Review
WATERWOLF HD
UNDERWATER
CAMERA
by Phil Blakey
B
y now I think the majority
of lure anglers will have
heard about the Waterwolf
HD underwater camera, it’s a
unique fishing camera that you
attach to your line a short
distance from your lure or bait.
Its then cast with your lure/bait
and therefore can film exactly
what goes on beneath...so no
more wondering!
What comes in the box is
the camera, line tube (camera
mount), float, charger cable,
neoprene sleeve and three brass
weights which allows the angler to use the
camera for various uses, in various ways
including; lure fishing, trolling, live bait
fishing, dead bait fishing, carp fishing etc.
Operating the camera is simple; you start
by removing the cap off the camera and
plug the charger cable into the cameras
USB port, the other end of the lead plugs
into your computer. The camera’s on/off
light will then light up blue and when the
blue light goes out the camera is charged.
You will need a class 10 16GB micro SD
card to get you started, once the camera’s
charged you simply insert the SD card into
the SD card slot. To start recording you
switch the on/off button to on; after a few
seconds the camera’s internal light will
light up red while the SD card is being
read. Seconds later the red light will start
flashing rapidly for a couple of seconds,
then it flashes slowly and when it does,
the camera is recording and will record
continuously for four hours. You then
replace the cap, I give the cap a twist to
make sure it’s sealed and the camera is
then waterproof down to 100 metres.
The camera has several different mount
options, but being an out and out lure
angler I’ve only used the lure
fishing mount and the cap
mount. I’m now hoping to
combine the two i.e. one
camera filming above water
on my cap and one camera
mounted on the line tube
filming my lure as it fishes
beneath the water. The
neoprene sleeve supplied to
store the camera safely has
Velcro straps, these straps can
be used to attach the sleeve/
camera to various things
including the rod, which I
don’t doubt gives aninteresting view, though I have to admit
at the time of writing it’s something
I’ve yet to try. To attach to a peaked cap
you basically need to cut four small slits
on the peak (or the top) of the cap, then
pass the Velcro straps through and re
attach them to the sleeve. The camera
is then pushed into the sleeve, you get
the camera straight/even, then you’re
away fishing.
There is an accessory pack for the
Waterwolf camera that enables you to
attach the camera to most things, I
haven’t got one and haven’t seen one in
the flesh, but I’m sure the accessory pack
will appeal to many; boat owners
immediately spring to mind. The pack
consists of a suction cup, ball joint,
tripod connector, railing mount and
adhesive ball joint mount.
The three weights supplied with the
camera are 6g, 9g, and 12g; you push the
selected weight into a cavity on the line
tube, the weight sits beneath the camera
and acts as a keel keeping the camera
straight when you fish it. It also makes a
difference to the camera’s sink rate, for
instance without a weight the camera
floats, but I think it’s fair to say that evenwith the 12g weight the camera doesn’t sink
too fast, I’d say it’s a moderate sink rate
with the 12g weight.
On returning home you plug the camera
back into the computer to charge it, whilst
it’s charging you turn it on to be able to
watch the footage you’ve taken. I now watch
through all the footage in fast forward
(purely to save time) on VLC Media player
which is a free download. VLC also allows
you to take snapshots from the footage and
I edit and put the film together, on
Windows Movie Maker.
The camera records in twenty minute
blocks, so when you fish for the full four
hours you’ll have twelve, twenty minute
blocks of footage. It’s pretty easy to
work out which block to watch if
you wish to see some particular
action...you just need to remember
to take note of the time when you
start fishing and the time when
the action happens! If the action
footage overlaps between two
blocks it doesn’t matter, when
put together the footage is
continuous and seamless.
One last important point; to
get good quality film and
photographs you need clear water,
at least one metre visibility and
good light is a great help too.