Strike Vision teaching old dogs new tricks.

[Totally amazed]

Today I am humbled.
After having run a charter boat for almost 25 years,and sure I knew everything about downrigging I'm starting to finally see the light.
Just finished reviewing some strike vision video tapes shot last year on a friends boat.
I believed that a slider would go down about half way to the ball, unless I fixed it in place.
I was wrong. The slider drags the bow in the main line all the way down to the ball.
No matter how light the spoons were they ended up down there .
What's so humbling about that is that my theories were all wet. I believed fish were spooked by the balls,and that was why they readily hit the spoons on short leads way up half way to the surface in the hot water.
Funny I could see fish come up off bottom to look at the ball, and yet when my sliders went off I never did figure out why I couldn't see the fish streak that far up.
The fish were actually down there in the proper temp zone all the time, and they were just hitting the short leads off the ball.
When action on the sliders heats up I often would try running the main lines up half way...Of course we never get hits when we try it, and I just put it down to the balls spooking the fish.
Now I know the truth. The fish were attracted to the balls as we witnessed on the sonar units, and they were whacking the short leads(sliders) which were run at the right temps.
I am truly sure now that I've still got a lot to learn

[Starfish]

I've been wondering about a few things with Strike Vision... maybe your buddy has the answers. Normally I cut back my downrigger cables several times during a season when they get kinked or frayed. Can the SV cables be re-terminated easily, or are you stuck when the ends get messed up? Also, can you retrofit existing Walker electrics with SV and does anyone know the approximate cost?

You didn't mention... did the videotapes show many missed strikes and fish mouthing the lure without hookups? Was it primarily walleye or salmonid fishing?

Thanks for any info!

[Totally Amazed]

The tapes I saw were of salmon and trout.
It seemed like about 5 or 6 fish actually had spoons in their mouths for every time the release was actually tripped off.
Even then lots of fish were able to shake a spoon out of their mouth(knockoffs).
I understand you can put strike vision on existing walkers, but it's not simple.(they do it at their service center)I think it's around $600.00 for black & white camera hookup(maybe less now), and $100.00 more or so for color. The phone # for service center is 616-673-7442, in Allegan Mi.
A relay goes on the switch, to be sure power can't be applied to the toggle switch if it is flipped in the up position when the slip jack is still connected.(which is installed on the side of the cable pulley to allow power and video signals in and out of the cable).Also the rca video connection is put into back of downrigger to get video out to a monitor.I'm not sure about terminations, at the camera end.