What if, when you were fishing, you could see the fish so you knew where to cast your line? That’s the premise behind Fish-Eyes from Nextsport. It’s a rod and reel with an underwater camera, and a few months ago Nextsport sent one to me for review.
Photo by Russ Neumeier
Nextsport’s Fish-Eyes is a rod and reel with a heavy-duty cable connecting a submersible video camera to a video screen. The standard kit includes a the rod and reel set, a couple of weights and a couple baskets to hold your bait. To run the video and have an underwater light, you need 4 AA batteries (not included).
While I was waiting for the review copy I struggled with the idea of a weight, basket, and video camera getting caught on a tree branch underwater or some other underwater obstacle. My overly optimistic mind (/sarcasm) figured the first cast would get it snagged and I’d have two dejected kids on my hands. One of the first things the instruction manual mentions (yes, I did read it) was that Fish-Eyes is to be used from a boat or a dock – it is not for casting from the shoreline.
On a sunny Saturday afternoon I took the kids to the local fishing hole so we could try it out. Sunny days and the Fish-Eyes video screen don’t work well together, even with the attachable video screen shade. We angled to the shadier spots on the pond and tried the video camera, but the fishing wasn’t so good that day for anyone on the pond.
Photo by Russ Neumeier
A couple weeks later, we picked an earlier time of day and a less sunny day to do test-run-two of Fish-Eyes. The video camera worked all right but the fish stayed away from us. The fish were biting, just not near our Fish-Eyes. The only thing I could speculate was that the size of the weight, the bait basket, and the video camera kept fish away. Eventually the kids pulled out their rod and reels and started fishing with hooks and worms instead of underwater video cameras and worms.
The common thread in both fishing experiences was the kids wanted to go fishing, not watch fish on a video screen. Now, some Amazon reviewers have loved it for their kids…perhaps at ages 10 and 12 my kids are too old for Fish-Eyes, and this might appeal to kids in the 6-8 year range. It’s certainly nice not worrying about a kid snagging something or someone with a worm-laden fish hook.
Wired: underwater video camera to watch fish
Tired: no stickiness with the kids
