Underwater camera lights. Do they attract?

[Chumba]

So I just picked up my first camera. I'm trying out the new vexilar fishphone. I like how it works so far outside the water, I'll give the real test run tomorrow night. My question is do lights attract or detract fish? The camera has 2 led lights you can turn on and off.

[pushbutton]

The essox seem to be often enamored, the wally's sometimes spooked, and the rest ambivalent.

[bassinboy3]

I haven't seen fish react one way or another to the lights on my aqua-vu mirco

[DTro]

Unlike some of the newer cameras that use LED's, the lights on the Micro is infrared, so I don't think the fish actually see the light.

[PurpleFloyd]

I got my Cfish U.C delivered to the shop today and decided to try it out in my 125 gallon aquarium. In that tank I have a few 8 inch gills, a few 10 inch perch, a bullhead, several small suckers and a school of crappie minnows. So the tank is 6 feet long, 2 feet high and 18 inches deep.

I dropped in the camera and the minnows did seem to school up on the back side of the camera. The Perch seemed indifferent and the gills were curious and investigated. Nothing seemed to get spooked or skittish.

Once it got dark I decided to turn off the lights and use the camera light in the tank. None of the fish seemed to be bothered by the light and if you are familiar with how fish act in the dark vs the light, they tend to congregate together in clusters during the day and stay close species by species but in the dark they all spread out much more throughout the tank. I played with the light intensity and nothing seemed to bother them.

My experience with Walleyes and Crappies would suggest that if there was going to be a problem with the light it would be those 2 species and especially with the Wally.

Now to get it to a lake.

[LeeY]

I used the have the Vs835sd Marcum underwater camera. Well during the day as far as crappie goes, I haven't notice any disturbance so far with the light off. At night when the water gets dimmer and when you turn on that light (mine was LED not infrared), you'll notice that fish (crappies) will tend not to be around that area of lighting. Reason I know is because I also used a Vexilar fish sonar at the same time. Fish will either be on top or bottom of that camera. I hope this information helps.

[Greenhornet84]

The lights are pretty much useless in my experiences. Put the camera away around sundown and watch the flasher a little harder.