Calibrating Fish Hawk speed P.I.T.A.!

[BP Swing]

Talk about a pain in the a%^! Trying to calibrate the Fish Hawk speeds to my Lowrance GPS speed. Cant seem to get it right. It changes every direction I go on Lake O. Directions say to lower the probe 5 feet below the surface and then make the same as GPS but it keeps changing. I went back to the factory defaults but that doesnt help as it seems way off the GPS speed. Personally I dont think any water wheel speed indicator is very accurate. Looks like this device is good only for temp but speed at the ball would of been nice. Anybody have any similar experience or tips?

[Decoy Hound]

Go to an inland lake with no currents, get calibration correct and then your good for Lake O!!

[bandrus1]

Your fish hawk will not be same as GPS speed....figure out what fish hawk speed you want to fish at and don't even look at GPS speed.

[ifishy]

Accuracy is less important than repeatability

Sent from my XT1080 using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[bandrus1]

An old Post from fish hawk

 

 

Typically the mechanical surface speed will show faster than your probe speed and SOG due to the fact that the water moving under your hull is accelerating as it travels the length of the boat.  You can opt to calibrate that if you wish, or you can leave it at factory zero. Transducer location plays a role also.

Mechanical speed as we use it is not absolute, but is 100% repeatable. Using your probe speed as a reference point, it doesn't matter if the number is 2.0 or 200 - knowing what the probe speed is at the time of the strike and then duplicating that number is the important thing. "

[rfinney]

I set mine up on Cayuga lake. Initially I tried on Ontario in Oswego harbor. I matched speeds and went fishing . Once out on Ontario in current
I realized how boat and down speed are way different . It was crazy. At times my Garmin and hawk boat speed were very close 2.4. To 2.6. Down speeds were 1.8 going east, 3.0 plus west! Current.
On Cayuga same situation but current was less,.
Get them close as possible, then fish. Adjust with changes its the best You can do. Its a Great tool. Takes time.

Sent from my ASUS_A002A using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[dry net]

When calibrating I find it helpful to move the rigger to the side of the boat to get the hawk away from the boat turbulence. I then calibrate the hawk to gps speed never paying attention to the fish hawk paddle wheel speed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

w

[bandrus1]

As stated in the above answer from fish hawk... The only thing that matters is what the probe speed says when fish hit and duplicating that number

[Sk8man]

Bandrus is totally correct. Whether it is GPS speed, speed measured by the probe impeller, or on one of the old mechanical devices that has a weight attached to  a scale attached to the side of the boat it is all relative to what you are doing. Actually, the speed at the probe vs. GPS measured as speed over ground (in this case the lake bottom) can be useful for assessing strength and sometimes direction of the underwater current when you compare the measured differences between the two devices.  This is another reason why folks reporting their particular "exact" downspeed or GPS speed means virtually nothing to others because it is only relative to their own boat and the water conditions at play. In the old days with the old side mounted measuring device we used to carry narrowly cut  small strips orange tape and as soon as we got a hit we put the tape on the exact position on the device (coded in colors relating to speed). Again this was a relative measure and better than nothing but not directly comparable to someone elses boat speed. Whether you are looking at the pulsing of rod tips, the angle of downrigger, or Seth green wire in the water, OR speed/temp devices it is repeatability that you need to focus on; which also means you have to pay close attention to what is going on with your equipment. None of this stuff is magic or auytomatic. Calibrating the temperature on the device itself may be another matter and more important because that is an absolute measure.

Edited July 4, 2018 by Sk8man

[Fishnut]

Everybody I know thinks the gps speed readings are the most accurate. I think it’s all relative to what your trying to measure. For instance gps measures over land speed, not vertical speed. So if your out in the ocean with 8 foot rollers, your boat speed will be faster than your gps speed. Because your going up and down the rollers. If you take a hand held gps and drop it off a 1000 foot building after resetting the max speed to 0 it will reach speeds over 100 mph on the way down but the max speed will still read 0 when it hits the ground. It does not measure vertical speed at all.
So I’m with Sk8man it doesn’t matter what yours reads compared to others. You just need it to be repeatable.


Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United