Todd in NY

Thanks for the input. $499 is a really good price compared to most other prices I've seen. The reason it is taking me a long time to decide is because I have 2 boats that I use for deep water fishing. My 19ft Sea Nymph is the only boat I use on Lake O. My 16ft row boat gets used on every other lake that I fish in northern NY, to include lakes that are over 90ft deep and hold lake trout, other trout species, and LL salmon (even though I have yet to locate any LL). My 16ft boat has no downriggers, so I fish the depths with dipsy divers in that boat. In a perfect world I could have a system on both boats, but that's not happening any time soon. I thought about the Fish Hawk TD because I could interchange it between both boats. The boat that gets the most use is the 16 footer because some of my favorite fishing spots have a 10hp limit. The TD isn't the best system out there but it might be my best option initially, until I can fit a bigger unit into my budget. I don't use a credit card for stuff like that, so I might have to have a yard sale this spring and hope my wife doesn't notice her stuff missing

I'm looking for comparisons of the different systems that are out there. Do they require coated downrigger cable? Are all of them wireless? What do you LIKE about your system and what DON'T you like about your system? What are your thoughts about that company's customer service? Which unit is the most and least user friendly? Have you had any reliability issues with your unit? Your input will help me decide which unit to put on my boat this spring, so thanks in advance

Makes me wonder how many defected boats they are dealing with. I still love my 1987 Sea Nymph, which is always trailered from lake to lake. I hope they take the fastest path and resolve this issue with a new boat.

I hope we have an early spring on the east end of the lake. Great fishing and thanks for the report!

Great day of fishing, thanks for the report and the pics!

Great looking fish and thanks for the report! We're snowed in up here until spring. I would love to be able to run my boat all year, but I don't plan on moving any time soon.

Ok, check your PM's. Thanks!

Are you in the US or Canada? Are you shipping the items or doing face to face sale? I'm in zip code 13619.

I'm interested in the Fishhawk TD.

Looks great, very nice painting!

Lew, my "bigger" boat is winterized. Its the 19ft Sea Nymph center console in my avatar. I might be in the market for a 22ft boat with a cuddy next year, so I'm keeping my eyes open for the right deal. My Sea Nymph handles Lake O really well, so its hard to convince myself I "need" a bigger boat. We took this 16ft boat out because its super easy to winterize that little 25hp motor. I ran all the fuel out of the carb before we pulled the boat out of the water, so now I just have to fog the cylinders.

Congrats Matt, hope it goes through this time!

My son and I took our 16ft Sears tin boat to Lake Bonaparte to fish for brown trout December 25th. Marked a good number of fish from 15' down to 50', surface temp was 40.5 degrees, fished with dipsy divers from 20ft to 35ft, trolled a deep diving crankbait 150ft behind the boat, tried yellow bird planer boards, even drift fished with various lures all to no avail. Wind was very light to none, air temp was 44 degrees and heavy overcast with a few sprinkles of rain. Trolled with a Minn Kota trolling motor. It was a great day, even though we didn't catch anything. I couldn't make out any definitive thermocline on the FF no matter how I adjusted the sensitivity. There were schools of small fish feeding on the surface but couldn't determine what they were (my FF has down imaging, and those fish wouldn't take any bait either). A major accomplishment for me was this was my first time using the 1973 25hp Evinrude that came with this boat. I had a local shop service the motor 2 weeks ago, which included rebuilding the carb and replacing the water pump. She pushed us along at 20mph and runs like a champ! I couldn't be happier with this boat and motor, which is the package I just bought on black Friday last month.

7K for everything sounds like a steal. New floor and steering aren't cheap, as well as all the equipment.

Thanks, and congrats on your hand-me-down Starcraft! Lucky for me, this boat still has the original transom wood inside the boat, because that's where the capacity plate is located. The HIN plate is on the outside of the transom on the right side, and it is hard to read. I might take this old girl fishing Christmas day, just because its something I've never done before. It'll be interesting to see who made your 25hp motor. A local shop did a full service on my 25hp motor, rebuilt the carb and replaced the water pump. I used Simple Green to remove the rust stains from the lower unit. She's ready to fish now.

I fished a small 123 acre lake in Jefferson county middle of the day today and didn't catch anything. I used my 16ft Sears aluminum with a 7.5hp Evinrude. The lake has a 10hp max rule. The wind was blowing 10 to 15mph out of the north and it made for a cold fishing trip. The high up here was 43 degrees but it felt much colder with the wind and cloud cover. My 19ft center console Sea Nymph is stored for the winter, but I love this little Sears boat for the small lakes. This time last year we were buried under 5 feet of snow so I'm just happy to get my boat out this late in December. This was only my 2nd time fishing this lake, but it reportedly holds some lake trout and walleye.