Fish Hawk novice

[Prof T]

Just installed a Fish Hawk and have watched most of their videos. First outing was on Saturday in mostly flat conditions. GPS speed over ground was 2.4 while the display speed on the F H was usually 3.0 at the surface and a little higher at the probe. Company says ignore the actual value, just be sure to duplicate it once you start catching fish.

 

Do experienced users agree and find a similar discrepancy? I know I can adjust to get similar readings between the two. Wondering where to start. By the way, I have reset the factory settings.

 

Thanks in advance

[hard knox]

Well it's nice if surface speed is close to GPS speed however water displacement around the hull will cause the water to speed up so the main goal is to just duplicate down  speed at which you catch fish at. Try putting probe about 10 feet down and see if it closer to GPS speed . I have multiple surface speed sensors such as GPS and paddle wheel so I can kind of average out all of them and  adjust fishhawk accordingly for surface speed.

[dry net]

When I first got my hawk I tied to match the gps speed to the probe by similar methods as hard knox. Ended up with a mess, called fish hawk and they gave me the same advise as they gave you. I listened and things have turned out ok. Good luck!!!!

[AnglingAddict]

Ignore surface speed that the fishhawk provides - too many variables that can contribute to that not being good data to incorporate into your decision making process.  Surface temp, down speed, and down temp that the FishHawk provides are all valuable.  Use GPS speed and tie that to your heading to get an understanding of how things are unfolding at the surface.

[Legacy]

1 hour ago, AnglingAddict said:

Ignore surface speed that the fishhawk provides - too many variables that can contribute to that not being good data to incorporate into your decision making process.  Surface temp, down speed, and down temp that the FishHawk provides are all valuable.  Use GPS speed and tie that to your heading to get an understanding of how things are unfolding at the surface.

 

Agreed. Fish hawk surface speed isnt even something I consider I boat.

[guffins fisherman]

Totally agree.  The surface speed from the hawk is negligible, especially where you are fishing, which I assume is mostly the Larry.  Where you will find you like the hawk is the repeatability in your presentations.  As I am sure you aware, the river has lots of swirls, eddys, breaks, upriver, downriver, etc.  You will be amazed at what the probe tells you about your presentations down there.  When they bite, try to repeat what the probe is telling you.  If you have the X4D, even better.  You will get the actual depth of your probe/bait and the temp it is sitting in.  

[Prof T]

I bought it for the river, but I also want to increase time on the lake for browns.

 

Saturday was dead flat for most of the day on the lake( unlike today ).  I kind of chickened out in less than 6 feet, but put the probe down when we slid out towered 15 -20 later in the day. Speed read about 3.0 -3.2 on the FH, 2.4 on the GPS.  We did pick up 2 browns in very muddy water. I want to get a good feel out there in the calm before I get to the river.

 

Most places I troll there have pretty stiff current. I know what I've got to do in places I know. But I like to explore ( an get away from crowds ), and have found some deepwater shoals that have to have fish on them. I wouldn't classify the water as slack, but its a lot slower than what I'm used to fishing.

 

Time will tell.

[ifishy]

even when dead flat there can easily be a 1/2mph current on the lake.  that said it really is about the repeatability of the set up.  the difference in surface and down speed can sometimes help pick out the trolling directions where the lines run straight but over all its keeping an eye on the probe speed and making adjustments till that is in the range that you catch fish in