Underwater

[McFlyfi]

I am going to put his here in the "General" tab, because it really isn't a specific report.
I am getting closer to retirement (less than 3 years), and we are going to move out of state after Reese is in college. We want to be closer to the outdoor opportunities that the northwest part of the country offer. Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, even BC and Alberta have what we are looking for in abundance.
We've been taking some very preliminary scouting trips- Last year we went Boise, and this last week we went to Oregon. We stayed in Sisters, and checked out Bend, Redmond, LaPine and Prineville.
We took a couple of travel rods and fished a few rivers, did some cool hikes, and sampled the local culture.
One morning, I got up at 4:30 and headed to the Metolius. I had a sinking line, a box of articulated streamers, and a Go Pro knockoff. No- I didn't catch any fish, but that river is beautiful, and I wouldn't mind spending a ton of quality time fishing it.
The reason for the post:
I stuck the camera in a random spot to see what was there, and I did indeed find a few fish. Super cool to be able to do this.
The second part of the video is in the McKenzie River, about a mile downstream of the Blue Pool. Really great hike, and the water at the Blue Pool is unbelievable.

https://youtu.be/QTV6UaGvKDQ

[Ants]

Thanks for the fish-eye view.

It gets me wondering. Would an underwater camera be easily to control if you wanted to explore some of the deeper holes in local waters? I have always been tempted to dive some of these places.

Maybe I have to start some underwater camera holder experiments.

The Metolius River is spectacular and amazing in the way it gets fed from so many sources at the headwaters. Catching fish there is a challenge!

Ants

[Gary C.]

Pretty cool video. it's been awhile since I've seen a post of one of your videos.

Talk about been awhile, the last time I saw Reese you were carrying her on our backpack trip to the Forks. Now your talking about her collage!!

[McFlyfi]

...It gets me wondering. Would an underwater camera be easily to control if you wanted to explore some of the deeper holes in local waters? I have always been tempted to dive some of these places...

I've been thinking about this, like, forever. I had a rig years ago that was 4 feet of EMT with a tilt mechanism for UW filming:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qQnmSWdicE

This was prior to HD all in one cameras (GoPro), so it was a waterproof bullet cam attached to my analog camcorder.

For the two shots in Oregon, I bought a GoPro knockoff, and a manual, telescoping selfie stick, think old school telescoping car antenna. It telescopes out to 36". It tends to waver a bit in strong current, you can see that in the video.
I've been thinking about a 15 foot golf ball retriever...
I've also been thinking about mounting a camera to a dog tie out post, the ones that look like a big corkscrew, attache it to the river bottom in the tail out of a big pool and let it run for as long as the battery lasts.

The biggest drawback is that you can't see what you are filming. This camera does have the ability to connect to a smartphone wirelessly, so the next experiment is to see if we can use the phone to see what is being recorded under water (I am not too hopeful that it will work).

[Jason]

The biggest drawback is that you can't see what you are filming. This camera does have the ability to connect to a smartphone wirelessly, so the next experiment is to see if we can use the phone to see what is being recorded under water (I am not too hopeful that it will work).

I've looked into this a bit, but haven't bothered to try it. Apparently the bluetooth connection from a phone to a GoPro (what I have) won't penetrate water very far, if at all, BUT you can apparently use a coaxial cable to transmit the signal. I don't know if this is the original link I saw, but you can see the idea here:

http://paulillsley.com/GoPro_Underwater ... ble_Setup/

It certainly would be cool to fish a pool, then creep up and see what's in there and not biting. Could drive you crazy though.

[Ants]

That was an impressive video of the steelhead.

My surprise on the Umpqua River was a viewing window that showed the salmon and steelhead on the opposite side of the dam. The fish count was also posted at the site.

The underwater digital camera with video is on hand. There is also a 15 foot, 1-inch diameter aluminum tube. All I need is a * mount from a camera tripod. There seems to be plenty of deep holes in the Kern to explore.

Ants

[Papasequoia]

Yeah, like Gary I seem to remember when you used to post a lot of underwater stuff years and years ago - nice to see some new footage. We are going to rent a place in Bellingham, WA for a year and see if we like it enough to retire there in two. Gotta stay in the west.

[McFlyfi]

That was an impressive video of the steelhead.

Ants

If you are referring to the video I linked- those aren't steelhead, and they were in your neighborhood...

[Ants]

The camera mount has been ordered.

Good that the fish were in the neighborhood. I trust a few remain.

Ants

[Ants]

Ready to go. Smile fishey!

Just need to wait for mid-week and smaller horde on the river.

Ants

[1mocast]

Nice write up. I always wondered about using a setup looking for the monsters.

T minus 2 years for me.

[DarkShadow]

Every summer, when the water gets too hot to mess with the fish, I would take trips out to visit local swimming holes and bust out my swim goggles.

It gave me a better idea of how these fish are stacked, and confirmed there are 'dead' areas where I rarely saw fish positioned in. It also showed me how there are fish stacked in areas where you'd never think they would be at.

[huntingtheriverking]

A few years ago, several friends and I joking discussed rigging up a large crankbait with a camera inside to view fish behaviour and lure strikes underwater.

Fast forward to now and there are several devices on the market, aimed at conventional fishermen, which do this:

https://gofishcam.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-TV_sj8jnQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z0QfRIr6EQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM5YagKtjuE


I've personally used GoPro-style cameras, positioned on the ocean floor (or creekbed) to film a bit. The results are nice. The trick is getting it weighed enough to stay put and not float around or wobble.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZjygUfUPcE
and
https://youtu.be/fYTXuSx2hcc?t=148

[DarkShadow]

These guys do a good job of the underwater action.

https://vimeo.com/51349566

[Bernard]

Great stuff!
As the son of an underwater photographer and an avid water-person I fail miserably at having more cool UW footage. Matt, I remember that Holy Grail footage fondly. The footage of the fish framed by a small "cave" really adds a special touch. On Instagram I have been following this guy and loving his work: https://www.instagram.com/chris_exploring/. There's a cool community of people who do this. I'm too busy flogging the water ...
B.