Hey Y’all I got a Gopro for Christmas and want to build a rig to drop it to the bottom to film what is down there? Do y’all have any pointers or care to share how you set yours up?
Yep! Put a Jig Skin on it and get some close ups:smiley:
I don’t have a GoPro but it’s a cheaper brand of underwater camera. This is the mounting base that we built out of steel plate and rod. Painted to minimize rust and used stainless hardware to hold the camera. Nothing fancy but it works.
Sport-Craft 241
Suzuki 225 EFI
If you fish for toothy critters, might want to invest in some stainless steel wire. A trolling rod spooled with some good stout wire would be a great thing to drop the camera down with.
Saying “I am offended” is telling everyone else that you cannot control your own emotions, and thus you need everyone else to do it for you.
rickparish, nicely done. But where are the pictures?
I agree with matt, wire. there are way to many toothy types down there.
This rig was built when the water conditions were pretty smooth. Lately the water has barely been fishable so putting our camera down hasn’t been in the agenda. Once we get a nice calm day, I’ll drop down the camera and I’ve also got a camera mounted on top of the rocket launcher. The twine that we use is the same line that we use on our gator hunts but I do agree with Matt about the wire.
Sport-Craft 241
Suzuki 225 EFI
Realfish01 made one for his gopro with a 5LB lead dive weight an some very heavy mono leader and plenty of crimps. He secured it at 4 points with the heavy mono to the rig and uses a hand spool with heavy chord to feed it down. It will still get stuck every now and then so the spool has a float attached so we can just throw it in the water and then dive down and free it from the reef.
26 Seahunt
Angler’s Dream
Please post any videos on here and send a copy to the SAFMC. Imagine the data we could collect if fishermen coordinated our efforts to deploy hundreds of video cameras in different areas on the same calm days. We need to start showing fishery managers what we are seeing on the water by using new technology that most of us can access.
quote:
Originally posted by freefish7Please post any videos on here and send a copy to the SAFMC. Imagine the data we could collect if fishermen coordinated our efforts to deploy hundreds of video cameras in different areas on the same calm days. We need to start showing fishery managers what we are seeing on the water by using new technology that most of us can access.
That’s a fantastic idea.
Redfish Baron Extraordinaire
What depths are y’all talking about until the integrity of the camera/enclosure is compromised?
Ranger Bay 2000
Yamaha F150
Molon Labe!
Until you have loved a dog, part of your soul remains unawakened. - Anatole France (paraphrased)
RIP my “Puppy Dog” 10/15/2004 - 1/14/2013
I think the go pro housing is good to 197ft
Thanks for the input y’all. It is good for 197 ft. I’ll post a pic when I figure out how I am going to build it, I was thinking maybe out of PVC instead of steel if y’all think that would be ok?
You’ll need to add weight if you use PVC.
Ricky’s rig looks nice and should hang straight down.
You’re gonna want the camera to be absolutely vertical, not trailing with the current.
218WA Sailfish
The "Penn"sion Plan
I was thinking about putting a the camera mount inside a 4" piece of pvc and putting two eye hooks on the bottom to attach sap swivels to hang the weights on and an eye hook in the top middle to attach to the line to drop it. Do y’all think this would work or would it have problems spinning in the current even if I put a good amount of weight on it?
If the PVC is vertical and isn’t capped to hold any air then I believe you should be fine
Sport-Craft 241
Suzuki 225 EFI
RickyP I know you said you havent had an opportunity to use it yet, but I wonder if the housing will spin on that rope- and if so, how do you make sure its pointed where you want it?
I plan on dropping to the bottom and simply picking it up a few inches allowing the camera to spin a little bit at a time taking a 360 degree video. We’ll keep a laptop on board to watch the video just for scouting purposes to see what species are around.
Sport-Craft 241
Suzuki 225 EFI
Just a heads up. We have the Hero 3’s and took one down too 100’ and the housing leaked and destroyed the camera. Housing leakage is not covered under the GoPro warranty(I thought it was but I was dead wrong). The dive shop we dove with has not had good luck with them either, they said something like 30-40% of the Hero 3 units they have had on their boats have had housing failure. Best we can figure out is it is something with the buttons because our seal was good. The dive shop also told us they have had little to zero problems with the older generations of camera’s. I am now testing my housing at depth without the camera before taking my camera down. Just a thought. They make the best cameras for the price in my opinion but they are not easy to deal with when you call them with a housing leak. Hope this prevents someones future headache!