Things You Can Learn Fishing with Wireless Underwater Cameras

If you’re thinking about picking up a wireless underwater fishing camera for the first time—whether for yourself or as a gift idea for the fishermen in your life—you’ve probably already seen how much intel these things can provide.

They’re also just interesting to fish with. There’s something very satisfying about sending a camera down and seeing what that stretch of water actually looks like on a normal day—how the bottom lays out, how bait moves through, how fish slide in and out of view without ever tipping their hand on the surface.

Sometimes nothing dramatic happens at all, and that’s still useful. Other times you catch a quick follow, a half turn, or a species drifting through the frame that you never would’ve known was there.

Wireless underwater fishing cameras let you record video of what’s happening under the surface. They can show how your targets approach, how they react to speed changes, how they track from behind, how they turn off at the last second, or when they hit without hesitation. And over time, that footage builds a picture you can work from.

What you do with that information is where the difference comes in.

When I used an underwater camera hands-on for the first time, I figured it would mostly confirm what I already knew. I thought I had a solid read on how fish were tracking my lures—turns out, I was off more often than I expected.

Fish I assumed were flaring off early were actually following all the way in, sometimes multiple casts in a row without touching it. On the other hand, lures I thought were swimming right—like a paddle tail ticking over grass flats or a suspending twitchbait near a bridge shadow line—were sometimes drifting nose-up or rolling slightly on the pause. You’d never know it from the rod feel alone.

In some cases, snook or jacks were trailing from an angle I wasn’t expecting, peeling off at the last second without any visible surface cue. On the reef, small changes in retrieve speed could make the difference between getting a half-hearted look from a mangrove snapper, and triggering a full commit.

Little things like that don’t show up on sonar—or even in "gut feeling." They only show up on video. Those early surprises were useful, but the real value of the camera only showed up once I started using it deliberately, with specific questions in mind.

Of course, there’s a learning curve. It’s natural when you first get an underwater camera to want to start casting it around, just hoping something bites on camera. If that’s all you’re doing, the camera will still be a lot of fun to use. But to get useful intel, you’ve got to fish it with some intent. Think of it less like filming and more like running a controlled test: you’re isolating variables, watching behavior, and picking up details that would’ve gone unnoticed otherwise.

How Does a "Wireless" Fishing Camera Work Underwater?

Top underwater fishing cameras like Westin's Explore Cam and the Westin Escape Cam don’t stream video through water. That wouldn’t work—water rapidly absorbs the radio frequencies used by Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

(Even deep sea/ocean-rated submersibles don’t try to beam video through water—they use hard lines for a reason. And that reason is that physics always wins underwater.)

Instead, top-rated underwater fishing cameras record footage internally while submerged and transfer the video wirelessly only after they’re back above the surface.

During the cast, the camera operates as a self-contained recorder. There’s no signal being sent while it’s underwater, which avoids dropouts, lag, or range limitations entirely. Once retrieved, the footage syncs to a phone or tablet over Wi-Fi for immediate playback and review.

This design changes how the camera is used. You’re capturing behavior first, then reviewing it after the fact. That makes these cameras better suited for analysis, and it encourages slower, more deliberate test passes rather than constant adjustment mid-retrieve. The camera records the pass, then syncs wirelessly once it’s back above the surface, letting you review clips on your phone right there in the boat or on the bank.

On the better systems, that playback is quick and smooth, which makes it easy to scroll through a few casts, note what stood out, and then make the next one with that in mind.

Tips for Using Wireless Underwater Fishing Cameras

The best ways to fish with these wireless underwater cameras usually involve approaching them like a tool—and using it to answer specific questions about lure action, fish behavior, or how structure looks at depth.

So if you’ve got an underwater camera in your hands—or you're weighing whether it's worth adding to the kit—what follows are some tips for how to get footage that is useful. Not just good looking video, but footage you can review later and pull useful information from. The kind of info that helps you make better calls on lure choice, retrieve, positioning, or how fish are staging on a given piece of structure—in short, helps you become a better fisherman. 

Start with Familiar Water

If you’re getting used to an underwater camera, it helps to begin in spots you’ve already fished with some consistency. Whether that’s a ledge, a stretch of riprap, a dock row, or a break you’ve patterned before, familiar ground gives you reference points. You already have expectations based on past experience, now you can compare that to what the camera shows.

This makes it easier to isolate variables. If fish are behaving differently than expected, or if the lure isn’t running how you thought, the footage gives you something concrete to adjust. It’s less about testing the spot and more about seeing how your gear and presentation are working in a controlled environment.

Dial in Your Camera-to-Lure Distance

Too close, and the lens picks up every twitch and wobble—but you lose sight of how fish are interacting with the lure. Too far, and the bait turns into a dot on the screen, with no real read on approach angle or strike behavior.

The sweet spot is somewhere that gives you enough room to see how the lure is working in the water column, while still capturing any fish that trail, study, or hit it. If you’re working a smaller bait—like a ned rig or soft jerkbait in clear water—tighten that gap so the details stay visible. For bigger baits or low-visibility situations, stretch it out to keep everything in frame without crowding.

Think of it like setting a trail camera: you're not just trying to film the lure—you’re trying to capture the behavior around it. The right distance gives you context, not just action

Match Your Retrieve to the Camera’s Stability

Underwater cameras don’t have built-in gimbals. If your retrieve is too aggressive, the footage turns into a blur of bubbles and motion with nothing usable in it. Every sharp twitch or sudden sweep moves the whole rig, not just the lure.

To get better-quality video, treat the rod like you're filming. If your rod hand is doing twitch-dart-pop-jerk, some cameras will swing all over the place. Smooth, steady retrieves keep the camera stable and let you see how the lure moves through the water—and how fish follow, hesitate, or peel off.

If you’re testing a bait that calls for more erratic movement, break it into short controlled segments. Let the rig settle between each burst so you can review how fish react to specific motions.

Anchor Your Test Sessions to a Goal

You don’t need to turn every outing into a science project—but if you’re going to run the camera, it helps to have something in mind you’re trying to observe. That might be as simple as checking whether your crankbait suspends on the pause, or seeing how a new trailer affects the fall rate of your jig.

Maybe you're curious how fish approach a swimbait—do they come in from behind, flank it, or trail low and slow? Do they slide in from the side and hang parallel, waiting for it to stall? Are they tracking from underneath like they’re sizing it up before committing?

Sometimes it’s the same water, same bait, different approach angle depending on the tide or the time of day. You’ll see fish tailing the lure, shadowing every move without striking. Other times they come in hard from 2 o’clock, almost like a cut-off move. Once you start spotting those patterns, you can start adjusting how you run the bait.

Sometimes the goal’s even broader—like getting a feel for how a certain bottom type looks at depth, or seeing how water clarity changes over a grass flat once the wind picks up.

Use Depth & Water Conditions to Your Advantage

Certain fishing environments and conditions will produce better underwater footage than others. If your goal is learning—not just filming for show—start with high-clarity water on low-wind days.

Even tannic water can produce usable video if the sun angle is right and the bottom contrast helps highlight the bait.

Keep Track of What You’re Testing

If you’re testing three lures in one spot, don’t guess later which video shows which one. Make a quick voice note on your phone after each cast, or keep a dry-erase board in the boat if you’re batching tests.

Better yet, break your test sessions into short, focused chunks. Five casts per lure, five minutes per spot. Keep it tight, and your review sessions become way more productive.

Review Footage for Patterns, Not Just Strikes

Strikes are fun to watch—but it’s the patterns that matter. Look at:

• How fish stage in relation to structure (above, beside, below?)
  
• What direction they approach from
  
• How long they track before turning off
  
• Whether they spook from the lure, the camera, or the line angle
  
• How fast they move in warmer vs. cooler water
  

Those observations start to tell you why things worked—not just that they worked.

Avoid These Common Mistakes

• Using wire leaders that interfere with the camera angle: Use a clear fluorocarbon leader long enough to keep metal hardware out of frame.
  
• Tying on flashy snaps or swivels: Keep hardware minimal. Some fish will trail the snap instead of the lure.
  
• Fishing too fast: The camera needs time to record usable footage. Slow it down.
  
• Only watching the highlights: You’ll miss subtle behavior shifts if you just scrub through to the bite.
  

Pro Tip: Record During Transition Periods

The best footage often happens during the first and last 30 minutes of a session—when light changes and fish behavior shifts. This is when baitfish movement, color contrasts, and feeding windows all change slightly. If you can pair footage with sonar snapshots, even better.

Final Thoughts

Underwater cameras don't have to be used only to sharpen your fishing skills—they can be used purely for entertainment, or creating fishing content.

Watching fish interact with a lure in real conditions is interesting on its own, and sometimes that’s reason enough to run it. (And being able to record your own fishing strike videos and share them with your friends/on social media is always a plus. Check out the video below for a compilation of pike strikes filmed with the Westin Escape Cam.)

When the goal is learning, treat the footage as data. Each clip should be tied to a specific setup: location, depth, lure, rigging, retrieve speed, conditions, and so on. Log that information in a notebook, voice memo, or anything handy with a recognizable file name so it can be referenced later.

During review, focus on repeatable behavior rather than individual strikes. Pay attention to approach angles, hesitation points, depth changes, and how fish position relative to structure before committing or turning off. Compare those observations across similar conditions.

Used this way, the camera supports decisions on lure choice, retrieve, and positioning. It can be entertaining to run, useful to study, or both, depending on how it’s deployed.

Some sessions won’t produce clear answers, and that’s fine. Glare, current, off-angle light, or fish that never fully commit still leave traces worth noting. Even footage that feels inconclusive can clarify what didn’t influence behavior, which can help narrow down the variables the next time you test a similar setup. And over time, familiarity with what the camera shows starts to change how you interpret everything else—rod feedback, line angle, sonar marks, and even missed strikes.

Underwater fishing camera footage doesn’t replace those signals, but it gives them context. Once that baseline exists, you don’t even need to have the camera recording video constantly for it to continue paying off.