Binoculars for Fishing, Boating and Hunting


Using a pair of binoculars for these three you'll find many similarities and there's far too much fluff on the net and not enough meat. Here's some meat as I see it.

For Hunting:

Several pairs might be necessary but if I had to choose one it would be the 7x35s recommended for many years now by most of those who really get out in the woods and hunt. These glasses offer good magnification (the 7 power) and good light gathering ( see below) while not being so powerful you need a rest or a tripod to see much of anything. I also like 6x30s a close runner up or 8x30s which came in third due to light gatering. Like in fishing or boating, to go out with less than a waterproof pair is asking for trouble. For western hunting, especially glassing large expanses, I go to my 10x50s but would consider 12x50s also. They are bigger and heavier but I usally have a bino pack with these and spottng scopes/tripods along to carry the load when spotting. The light is usually good, distances are great and you need more magnification for western hunting in most cases. Also when out west, a small pair of 8-10x25s compacts are in my pocket to resolve horns from bush when stalking close. If I didn't have these and for many years I didn't, the 7x35s mentioned above work just fine as these are usually light and smallish binoculars.


For Fishing and Boating:

The 7x50s Marine Binoculars are your best bet for all around use. Get them with the built in compass if you can and the rubber coating for extra waterproofing and for the bumps and bings of boats on waves. Again the power is right and the weight isn't usually an issue. Thse are the flat out best, with modern coatings as far as light gathering capabilities go for finding bouys at twilight etc. These often come with a built in range finder for those of you who like long distance shooting and the compass helps give headings to another who's trying to watch the action.

Flats or Sight Fishing: From the boat the above work great but when wading I go to a pair of waterproof, pocket binocs such as my 8x25s. The higher power of the 8 is still easily held still
while giving a bit more magnification for resolving a tail at 200 yds or so. I also like the tens but these are getting a bit shaky. Speaking of shaky the usefulness of a bino that's a bit shaky decreases as light goes down and since sight fishing is must generally done under good light, the shaky factor can be fudged a bit. Waterproof is a flat out must!!!

Here's a bit on light gathering and Binioculars. You'll note that light gathering as in many bioncular functions are greatly enhanced by the lens coatings. Buy as good as you can afford and opt for multi-coated lens for a start.


Binoculars and Light Transmission
　
The power is the magnification of the binocular while the objective lens is that big front lens. A 7x50 pair of binos have 7 power and a 50mm objective lens.
　
Exit Pupil (EP) is the power divided into the objective and gives a relative number that tells us how much light will be transmitted through to the eye. The EP of 7x50s are about as good as it gets with nearly 7.1 while 7x35s give us an EP of 5. The human eye can dilate to as little as 3mm or as great as 8 in some cases. The EP needs to be bigger than the eye dilates. The young human eye can dilate to between 7 and 8 while older ones do good to get 5 in very low light. Another factor is that it takes a bit for older eyes to fully dilate while young eyes can do so more quickly.
　
The Relatice Brightness Index (RBI) endeavors to measure image brightness. It is computed by squaring the exit pupil. For example, 7x35 binoculars have a 5mm exit pupil (35/7=5). So their RBI is 25 (5x5=25).
A RBI of 25 or greater is considered good for use in dim light. Since you already have learned (above) how to compute the actual exit pupil size, and what it means, RBI is largely redundant.
　
Twilight Factor (TF) - power x Objective lens for instance an 8x32 set of binoculars gives us
256. Taking the square root of this we get 16 for a TF.
Common Binos:
PxO TF EP RBI
6x30 - 13.41 5 25
7x35 -15.65 5 25
7x50 -18.70 7.1 50.4
8x30 -15.49 3.8 14.4
8x42 -18.33 5.2 27.0
10x42 -20.5 4.2 17.6
10x50 -22.36 5 25
12x42 -22.45 3.5 12.3
12x50 -24.50 4.1 16.8

The twilight factor gives a better idea of what can be seen where the magnification can make up for loss of light and if you look, the EP of most of the higher powers are about all older eyes fan handle.

Lastly the coating count!!! Coatings and quality glass can over ride the above somewhat while power becomes a huge factor in dim light viewing as you have to be able to stabilize the binoculars and 8 power is about the max that can be stabilized without a rest or tripod. 7 for years has been rated tops all around with the 7x35s for lightweight carrying and good light gathering and the 7x50s for supreme light gathering while a bit heavier. With or without coating the advice of Jack O’Conner and may gun writers of days past still ring true as a 7x35 still reigns supreme as a carry along, general purpose binoculars when still hunting or stalking. Additionally looking around on board the many large and small vessels I’ve been aboard and seeing the dozens of pairs of 7x50s with respect to other powered binoculars it reinforces what the numbers say in that 7x50 is hard to beat for marine use, where peering through your binoculars into the fog or twilight trying to spot a channel buoy or oncoming vessel is all too common place.

Stripping Baskets

Here's the back of my stripping basket showing the stretch, military, web belt, affixed via nylon cable ties. I wear it just to the left of my center, sort of on my right hip and below my stripping hand.

This is the same basket with it's inside, loop cover on. The cover is a smaller basket that was an ice chest's sandwich tray and keeps the loops protected.

Here's the weed whip cover "protective," basket that I use to keep my loops standing tall while allowing me to carry a couple items in the bigger basket when traveling.

Here 's the photo of the inside of the stripping basket. This one was made from a Sterilite plastic basket from Walmart. The weed whip mono loops are about an inch wide mol and two inches high. They angle toward the forward right corner of the basket as it's worn, as my line exits from that corner when shooting or casting. The holes were punched with a heated jewelers screwdriver that was about the diameter of the weed whip mono. Once installed through the holes I melt a ball on both ends of the mono to prevent it from pulling out. The basket mesures about 13 inches by 10 on the inside and is about 5 inches deep. I use a slightly larger basket where space isn't a problem. This one is compact and a good all around basket.

These baskets are really great when fishing creeks, ponds, lakes or the ocean where your line can hang up on brush, rocks, etc. Also keeps your line from getting tangled in waves or current or from blowing off a boat deck into the prop.

I also have made baskets from oval trash cans and the foldable laundry cubes that measure about 12 inches on a side. I'll try and get it in as it works great from any small boat where you sit low and can place a basket between your feet. Pic will follow soon!

Color Blind Fish - Nawww!

Here's a bit from my word document/references on fish and color eyesight as well as night vision. In addition to this I've read, studied and have experienced other aspects of using a surface lure, bug or fly. My conclusion are that fish are, like all of us, habitual creatures. This point was driven home when fishing years ago at Clear Lake, near Spokane. The USAF resort there had great numbers of yellow jackets frequenting the empty soda cans and trash barrels. A fwe were straying down to the lake side and I noticed that they were getting, for lack of a better term, "SMACKED!!" I started watching, grabed my flyrod, put some fly on and was getting sipping bites from gills and smallish bass but not the "SMACKS!!" I dug around in a trout box, found a McGinty, put it on and, yep, "SMACK!!" They would take the fly with a vicious hit, dragging it down and trying to tear it apart. I'ts conjecture on my part but my bet is that this was a habit formed from a sting or two. Yellow and Black spell wasp, Bumble Bee or Yellow Jacket/Hornet to a fish and they hit these flys with a vengance.

Years of almost daily and nightly SCUBA diving also drives home the point of color as many fish who are brightly colored during the day, when other fish can see them, turn almost pale at night, or dark, blending in with their environment whether nooks and crannies or on the sand. Therefore it's my studied opinion that colors, contrast, and more play a huge part when tying flies as does mimicing the behavior of the "hatch," be it minnow, crayfish, bug, beetle, fly, wasp or spider. Each behaves in a certain fashion when the hit the surface or even subsurface and the most successful angler will be able to mimic this behavior with their fly.


Do fish see in color?

"There is not just a single answer to this question since not all fish have been tested for color vision. However, the common goldfish certainly sees in color and many more at least have the necessary nervous system elements for color vision to be present. Color vision is the capability to see and recognize objects based not on how bright they are, but on how well they absorb, reflect or transmit light of different colors. For example, an apple looks red in sunlight because all but the red part of the white light from the sun falling on it is absorbed by the apple's skin leaving only the red light available for vision.
In order to have color vision, the retina in the back of the eye must have color detectors, called cones, present and the brain has to be wired to make use of the information it gets from the cones. We have three different kinds of cones in our eyes, called red, green and blue that make human color vision possible. The goldfish has four kinds of cones: red, green, blue and ultraviolet. Other fish have different numbers and kinds of cones meaning that they have the capability of seeing in color. However, simply finding cones in the eye does not mean that an animal has color vision. You have to test it behaviorally to see if it can tell one color from another. For example, I could set up a tank with two windows at one end whose color I could change. I would start by making one window gray, that is having no color, and the other red. Whenever the fish went to the red window I would give it some food. I would change the brightness of the gray and red windows to make sure that the fish was training to only color. As soon as the fish had learned to associate red with food, I would start to replace the gray with other colors and see if the fish still only went to the red. This would be repeated for lots of different color combinations. If the fish remained true to its trained color, than it would be said to have color vision. To date, this kind of testing has only been done for a few kinds of fish. However, I am confident that as we test many more kinds of fish we will find color vision to be very common."
Ellis R. Loew
Professor of Physiology
Biomedical Studies, Cornell University
Education
Ph.D. UCLA
Research Area
Vision

"Walleye have two very large eyes, from which this fish aptly derives its' name. The walleye can see many colors, but is color blind to some. The walleye has a light reflecting membrane called a ?Tapetum lucidum', this special feature helps the walleye see very capably at night, and during low light conditions."

Snook - ECKELBARGER, K.J.; SCALAN, R.; NICOL, A.C. 1980
The outer retina and tapetum lucidum of the snook
Centropomus undecimalis (Teleostei). Can.J. Zool.,
Toronto, 58: 1042-1051.


Similar scientific on Channel Catfish and other fish!

Sea Trout - "Seatrout also have an appendage in their eyes called a tapetum lucidum, which allows them to see better in low light conditions. It gives them a big advantage over baitfish that lack the feature, and is why large trout feed best at dawn, dusk and on rainy days." http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/f...ory?id=2718835

Great summation article: http://www.midcurrent.com/articles/s...oss_color.aspx

"The majority of fish have developed eyes that will detect the type of colors typical of their environment. For example, inshore fish have good color vision, whereas offshore pelagic fish have limited color vision and detect only a few if any colors other than black and white. This is not surprising from an evolutionary point of view, because nearshore waters are lit with many colors; offshore waters, on the other hand, are mainly blue or green and contain few other colors.?\"
__________________
Good Fishing,

Chuck S (der Aulte Jaeger)

"I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved"

Great Saturday in Rock River!

Got in touch with my Grandson who's a computer whiz and he has my old website stored on his server and will help me out with this soon. Around here the day is beautiful, a nice Wyoming breeze of about 25 kts continuous with gusts to 30 but as luck would have it the wind was from the rear of our local shooting range so I was able to get the 06 sighted in. Iron sights good to 200 yds from a firm rest and scope is zeroed at about 3 inches high at 100 and 200 yds so the rifle and scope are good much further than I can usually shoot. Going out after a couple Antelope soon followed by an Elk, and perhaps even a deer depending on the freezer space. Shuffling rods and reels around, trading, selling and buying and soon hope to have my arsenal back up to snuff. Right now am watching a 10 weight I'd like to get and a better 5 weight. Of late am getting up to speed on the less expensive rods and reels. It's amazing but many rods are now as good or better than the graphites of the early 90s and same goes for the reels. Have a great day and weekend!
Chuck S

This is a bit of a trial and also shows one of my many and varied interests. For years we've heard about attractor flies or those flies that are brightly colored and often from many years ago. Perhaps they were not attractors but rather matching a particular "hatch!"


The Micky Finn, the Edson Tiger, a Red and Yellow Deceiver, Clouser or Muddler and more might just match this Gilt Darter found in midwest/east streams.

Welcome all!

After losing my early webpages when Webtv stopped supporting it's users for all practical purposes I've contemplated reopening a similar site and here it is! I'll be transferring some content from the old which isn't outdated and will be posting new. Hope to see you all here again!
Good fishing,

Der Aulte Jaeger
Chuck S