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Whether it's worth it really depends on how and where you fish. If you're fishing from shore or a small boat in areas you know well, you probably don't need to spend the money - you'll do better with just a simple tethered underwater camera or even without any tech at all. But if you're fishing in lakes or coastal areas where you can't see the bottom and you want to figure out where the fish are concentrated before you cast your lines, then it starts to make sense.
The real trick nobody mentions: use the drone not to fish directly, but to map the underwater terrain during the day when there's good light. Shoot a couple of videos, check out how the layout looks (holes, rocks, vegetation) and come back to fish when it's dark or conditions are right. That way you spend time looking at a screen once, not every time you go out. Basically it becomes a scouting tool, not the main event of your fishing session.
Cost definitely matters - the serious ones start at several hundred euros and battery life is always limited (batteries don't last long in cold water). If you're not the type to seriously invest in gear and do systematic scouting, it's money that'll just sit in a drawer. But if you're methodical and like really understanding where to fish, then the ROI pays off over time.
It's not really the miracle solution a lot of people think it is, honestly. It depends a lot on how often you fish and how much money you want to spend - decent ones aren't cheap and they won't catch fish automatically, they're basically a tool to scout the bottom and figure out where the fish are. If you're already going out regularly and you've got the budget, it could be useful to see what's down there before you cast your line, but don't expect it to transform your recreational fishing into something incredible.
If you're thinking of buying one of those expensive underwater drones because you think it'll magically help you find fish, stop. What nobody ever mentions is using the drone just to scout the area before you fish normally - meaning you launch it for five minutes to get a sense of the bottom topography and where the fish are moving, then pull it out and use traditional techniques. That way you spend battery and time smartly instead of sitting there for hours piloting, and honestly for recreational fishing it makes way more sense than trying to actually catch fish with the drone, which is frustrating and pretty inefficient.
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