With the growing number of tournaments requiring video or photo confirmation of species caught, time of catch and the positive release of the fish, an increasing number of tournament crews turn to video camera systems to do their picture taking for them. Once installed, these cameras allow the crew to focus on their individual jobs in the cockpit without worrying about focusing a camera for the tournament committee. These catch-and-release requirements even the playing field since the video clips can reveal a missed identification, a tag failure or other potential rule infractions.

Aside from tournaments, these systems provide a great tool to review onboard action to improve crew performance, techniques and timing during the end game. Much like a football team reviewing the previous week's action, crews can see how they handled themselves when the bite turned on and as the fish was either tagged, released or boated. Video doesn't lie, and somewhere during the review someone is going to see a place where they can improve their performance, making the whole team better in the process.
 
Of course, just having the ability to record your own personal fishing adventures for enjoyment is really all the reason you need to install one of these systems. With the time and effort invested in exotic travel, returning season after season to familiar places, capturing the action on video is a perfect way to share your passion with others back home.
 
Unfortunately, few electronics or entertainment installers have the type of expertise required to put in a camera system on a big-game boat. It takes a good understanding of the actual fishing situations you might encounter to assemble a top-notch system that will completely capture all the action from various angles. The gear needs to be built for the harsh, saltwater environment, and it must be easy to install with minimal surgery to the boat.

One company, LathamCams, stepped up and filled this unique niche 10 years ago, building and installing custom, hands-free camera systems focused on capturing fishing action. But owner Mikey Latham isn't just some tech-head; he's fished with some of the very best skippers in our sport in some of the most prolific and remote corners of the world. He chases 1,000-pound marlin in Australia and Madeira and line-class world records in places like Cape Verde, the Canary Islands and throughout Central America. 
 
Back in the mid-1980s, armed with a degree in telecommunications and a rapidly expanding résumé of sports highlight films, documentaries and corporate communications productions, I met Latham in Bimini, where our paths converged each year while chasing bluefin tuna. Each May I made my way to Bimini on the pristine 42-foot Merritt, Cat's Meow, while Latham worked the deck on the little 37-foot Rybovich, Brier Patch, which years later I would end up running.
 
In the fall of 1988 I took up an invitation from Peter B. Wright and flew to Cairns to produce a film for Ed Murray, released as Australia's Great Barrier Reef — The Trip of a Lifetime. Latham and the late Doug Haigh were the deckhands, and when we weren't hooked up, I helped in the cockpit. I was a one-man production company, traveling with something like nine cases of gear, cameras, monitors, batteries, chargers, cases of blank tapes, lenses, a big tripod, microphones — you name it, I had it. It was a long way to go, and I couldn't afford to miss the action due to an equipment malfunction or for lack of having the right gear.

Once we hooked up, I had to shoulder a 35-pound camera in some less-than-desirable sea conditions. Tethered to a large, clunky recording deck, it was difficult for me to move around the anglers, crew and action to get the shots. 
   
Once you install a hands-free camera system, all those hassles disappear. Short of hiring a professional shooter who doesn't get seasick — and there aren't too many of those hanging around the docks — you can't cover all of the action you want without employing several cameras at various angles on the boat. 
 
Latham custom-builds each system and offers several packages ranging from one to six cameras, each designed to give you the maximum coverage of the cockpit action along a first-class, clean and professional installation service. Having "been there and done that" as a crewman, Latham understands the nuances of getting the boat ready for a 90-day, nonstop season of fishing, so he keeps the rigging simple as not to interfere with any other components on board.
 
Once the cameras and recording decks are installed and cued in standby for operation, all the skipper or deckie has to do is hit the record button on the wireless remote when they get bit.  Then they can go about their business of catching the fish.
 
Latham prefers to record with miniDV tapes for a higher quality picture and greater resolution. "Recording tape is still superior to discs or hard drives. The picture information gets dramatically compressed when stored directly to a hard drive or disc because the file sizes are just too large," says Latham.
 
Being a bit of a techie, he recently started looking into the new H.264 signal compression standard used by TV and satellite providers. As of 2010, all television will come in high-definition and H.264 is the vehicle that delivers the goods, so it may not be too far off for direct recording onto hard drives. Although, Latham says it is still easier to label, sort, preview and edit from fixed-time format tapes rather than keeping up with dumping and naming files on a hard drive.  
 
While Latham's simplest package consists of a single center-rigger camera, his most popular, the Sport Fishing Package, provides rigger-to-rigger coverage. With a camera in each outrigger and a center-rigger cam, you can record all the cockpit action. You get an overhead look at the crew and angler in the cockpit, and each rigger camera covers the tag-and-release — no matter which side of the boat the fish comes to. Any good wireman will tell you that it is easier to lead a big fish to the side that it naturally wants to go rather than to drag him to a specific side.
 
Latham's premier offering, the Offshore Package, consists of the same setup as the Sport Fishing Package with the addition of a stick cam that's ready to capture the underwater action of the release and the fish at boat-side. It also creates a good way to inspect the running gear prior to having to dive overboard!
 
LathamCams systems cost between $5,500 and $20,000 — but they can easily pay for themselves in just one tournament with big money on the line. Plus, it's hard to put a cost on the memories you'll record and the ability to review and improve your crew's performance from day to day.
 
For more information, contact Mike Latham at 954-625-2779, or visit www.lathamcams.com.