Pacemaker Fishing Forum

firemunkee wrote:

How did you get that shot that is super cool! Looks like a birdseye lens was used as well?

Thanks, it's a DJI Phantom 1 with a basic Gopro hanging of the bottom.  I'm having fun trying not to crash it.  Good thing there was ice out there Monday as LW would have owned a new drone if it was water :-)

If you guys want to see more pics, I posted some here:

http://www.beaverdamcreekreservoir.com/?p=259

I'll see if I can get the footage from Tim's drone, he did the flyover in November when the level was at its lowest.

awesome pictures. Im amazed how little there is for fish to hang out near.  very few rocks,trees and such..

bart2puck wrote:

awesome pictures. Im amazed how little there is for fish to hang out near.  very few rocks,trees and such..

Yep, knowing the locations of what little structure there is, is crucial there.   I'm hoping that if there is some sort of restoration and improvements done with the help of DGIF, they do something with regards to vegetation because there really isn't any. I think they'd have to slowly bring the level up to allow the plants to get established enough that they wouldn't die off due to lack of light if the water clarity was low before the plants were able to help keep the water clear.

In my experience the bridge isn't productive.  I've only managed to catch a bluegrill using an earthworm.

There is far more interesting and productive structure elsewhere.

When full

NOVAhunter wrote:

I used to catch smallies off that old rock wall all the time. I hope a few survive this.

Great structure...I hope they do as well.

5th one down, on the right side just above the water, is that a house foundation?

Is the rock wall that line of rocks after the bridge?  I always thought it was somewhere on the cove to the right of the dock.

Mad skills with that drone, sir!  Love the pics!

HokieDJ wrote:

Where's that in relation to the dock?

T. wrote:

The rock wall is towards the top of the last picture running across the shallow flats.

1/2 mile to the north.

Don't fly it near the White House! ........guy did that this week with a quadcopter and is deep doo doo.

GregF wrote:

I just got a cheap quadcopter with a camera.  Should be fun to experiment with.  Seeing these pictures was actually part of the inspiration.  I will post if I get any fishing related videos/pics.  Scared to go over water though.  It definitely isn't waterproof (although they do make one now that is called the Mariner that will float and take off from water....$1000).

Maybe you can add foam on the feet so that it can float if it goes down over water? Not sure it would be able to take off, but at least it would sink.

Unreal how cheap they are.  They are likely to be restricted going forward with the White House incident.

Dan, that is exactly the one I got.  $60 can't be beat.  I got it a few days ago.  It is actually the exact model that flew into the white house lawn. Too cold and windy to fly it outside.  So I flew it in the house (shhhhh  don't tell my wife!)  bumped into a few things, knocked the prop guards off a few times.  No damage at all (to the copter OR the house).  But the house is too confined for an amateur like me to learn to fly.  The Syma X5C seems to be the cheapest with a decent camera.  What it is missing is the capability to transmit the picture real time during flight.  You can only record on a micro SD card on the copter and hope you were pointing the right way for the shot you want.  The cheapest copter that transmits real time pics is about $160 bucks (Hubson Quad Copter w/ FPV camera ($156)).  The really good one I want is the Parrot Bebop ($500).  You can fly it via your ipad or other smart phone using an app.  It has HD real time video and flies via GPS.  You push a button to take off and it automatically takes off and hovers at about 4 feet.  Push it and it returns to that exact spot.  Also, you can set a "Home" location and if you lose contact with it, it will return there automatically.  I think it is almost too easy to fly.  BUT, not ready to spend $500 yet.  The best ones out there are about $1000.  There is a waterproof quadcopter that uses a GoPro camera.  It is amazing but BIG.  About 3 times the size of the Syma X5C and sounds like a real helicopter taking off.

ANYWAY....I am planning to bring this with me on a couple trips this year (THE DRAGON) and experiment a bit with it.  Seems like I could get some really cool videos.   If I lose it, it is only $60 I lose.  First step is to get warmer, calmer weather so I can learn to fly the dam thing! Since there is a bit of interest, I will post and let you know how my experimentation goes.  But that won't start till I can feel my fingers after being outside for more than 10 minutes.