Native Brook Trout- Underwater Footage

[sarce]

A few weeks ago I did a presentation on small stream fly fishing for the PSU fly fishing club. This video was part of it. My goal was to get an up-close look at some brook trout to show that there's a lot going on below the surface even on a tiny brookie stream. I think it could be really helpful for those of you who want to get into this kind of fishing but have never done it before.

Some things to think about...

-How do these fish relate to the main current? Do they always sit in the main current facing upstream? Or off to the side in calm water facing other directions?

-What kind of cover do they like to associate with?

-Going back to the first question, how would you approach and fish each spot? Where would your first cast be? In the current, or off to the side in an eddy?

Here's the Video. You'll definitely want to set it to HD. I think you'll all enjoy the last shot...

 

[dc410]

sarce,

Real nice footage. I found that very interesting. Keep up the good work.

 

[lv2nymph]

Nice vid thanks, the last fish was just eating away didn't care about you at all! A view of a trout stream we don't usually have, thanks.

 

[PennypackFlyer]

That was real cool.

 

[foxfire]

Could you tell what the last dude was feeding on??? Great vid!!

 

[sarce]

Glad you guys enjoyed it. I had almost as much fun filming it as I would have fishing that place.

foxfire, I wish I could say it was a big stonefly nymph but as far as I can tell it was just a piece of algae or something. When I look at the original footage full-screen on my laptop (better resolution than youtube) I can't make out any legs or anything. And if you look closely, he spits it out at the very end, but then turns to chase it again as I'm lifting the camera from the water.

Also DC, I have a lot more videos coming. takes a while to find time to get them on youtube. uploading in HD takes forever.

 

[NickR]

Thanks for the cool footage. I enjoyed that.

 

[10November]

Great video. I is the camera you have built to be waterproof or did you have to make modifications to it to use underwater?

 

[pcray1231]

Very cool vid.

10November, he said it's a gopro. They are waterproof.

 

[sarce]

Yup, they come with waterproof housing.

At first I tried sticking a foam pad to the case and floating it face-down with a bright streamer fly suspended underneath, hoping to see a fish eat it. It didn't work at all, the footage was so shaky I couldn't even watch it without feeling sick.

In the end I took a big rubber band and strapped it to a stick lol

 

[pcray1231]

I've taken goggles and tried to do a little snorkling. It was cold. I decided pretty quickly not to do that anymore.

Thought it'd be fine, I've wet waded those streams. But my cold tolerance goes down considerably in water deeper than crotch deep, lol.

 

[sarce]

Lmao you'd never get me to do that. I have less cold water tolerance than most. Jumped off a small waterfall into a creek in WV once and the water couldn't have been more than 60 degrees. I had fun for about half a second.

 

[PennypackFlyer]

My daughter always said, "You get use to it" I always responded, No, you just go numb". When she use to swim in April in the creeks while I tried to fish.

 

[Stagger_Lee]

Sarce ... really enjoying ur videos past few weeks. Thanks much and keep'em coming

 

[henrydavid]

Nice video, what camera were you using?

 

[sarce]

Thanks!

GoPro Hero 3 strapped to a branch with a rubber band.

 

[henrydavid]

I have an earlier model GoPro and I was never satisfied by the quality, yours looks much better. Are you using any enhancements or software to improve the video quality or reduce the "fish eye" effect?

 

[Chaz]

One thing to look for when fishing any stream is the direction of current. A lot depends on what you are fishing as to how to fish a particular spot. Eddies nearly always hold trout the flow through the eddy determines how to fish the eddy. Many times the king of the pool is in the eddy.

 

[sarce]

Missed these two posts above.

Chaz you hit the nail on the head with what I was getting at by posting this. Most of these fish are out of the main current, facing random directions as they orient themselves to the eddy currents. It was surprising to me as I imagined more fish would hold along/around small rocks under or just on the edge of the main current. And, the whole "fish can't see you as well if you approach from downstream" theory falls apart if they are sitting in an eddy and facing downstream.

They can't see as well directly behind them- but in order to determine where that blind zone is, you need to know exactly where that fish is and where it's facing. Since getting close enough to find out will usually spook the fish, your best bet is still using other stealth techniques- staying low, casting from far away, using brush or trees for cover, etc.

If nothing else, the video is a reminder that even on a small stream, there's more going on than we sometimes think. There are a lot of details that you pick up on as you fish more of these streams. Whether or not you want to take the effort to use those details to your advantage and catch 25 6-inch fish instead of 20 is totally up to you.

henrydavid, I think the improvements you noticed are probably just a result of the newer model. I don't use any special software that would be able to improve the quality, but I do film on the 1080 setting (the highest available resolution on that model). Maybe older models only filmed in 720?