Underwater antics
Thoughts on using a Water Wolf underwater camera for pike fishing
Issue 7 (Jan-Feb 2016) Craig Murphy
The invention of affordable underwater fishing cameras namely the Water Wolf has allowed the regular angler to film what’s going on under the surface and reveal some of the mysteries surrounding fish behaviour, adding another dimension to modern day angling. Initially the Water Wolf was designed to be used trolling lures behind a boat and observing predatory strikes at those lures but anglers soon adapted rigs to also film static baits.
Other underwater fishing cameras, which are wired, had a limited range and are not attached to the angler’s line meaning rigs had to be placed directly in front of it which would be a tedious affair at best. The Water Wolf is wireless, battery powered and can be fished in-line which is a no fuss process. Simply cast out or dropped from a boat these nifty devices give us a glimpse at what the fish are doing and how they react to different rigs and baits. Opinions vary on these cameras; some of the older generations claim these cameras will ruin the mystery of angling, others (myself included) find the footage very interesting and that they, in fact, create even more mystery than before. I purchased one as soon as they were released and began formulating a rig that would allow me to fish a dead bait in front of the camera and watch how pike react to the bait. Here’s how I fared.
Out-of-the-box, the camera comes with a mounting trace, foam float and three counter balance weights which allows you to adjust the way the camera sits in the water. I’ll be honest and tell you that my first attempt was an absolute disaster! I figured that if I used a large float set well over depth I could tighten right down to it making the camera sit at a 45 degree angle to my lead and hopefully have my bait in view. I also found comfort in knowing that if I suffered a line breakage above the float (unlikely but still possible) that I had a chance of actually recovering the camera rig. The float would also keep my mainline braid off the bottom, away from any zebra mussels or snags. As it happens, the float was a bad idea as the wave motion on the water’s surface caused severe camera shake, resulting in nauseating out of focus footage! Also, the bait was way out of view. Back to the drawing board…
Second time out I had studied the previous footage and made my adjustments to the rig. I fished the camera with no weights or additional float. The camera will float horizontally in this manner but when suspended between the lead and a tight line it will sit just off the bottom and look directly at the bait. Worried about my mainline coming into contact with zebra mussels, I opted for a 40ft long, 50lb mono leader. Tied to my 65lb braid with a modified Albright knot I was confident it would stand up to any abuse it was likely to encounter. To this leader a 70cm long wire trace was attached followed by the camera stem (see photo). I used a fluorocarbon link of 50cm between the camera and a carp style lead safety clip. This link was 40lb and is practically invisible in front of the camera. The safety clip will dump the lead in the event of it becoming lodged in a snag. A wire trace with hooks which will bend out at just under 30lb of pressure completes the safest rig I could come up with.
This rig is self-hooking meaning the pike should hook itself with the resistance of the lead and camera combined with a tight line clip on my drop off indicators. Unfortunately the first time out with this rig proved fruitless but with these cameras there is always something to learn. No fish were landed that trip but after going over the footage later that night I noticed a pike come up and start nosing the bait. However, it didn’t take it – why? Was the bait not to its liking, or were the pike just not feeding on the day? Would the pike have struck the bait if it was moving rather than static? In the video clip you can see the fish attempt to move the bait with its fins. It even sucks at the bait but the bait didn’t or couldn’t move towards the fish’s mouth. I had the bait popped up but pinned down with a small 1/4oz bomb so that it remained in view of the camera. Was this the reason it never turned into a run, the fact that the pike couldn’t suck the bait up with ease? All I know is blanking is not as straightforward as it used to be when you’re fishing with a Water Wolf.
Learning from the last session I critically balance my popped up bait for the next attempt. Taking my time baiting up, I adjusted my popped up bait to sink slowly so that it was only barely held on the bottom by a single swan shot. If a pike sucked at the bait this time it would move more naturally and hopefully result in a hook up. My cam rig was cast into 25ft of water, just at the bottom of a gentle slope and short of a deeper hole of 35ft only 30 yards from the shore, so there was no need to take it out in the boat on this occasion. It was a bitterly cold day with bright sunshine and the odd wintery shower thrown in, which suits filming underwater as you need as much light a possible to penetrate into the depths to capture footage.
In true pike fashion I had a run on the cam’ rod just as I was pouring out the tea and taking a bite of my sambo. From the get go I could feel it was a good fish and the pressure was on then to land my first fish captured from start to finish on the Water Wolf. After a relatively uneventful fight it made one last attempt at escape by turning away from the waiting net and tail walking. Eventually I guided it back over the net and the job was done. My mate Paddy’s rod then took off with a screaming run so I sacked up my pike for a few minutes while he landed his fish, which turned out to be his first ever ‘twenty’ at 20lb 14oz! We were two happy chaps that day, I can tell you.
After capturing the two fish being released on my GoPro camera, I started to look back on the Water Wolf footage with the use of the free VLC app for Android. All you have to do is insert the micro SD card into an Android phone or tablet and the footage can be watched over while you’re still on the bank. The camera records in 20 minute clips which is a handy feature while searching through four hours of footage to find the action. The first thing I noticed about the take was the length of time the pike had the bait in its mouth before I struck. I’m not one to hang about before striking a fish. I had the rod in my hands seconds after the alarm sounded and lifted into the fish straight away. I watched the video over a few times and it shed more light on what had just unfolded; the pike had picked the bait up and proceeded to swim parallel to the bank before stopping and trying to eject the bait by shaking its head in an attempt to shed the hooks. The self-hooking rig had worked. The weight of the lead (120g) plus the additional resistance of the Water Wolf itself had pulled the hooks home, or part thereof.
Self-hooking rigs would not be my first choice when pike fishing without the camera but there are certain situations, like fishing at distance, where they are necessary to prevent deep hooking pike. Well known pike angler Alistair Rawlings uses the self-hooking method almost exclusively when bank fishing here in Ireland. Al has become somewhat of a mentor to me of late, especially about the use of these self-hooking rigs. Using up to 8oz leads,he has been hooking almost all of his fish right in the scissors. It seems I was lucky to hook the fish on the Water Wolf with such a small lead in comparison. Some other advice he offered me which applies to all pike anglers fishing here in Irish loughs especially is, “all pike rigs should incorporate an up-trace. Use a weak link on the lead. On waters with zebra mussels use a sub float or a surface float to protect the braided mainline.” These measures taken by Al are to ensure baited rigs are never left out in the water due to tackle failure. A lost rig, if picked up by a fish, will more than likely be the end of that fish.
For the majority of anglers, using heavy rigs is out of the question as it requires a boat to drop the rigs out. A running ledger is the most widely used rig as they don’t require leads over 4oz. They give good bite detection as the lead stays in position, if heavy enough that is, and the line pulls through the lead’s run ring/swivel ensuring the bite is registered on the alarm as soon as the fish moves off in any direction, even towards the angler. I use them on most rigs I cast from the shore. The use of a running rig with the Water Wolf camera would be ideal for casting anglers but, as mentioned before, it is not very practical with the original camera mounting. But there is hope. Recently the makers of Water Wolf (Svendsen Sport ) have released a new bottom kit for the camera. It’s basically an inline lead safety system with a camera mount. It will make life a lot easier when rigging up for carp or tench and with the patented drop-off lead system it ensures fish safety in the event of a line breakage. Supposedly it even disassembles when this happens allowing the camera to float to the surface, which is an ingenious improvement and confidence inspiring as these cameras aren’t cheap at around €165. I’ve yet to get my hands on the bottom rigging kit to see if it will be possible to fish the camera in the running rig style, which will make for better bite detection. If possible, it will also be much easier to cast out as there will only be two weight points on the line as opposed to three with the rig I was using before.
I intend to keep on filming my sessions to try and slowly build up a picture of what’s going on under the surface. Hopefully I’ll capture some more interesting footage to share with you in the near future. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, these underwater fishing cameras are here to stay.
Craig Murphy
