Fish Hawk Transducer question.

[JTM203SOUTH]

Hi all,

Finally treated myself and bought a Fish Hawk X4D. The info from Fish Hawk recommends that their transducer be placed away from other transducers, ideally on the opposite side of the stern and away from the kicker motor. As I have a kicker motor on the port side and my Lowrance transducer on the starboard side, my options are limited. I can place the Fish Hawk Transducer either 8 " from the Kicker or 9 - 10 " from the Lowrance 83/200 transducer. Neither would be ideal.
I would be interested in knowing how far from either a kicker motor or another transducer some of you have had to place your Fish Hawk transducer to get good performance, and were you able to use the 83 mhz or 50 mhz sonar settings at all.

Thanks , Jack

[dry net]

my transducers are mounted on the opposite side of the kicker but right next to each other. This position dose not allow the use of the lower sonar settings which really stinks. On the higher setting my garmin has a hard time picking up the balls or the cline. I am considering moving the fish hawk but do not want to go thru the hassle if it isn't going to help. I do not know if the problem with mounting the fish hawk next to the kicker is that it would screw up the pattle wheel, this wouldn't be that bad because you could always judge by gps speed. Going to call fish hawk this week and see what they have to say. Would like to hear if anyone can run the fish hawk and the fishfinder on the lower settings. Thanks, Matt

[digitroll (ron)]

I mounted my Lowrance / Fishhawk transducers side by side about 3-4 inches apart. Since the Fishhawk transducer operates at a lower frequency there is no cross talk to be concerned with. I run my HDS-7 at 83 kHz frequency setting to see the rigger weights. I also mount the transducers on a transducer board to allow any changes in the next 20 years to affect the board not the transom in terms of drilling holes.

Mounting the board with transducers on the right side of the main engine opposite the kicker side is desirable. Since I don't have a kicker there is no concern for bubbles and turbulence from a kicker.

[dry net]

My set up looks the same as yours but the cross talk happens, maybe the brand of fishfinder units is to blame?

[digitroll (ron)]

There should be no cross talk from the Fish Hawk. Another source? I have never been a Garmin sonar fan. My brother in law has one on his boat and it's never worked right out of the box with the sonar sensitivity and marking bait and fish.

[dry net]

the fishhawk works just fine when I use the higher frequency. Hope fishhawk can help

[digitroll (ron)]

Here was a photo of my HDS-7 (83 kHz) recently from yesterday's 30th trip of 2017:




Here is another photo of a school of Kings on the first day of our trip to the Bar a month ago (note it was a little bumpy and you can see the weights rising and falling a bit):

[JTM203SOUTH]

Thanks for your input Ron. I will place the Fish Hawk transducer on the same side as the Lowrance, as you have done. If I get cross-talk , I'll move one of the them or defer to the 200 kHz.
Incidentally, I notice you have what appears to be a black gasket behind the transducer board. Did it come with the board or did you make it ? What is the material ? My board came without a gasket and doesn't fit completely flat against the hull. A gasket would seem to be better than just silicone.

Thanks, Jack

[digitroll (ron)]

It was installed by Vermont Home and Marine. They do a very nice fit and finish by using a gasket material in a tube to give it a clean and professional look.

Another thing I thought of was when I was running a Honda 15 hp (charger to deep cycle battery) kicker 10 years ago when I would rev it up to combat the bigger waves I would see electrical interference on my sonar screen. That of course went away when I started trolling with my main engine and was never a problem ever again.

[JTM203SOUTH]

Thanks Ron