Will pike anglers turn to latest US gadget...?

How often have you sat there wondering if there's a pike in the vicinity, or your baits are sitting in water devoid of predators...

So will 2011 be the year that underwater cameras catch on with pike anglers in the UK..?

Primitive echo sounders which told you the depth if you could understand them have given rise to hi-tech fishfinders imported from the US. Few anglers now go afloat without some kind of finder.

Over in America, the technology's moved on, with increasingly-sophisticated cameras now available that show what's happening under the water.

They're becoming popular with both Great Lakes trollers, who mount them on their downriggers to watch for fish tracking their lures, to ice fishermen who use them to take a peek what's happening down below.

The gizmos have their critics, as this local paper article from Minnesota reports.

But judging by the boom in everything from fishfinders to new lure techniques from across the Atlantic, it can only be a matter of time before specialist anglers here turn to the cameras.

As well as helping locate the pike, would cameras help us catch them - it can only be a matter of time before a cast-able camera comes along - in the same way fishfinders have spawned a compact bank fishing version with a transducer you can attach a spare rod to retrieve through a swim.

So will 2011 be the year that fishcams scan UK pike waters for the first time. .?