Opinions on the Fish hawk.

[Lydia]

I'm thinking of putting a Fish hawk 840 on the boat and would like some feedback on how well they work?

[Airwave(OH)]

I would ask you first what you are purchasing it for. What type of fishing. I would say that if for walleye you probably wouldn't really need such an elaborate unit as temperature breaks are not AS relavant. I have the Fishhawk and it is essential to Salmon and Steelhead fishing where you are looking for temperature breaks & where current is a factor for speed control.But if you know you want one they are one of the very best as far as I'm concerned. You do have to have a downrigger or heavy weight to keep the probe down. Hope this helps.

[Sparky]

LAST EDITED ON Feb-24-01 AT 12:14PM (CST)[p]I have fished on boats with the Fish Hawk 840. It seems to be an excellent unit and the owners are happy with them. I have the Sub-Troll 900 on my boat. The main difference between the two is that a Fish Hawk uses a stern mounted transducer to communicate with the probe and a Sub-Troll uses a special downrigger cable to communicate. The Fish Hawk also has two display lines. You can see surface and at depth readouts simutaneously. I already have two units giving me surface speed and temp. I also wasn't over eager to mount yet another transducer on my boat. I was trying to decide on which unit to purchase when I stopped into a tackle store that was closing shop due to being bought out by a shopping mall. The price was almost criminal so I bought the Sub-Troll. It works great and I'm pleased with the unit. As always you have to make a choice. As already posted it is almost a must have for consistent salmon fishing. For walleye, I fish the western basin and haven't seen a real need for it yet. I may be missing the boat on this, maybe someone else has input about these units for walleye fishing.

Sparky

[spanky]

consider this a second vote for the sub troll. i sold my fish hawk.too many problems with interference and irradict readings.plus it eats batteries.the sub troll SIMPLY works and has not been any problem.i love it.
spanky

[Pedro]

I owned an 840 fish hawk and it's performance was great.Sold it with my last boat.It leaked water once just after I got it, but fish hawk replaced that.They've got good people there.
I snagged up and lost one probe the first season, that cost me about$250.00 to replace.
Too bad the price is so high. now around $750.? for the whole thing.The problem is as others have stated there's options out there for a lot less money, like the sub-troll.
Walker downriggers also has temperature sense downriggers that give ball temperature. You can get their whole pack including the downrigger and temperature LCD for about the same as the fish hawk by itself.

[yknot]

I have used the same Fish Hawk for the last eight years and love it. It won't go through batteries as quickly if you turn the unit upside down after use. I can usually get 12 to 14 trips per battery. For the info I get, it's worth buying batteries in bulk. I did find that the Duracell batteries last much longer than the bunny batteries. Frank

[yknot]

E-mail me if you are interested in purchasing one of these units. I talked to a shop owner two weeks ago that has a few Fish Hawks alot cheaper than $750. Frank

[Airwave(OH)]

Frank if it's a shop owner up my way there gone. I got one and Freebyrd got the other..lol Guess where were using them...

[Larry]

I ran an earlier version of the Fish Hawk for the summer on an 18' aluminum hull running the Lowrance LMS350A. Nothing but problems with the down speed/temp. Others gave suggestions that it may have been overpowered by the 350A, too close spacing of the transducers, or simply an aluminum hull. I tries angling the transducer, fresh batteries, etc. In the end, I just sold the darn thing. I must say that it was very accurate for surface speed/temp but it's a large transducer !!

I've looked over the Sub-Troll unit but the increased diameter of the D/R cable then becomes a factor for more blowback. With manual D/R's, I'm not thrilled with cranking 12# balls up from deep summer depths. The other factor is that cables sometimes get fouled on the pulley and it wouldn't take long to fray the cable.

Right now I just don't see a solution I like.

[Sparky]

I'm on my third season with the Sub Troll and no snags or cable foulups. I don't have a problem with blowback. I have 4 Big Jon electrics and they cable angle looks the same on all four. No problems with the probe yet either. So far so good.

Sparky

[Airwave(OH)]

Same here Riggers and 350A. No problems.

[Fishnwiz]

What size weights you running on your riggers! Wiz

[Airwave(OH)]

If that was for me. I run either 8# or 10# Perfer the 10's Some of my buddys run 12# but it scares me on BigJon booms. I've seen it done but it scares me.

[Larry]

Spanky, drop me a line. I'd like some more info on the Sub-troll/Big Jon setup on your boat.

[Sparky]

I've been running #12's on mine for 5 years. I haven't had a problem but, I do check my mounting bolts just in case. The booms don't appear to have any rouble with the weight.

Sparky

[Lydia]

I just want to thank everyone for your opinions. You have been a great help.

[Airwave(OH)]

So what did you decide after all our help...Just curious..lol

[Boatnut]

Sparky,
I'm considering a sub troll. have a few questions. email me if you could. boatnut@onebox.com
thanks
Mike(boatnut)

[Lydia]

Your opinions seem to be evenly split between the two units so I talked to a few guys that had the fish hawk and ended up ordering one from Reeds. Their price seemed to be fair at $589.

[Airwave(OH)]

You did good. Thats a very good price. You'll like it ..

[JustLookN]

You will love the unit i had one of the older ones that only gave you one reading at a time or scolled thru all of them,used it on 2 different boats with various sonars and no problems, have the newer one now and it works great also...goood luck...Bob