Fish hawk or not

[Chinook Chaser]

Wether to buy a fish hawk or not? They are a lot of money. I desperately want to put more fish in my boat. I have now had 2 charter boats tell me I really don't need it. I can't decide!

[Missdemeanor]

Your going to get a bunch of different responses about what down temp unit is the best, but everyone on this board should agree that some kind of down speed/temp unit is a must! 

   I personally have a fish hawk x4d and a subtroll on my boat. I perfer the FH because I can't stand the coated cable. The new FH is really nice...

[sennap1]

It's not unreasonable to expect your catch rate to double with a temp/speed probe. I only have a 14 footer with a 9.9 outboard but I managed to get a used fish hawk because I felt it a must have.

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[dvdegeorge]

Can you catch fish without one? Yes ... Can you catch more fish with one?Hell yes!

Down speed and temp are an important part of putting a good fish catching program together

[lt119]

I just bought one after 10 yrs only made one trip so far with it..I found myself concentrated on temp more than just fishing ...I did fine without one.but that's years of practice and learning. My graph marks my balls not much blow back normally 2ft different on the graph from rigger reading so I didn't get the 4xd just the 4x ..I did a lot of research and not having the coating on the cable sold it 4 me ..and the cheapest price I found was 529. At northwoods outlet ..they shipped it super fast and didn't have tax so I saved about a hundred from amazon and ebay..with practice and using when the fishing gets tough should help I only really needed for a east troll..because of current I was right my down speed was a few tenths faster than my sog..good luck ..

Sent from my SM-G900V using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[campwheeler]

I have an x4 on my little 17' boat....Cant couldnt believe the current change.....but still cant figure out what depth is good when surface is 54 and eveything down is in 40s...Where do the kings hang in that situation?   

[lt119]

My best answer would be in the mud at the bottom

Sent from my SM-G900V using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[thumbburn]

Once you have one of the units you will see what everyone else talks about the crazy currents going on down there....

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

[hawkeye625]

I have an x4 on my little 17' boat....Cant couldnt believe the current change.....but still cant figure out what depth is good when surface is 54 and eveything down is in 40s...Where do the kings hang in that situation?   

 

Fish the warmest water you can find in the spring.  54 is within a kings comfort zone and a good place to find bait.  Fish the top of the water column in this situation and you should fair well.  Top 35 fow was good to us this year.  You will find kings deeper too, but I'd target the top 50fow unless you are not getting bites or see hooks deeper.  Watch the  at the bar videos from a few weeks ago on the instant reports section.  His lines were pretty high most of the spring, at least early in the morning.

[Big Dave]

I can't belive there is a charter boat that dosen't use one..  Its the first rigger in on my boat.  I don't know where you fish , but even in the fingerlakes there is current and temp breaks..   The speed at the lure is what is important.

[mr 580]

X2 to Big Dave's comments. Probe is first rigger down in my boat too. With probe and trollmaster I can dial in my speed, no comparison to the days of reading cable angle and rod reaction.

[Chinook Chaser]

My first trip with fish hawk. Seemed to work great. Started in about 220 today and had good temp at about 30 foot it was 50 degrees. Fished a mix of stingers with lots of green. Fished from ten feet below this to about 10 foot down. About 2 hours in and nothing dropped riggers to 110 for Lakers. Nothing there after an hour, now in 300 plus we came back up to the surface and fished the top 30 feet for Steelhead. Worked out over 300 and had great temp. Got a small steelhead that came off at the boat and then a small coho over 500 feet of water down 30. Lots of boats out that deep and Temps 55 on top and 47 down only 25. Still a frustrating day of fishing. Running good mix of spoons, and now have down temp and speed. Still didn't catch much. Doing everything correctly and still doing poorly. Not sure how much more money I can spend on gizmos and gadgets that are supposed to help me catch fish. It may be possible that I am just a really bad fisherman!

[lt119]

U fished 10 ft down on ur riggers...how far off the ball...I would b 100 ft that shallow and u would have to pick up ur speed for the spoons to work rite...boards ...jet divers and just a split shot rig to fish that shallow and way back ..if the waters clear 30 ft and up fish will shy away from boat trafic..

Sent from my SM-G900V using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[lt119]

And I fished hard today 4 only a single king about 9-10 lbs 250 flow 50 down think temp was 49 and speed was 2.3. ..

Sent from my SM-G900V using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[Chinook Chaser]

Yes some days will just be harder fishing. Was set up 10 feet down with snap weights back 100 ft plus. Had riggers stacked between 15 and 40 feet down with the shallowest back 100 feet plus. And 2 dipsys down between 30 and 50 on average for the day. Speed was mostly 1.9 up to 2.4 at the highest. Things looked good. Was sure we would get a bunch of steel head at least which some claim to be easy to catch.

[Chinook Chaser]

Yes some days will just be harder fishing. Was set up 10 feet down with snap weights back 100 ft plus. Had riggers stacked between 15 and 40 feet down with the shallowest back 100 feet plus. And 2 dipsys down between 30 and 50 on average for the day. Speed was mostly 1.9 up to 2.4 at the highest. Things looked good. Was sure we would get a bunch of steel head at least which some claim to be easy to catch.

[Chinook Chaser]

Oops that got posted 2x

[lt119]

That's a little slow for steelhead they like it more in the upper 2's and I have caught a few at 3.1 too...but yes ..it's tough right now for everyone

Sent from my SM-G900V using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[Chinook Chaser]

Actually speed was more like 3 at the highest at the boat. Kinda crazy and a little hard to believe but a few times the probe rigger was only down 20ft and had a speed diff of 1mph slower. Slow for some. My buddy got 43 Lakers and placed one over 20 in loc. He always says when you just wanna catch fish go for Lakers they are easy to catch. I tried it for about an hour. I will try another day.

[lt119]

Some days u r just left scratching ur head ...next thing for me is electric downriggers try this positive ion thing...

Sent from my SM-G900V using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[whaler1]

I would take my fish hawk before my graph any day. Speed and temp are crucial.

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

[Chinook Chaser]

Towards the end of the day when I figured go for steelhead I think one of my mistakes may have been stacking the downriggers. They may have been getting spooked by all the lines in that water even though they were far back. Also my dipseys should also been father back. Next time I may try getting things spread out more and farther from the boat

[Adk1]

I will be pulling the trigger on a FH X4D this spring. Any recommendations as to where to get the best deal, if there is such a thing on these units....

[MeanMachine]

Marine general still has units for 499

[Adk1]

Pretty sure that is the upgrade kit right.