Has anybody tried the Hawkeye fish finders? I looked at one recently in a West Marine store. The whole unit was a sealed waterproof cylinder the size of a two D cell flashlight, with a small screen on one side. It is as self contained and portable as a flashlight. It shows depth to 199 feet, indicates fish, and I think water temp. You could point it down or to the side and check depth, structure, distance to fish. Wish I could have tried it in water, seen what the screen looks like and how it indicates fish. Battery operated and claims to last for eight hours if my memory is correct.
I’ve thought of getting one for my yak fishing (just hold it over the side for a moment to check depth, point or scan it around to check for fish, etc.) I could see great use when salmon are chasing bait just off the kelp beds. I’d also want to use it for wade fishing for salmon in glacial rivers, to locate where fish are lying. But do they work, and work in such silty water?
I think they have a model with a larger screen and a flexible cable to the sonar send/receive unit. You can mount the small screen in fixed position or just keep it in your pocket, and stick the transducer in the water pointing which ever direction you want.
Any info?
I know of people who use similar units.
The work ok. My fishfinder is rigged to work in a similar fashion as I’ve got a couple of kayaks and a canoe, except I just attached the finder to a piece of pvc and inserted the pvc into a piece of pool noodle. Yea pool noodles, the duct tape of floatation.
I had one
that had the remote transducer (floated) but did not read temperature. I found it was fairly accurate for depth but it recognized too much clutter as fish. I sold it and bought a Eagle portable. it operated on AA batteries and has a suction cup mounted transducer so it can be mounted on almost any hull. It has the temperature measure and I have found it is more accurate with more features. The model I got is the Eagle Cuda 128 and it sells for around $100.00.
Thanks for the good info. I’m
looking for one that I can use while wading as well as on the yak. Will check out the Eagle. I have looked at the Bottom Line one that looks like an electric motor, but it is really bulky.
I paddle to mid river gravel bars and get out of the boat to fish for salmon quite a bit. A device that would show where fish are lying would really help. I suppose it is cheating but it would be nice to know direction and distance to a big Chinook, or exactly where the “slot” of sockeye is passing by.
Thanks for the tip about debris, as some of the rivers where I fish salmon are like fishing in a milkshake, with an amazing amount of small woody particles from leaves, sticks, roots, etc. in the silty water.
In spite of the name, fish finders are
much better at identifying structure and depth than fish. If you intend to use it while wading, you might be better off with the Hummingbird Smartcast. You can get them to mount on your rod or as a wrist watch. The Smartcast transducer is castable. The screen on the watch or rod mount is rather small, but will give you depth. The Smartcast transduce also comes with several of Humminbird’s conventional finders. Usually, they’ will also have a conventional transducer. Look at the Piranah. I had one of the wrist mounted Smartcast. It worked ok for a while, but gave out on me after the third time out. Others have had better luck. Some hook the transducer up to a steel leader or heavy mono line and tow it when in the kayak. It’ll work. As far as seeing very far away, most fishfinders see a “cone” of activity below them. You can get transducers that will see ahead of you, but they are an extra cost and I would imagine that there’s some distortion of the image.