I had two areas [at Champlain] that had 15 to 20 beds that I found when it was rough and the waves were crashing in there that I could see moderately well,” Dobson recalls. “And then we used the Flogger to gauge them.”

I think a lot of guys can see beds, but they can’t see if the fish is actually in the bed,” Dobson says, referring specifically to smallmouths. “Up here in the northern lakes in Michigan, a lot of fish will spawn deeper than 8 feet. If it’s flat calm and sunny and the water is clear, you can see the bed, you can see the fish on it and you can judge the size of the fish. When you get beds deeper than that, say up to 12 or 15 feet, or you get ripples or drops of rain, it’s much harder to see them and judge their size. When you drop that bathyscope in the water it basically takes the glare and ripple off the surface. Once you get a trained eye and you do it enough, you can kind of gauge the size of the fish.” Editor’s note: This story was first published in July of 2017 and updated slightly in June of 2021.) David Ames Wells; George Bliss, eds. (1851). "Description of the Marine or Water Telescope". The Annual of Scientific Discovery, Or, Year-book of Facts in Science and Art. Boston: Gould and Lincoln. pp.143–144.Cut both ends of your chosen tub or bottle to make the main body of the bathyscope. If you've got a pipe, then both ends will already be open. If you've chosen a tub or bottle, you will need to remove the bottom. Make sure the end you will use to view has no sharp edges as it will be close to your face. Chapter 11" (PDF). Wet Paper. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-09-11 . Retrieved 2008-09-25. Fix your length of pipe and the corner section together. Seal the join with the sealant to make sure it's watertight A sheet of glass or plexiglass to cover one end of the pipe. You could buy a small picture frame and remove the glass - but be careful of any sharp edges.

For Dobson, two important keys are a cooperative co-angler practice partner and the Minn Kota Ultrex.

If I’m lying on my belly, I can do that with that Ultrex more so now,” he says. “In the past you could only do that on a calm day when the wind wasn’t blowing.” I’m not an expert on how human eyes work. But at a basic level, human eyes are designed to see light as it refracts through the air. Thus, we can’t simply submerge our bare eyes underwater without changing how our eyes see light through the water instead of air. A bathyscope (or similar tool like goggles) allows us to submerge our “viewpoint” underwater without the water directly touching our eyes and changing how the eye focuses on the view.

Place a piece of plastic wrap over one end of the can or container and hold it tightly in place with a rubber band. He says that in some instances he’ll drop his bait and fish it while still looking through the scope.I notice it even when coaching my co-angler; they don’t even feel it [the bite],” Dobson says. “There are so many times you’re looking through that scope when the fish grabs the drop-shot, in particular, and there’s a delay between when the fish grabs it and the bite is transmitted through the line. There’s almost a second delay. By then they spit it out.” Gear Tips The market is dominated by some manufacturers such as: Osculati, Reef Tourer, Educational Insights.