more thing in the water and must be let out and retrieved by hand.

The Strike Vision unit is pretty much self-contained and the utilizes only ONE cable for raising & lowering the downrigger ball AND providing camera signals. It also provides power to the underwater camera as well. Walker provides either a black & white or color unit, both are all rigged up on one of their specially equipped downriggers.

Walker has had these on the market for a couple of years but I have been a bit reluctant to get too seriously involved. A couple of my charter captain friends in New York have them on their boats and swear by them. Well, its 2004 and time to get in the groove. I contacted my friend Randy Ford (owner o Walker Downriggers) and expressed an interest in putting a Strike Vision on board. Within 2 weeks the unit was sitting on my front porch. Now all I had to do was install the unit and pick up a TV monitor to view what was going on under the water.

I shopped around a bit & found a 9” ac/dc tv/vcr unit that was affordable. I took this to the boat and hooked the unit up & it works great. I still have a couple of modifications to make before I actually run the unit. I am having a bracket made to mount the TV unit in the boat. There is a lot of bouncing around going on & I want everything to be secure. I also have to have an extended video cord made up as the 12’ cord is a bit too short.

I expect that by the time you are reading this article, I shall be up and running with that unit. The purpose of the VCR unit is to allow me to tape some of the underwater action, which I understand is a bit phenomenal. I have been told that a king salmon will take a poke at the lure 6 or 7 times before he actually hooks up. I am sure the action here on Winni will be exciting but Ontario should be right off the wall. It is my intention to record the underwater action and once a fish hits, switch over to a camcorder and record from the “strike” to the “net”. This should provide a challenge but I think we are up to it.
More on the Strike Vision system in upcoming articles….

Later……………..
Capt. Pete