An underwater camera system is a powerful tool for understanding about the aquatic environment, and for learning to interpret the sonar and imaging views displayed by your fish finder. We make extensive use of Aqua-Vu cameras as we hunt for habitat and fish,  both when ice fishing and during the open water season. In fact, you'll see Aqua-Vu footage featured extensively in out latest instructional video, Angler's Guide to Sonar Interpretation.

This season, we have been employing the new Aqua-Vu HD700i camera, which provides outstanding 720p High Definition underwater video. Here are some examples of how you can use the Aqua-Vu HD 700i to find and catch more fish:

In this video, we illustrate the ability of the Aqua-Vu HD700i to conclusively identify an isolated piece of deep water structure. In this case, the structure is a nearly vertical tree, standing upright in 30 feet of water. The western Wisconsin lake where this footage was collected is stained, with overall water clarity less than 3 feet. The camera was 24 feet down, and the infrared LED lighting system was on.

In this video, we move to central Minnesota to chase bluegills and crappies on a deep, soft-bottom flat. While we caught a bunch, the more compelling aspect of the trip was the number of pike we found, just lounging on or near the bottom. These fish were almost completely unresponsive to a wide variety of live and artificial baits, making me think they were simply resting up between feeding forays into the adjacent shallow weedbeds. This lake is clear, with more than 9 feet of water clarity. The camera was 18 feet down, and the sky was completely overcast. The LED light system was off. Note that the Aqua-Vu HD700i has no trouble picking out the colors of the bait, and the pike, under these conditions.