Casting into the deepest blue is a wonder, and it's one you won’t want to forget. Here's my personal ranking of the best underwater cameras. They work great even in murky water.
FYI, prices and ratings are accurate as of time of writing.
1. AKASO Brave 4 Pro - Action Camera Bundle
Highlight: 4K resolution and 20MP.
Helpful review: I use this camera to film training videos. I put it on a tripod and get it within an inch of the grip of a pistol or from underneath a shotgun to watch the shell lifter work and stuff like that. So, when I was sent a bunch of underwater cameras, I remembered that they came with a bunch of accessories, one of which was a clear waterproof housing.
I attached the camera to a long stick to try my hand at underwater filming and looking at a fish in the blue-ribbon trout streams near the cabin in Central Utah. I did get a chance to look at some rainbows lying in the deep spots in the Fremont River, but a camera on a stick tends to panic a rainbow, and they did not stick around too long.
I read about how anglers use these fishing cameras by dropping them down a hole in the ice to watch the bait on my fishing pole when ice fishing. I didn't have time to wait until winter, so I tried to use the camera in the lake, in a canoe, to find some fish. We have Kokane Salmon in Fish Lake, and I want to find a way to figure out where they are in the lake so I can focus my efforts.
For my first attempt at this, I tied my little camera to a fishing line and tried to count seconds of drop when I threw it overboard to guess the approximate depth. I did see a few fish that I think were salmon, but they were a long way away in very dark water. From my measurements and math, the salmon hung out about 25 feet deep. From what I gather, the actual distance an underwater camera at depth can work without lights is about three feet or less.
This camera is not the choice, even though I can get it to do many extraordinary things outdoors, but not underwater. To be honest and have a fair evaluation and comparison, this is not sold as an underwater or fish voyeur camera; it is an inexpensive action camera. This camera will do 4K, and mine will film at 120fps. To those who don't know, that is 400% slow motion. The camera will fit in my shirt pocket and comes with about 50 attachments if I remember right; they will fit everywhere and do anything except look underwater and find fish. — Edgar E. Levinson
Get it from Amazon now: $129.99 & FREE Returns
2. Eyoyo Fish Finder - Portable Underwater Camera
Highlight: IR lighting to see underwater.
Helpful review: For about three hundred bucks, this camera kit can do a great job looking for fish underwater. The camera is equipped with IR lighting to see the fish in the dark water. The owner's manual has a theater that will drop the camera fifteen meters and hook it into a seven-inch screen.
This camera will give a live-feed view of fish or the lake bottom. If my boat gets in trouble, I can use it to see what's going on under the keel or with the prop. Using the trolling motor, I tried to drop the camera in and have a look as we drove around looking for fish to try out this new tool. No matter how slow we went, trolling with a camera on a teacher will never happen; this is still position use only. Still or static position only for using an underwater camera; as the boat moves, the camera becomes a spinner underwater.
So, we parked the boat in a good place with as little turbulence as possible to voyeur some fish. It did not take long before we saw the fish, and with the IR lights, we could see the fish pretty well. I am now a true believer that this underwater fish finder camera has most of its value in ice fishing. After we sat for maybe another half an hour looking for fish to swim by and take a look in the camera lens, we drove over to the shoreline to see what we could see lying under the top of the water.
I found more pleasure in using the camera for underwater detective work than finding fish. If the trolling motor moves slowly, I can see areas where a boat can safely drive near shore, and a spotter with an oar is handy to push off the nasty found about thirty seconds too late.
The carrying case is the last thing to point out about this camera kit. The case is sturdy, and the camera, monitor, and cables will be safe and secure for a long time. I did not check to see if the case is waterproof, so that is a job for the next visit on the boat. The case is well padded, and the cutouts fit the items like a glove. I think the case could fall out of my hands, bounce to the shoreline, and do nothing more than scratch the surface. — Daniel Dion
Get it from Amazon now: $219.99 & FREE Returns
3. MOOCOR Underwater Camera - Fishing Camera Kit
Highlight: Compact and easy to use.
Helpful review: After trying to make underwater cameras work as a fish spy rig and failing, I took the next one and attached it to the bottom of a kayak. I tried to use it on the river, the slow part of the river.
The kit has a built-in sun visor, so I experimented with the kayak. Using the sun visor made it work pretty well for looking under the water and seeing the screen. If the monitor did not have a visor, I would have to wear a jacket or shirt over my head and monitor, and no one in nature wants to see that floating down the river.
This camera uses Far Infrared lights to see under the water's surface. If it was lowered into the lake to see under the ice, I am sure it could watch bait form about seven feet away, which is only a guess from my experiments. The cool thing about putting this on a kayak is watching the rocks that seem to sit about four inches under the water's surface. I plan to take this combination to an area in Utah with many Anasazi Petroglyphs near the river. I want to see if my fish spy kit could be used as an archeology tool. A tool for archeology and a guy with no idea what to look for, what could go wrong?
This setup did not show me any fish in the river. Still, the fish and I were constantly moving, so this is not a true test of the fish-watching potential. Still, this camera's ability was my favorite of the ones I tested. Think of this application as putting a dash cam in your car; it just looks at everything as I come up to it or as things come towards me like a couple of tree branches floating in the water. — Tom Chris Paul
Get it from Amazon now: $139.99 & FREE Returns
4. Eyoyo Fishing Camera - Underwater Filming Bundle
Highlight: 9-inch monitor.
Helpful review: This camera uses 12 InfraRed lights to show me what's happening under the water. The weather is mounted or attached to the back of the camera, making it a point straight down, and with a bit of magic from some zip ties and fishing lines, I could make it go underwater and look horizontally. I figured I would try a different approach with this camera. I would go canoeing back on the lake about 10 feet off the shore to see what I could learn from dropping it about two feet deep in the water. I found that the rocky shore went out into the lake about 20 more feet, so now I know how to set up the line and sinkers for that lake area.
I also saw a few of the fish that hang out in that area in late July anyway, so now I know what armor I will catch in this lake area. What I found by using the camera in this manner is that I can get a lot of recoil when fishing from the bank. I am very excited to go and hang out in the canoe when the salmon start spawning up the creeks in the area and see what they are doing down there. We have watched them in the creek, and it looks like the fish must have pissed off the maker when they get that job as the last thing they do in life.
I can take the SD card from this footage and make some excellent videos. If I want to give this to the local fishing guides or make a deal to help them learn what the lake bottom will be for clients, that will also be a good thing.
The nine-inch monitor is great when it can be strapped to something so it does not fall into the canoe or the boat if that is what you will use. The large monitor makes spotting things more accessible. Still, the glare from the sun is also more intense, so I had some difficulty with the live-feed action. One holdback with the large monitor is that it takes up a lot of space in the canoe and almost gets knocked right into the lake. — Bryan Miller
Get it from Amazon now: $229.99 & FREE Returns