Inexpensive fish finder

Does anyone out there have any experience with the Norcross Hawkeye F33P fish finder? http://www.bing.com/shopping/norcross-hawkeye-f33p-fish-finder/p/8F2C7F426652B121B813?q=norcross+fishfinder&lpq=norcross%20fishfinder&FORM=HURE

The screen reminds me of portable LCD video games from the 80's.
You can get a much nicer low end Humminbird or Eagle for under $100.

You can get a much nicer low end Humminbird or Eagle for under $100.

Eagle is now owned by Lowrance.

I think the Lowrance X-4 Pro is about as cheap as it gets, except for the Lowrance X-4 which is cheaper, but lacks the dual band transducer.

Ah, I knew that Lowrance has owned Eagle for while, I just didn't realize they finally did away with the Eagle brand. Oddly, they didn't shut down the website... http://www.eaglenav.com/   Upon further inspection it does seem out dated though.. "New for '09" is listed for many of the fish finders.  I guess I bought my last one about then.

Anyway, I have the old Eagle equivalent to the Lowrance X-4 Pro which can be found for as low as about $80 online and it is still far superior to the Norcross.

The X-4 is ok. If you expect it to pick up every fish under your boat then you might be disappointed. It's not as effective as some models I have seen which are capable of detecting fish quite well near the bottom or hanging around structure. At the same time if you intend to use it for detecting structure, drop offs, etc then it would work out fine. The screen and controls are pretty basic and you it doesn't cover a broad angle. For me it's all I would ever spend on a fish finder for the kayak. Most of the time I don't even use it anyway.

RayBorbon,

Did you see the Norcross Hawkeye F33P?   With that screen the effective resolution is 5 x 5.
Yes, the X-4 isn't anywhere near a top end fishing finder, but it blows that thing out of the water.

Brian

I've never used the Norcross Hawkeye. It appears to show depth which might be useful but the screen just looks terrible to me. Spending a few more bucks in this case could get you something more useful. I'd have to pass on the Hawkeye myself. The screen looks like something that shipped with Atari 2600.

I recently bought the garmin 150 nice and small dual trasducer and seems to pick up fish,  ground cover in the full reservoir that i fish alot. Also seems to pick up the fish that i can see on the bottom sitting still, and my lure dropping under my kayak thru the hull mount. Paid 80.00 on ebay

I use the hummingbird piranha Max 160. 100 bucks in alaska. I can see down to 500 ft and it seems to pick up all the baitfish and such through my hull.

I want to upgrade but everytime I try to pull the trigger on a sidescan unit, I Huli or take a huge wave and think "would my 750 sonar survive that?" I just go for it with my cheaper equipment. Lol.


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I use the hummingbird piranha Max 160. 100 bucks in alaska. I can see down to 500 ft and it seems to pick up all the baitfish and such through my hull.

I want to upgrade but everytime I try to pull the trigger on a sidescan unit, I Huli or take a huge wave and think "would my 750 sonar survive that?" I just go for it with my cheaper equipment. Lol.


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A member of another forum I am on had his boat capsize at the dock. He had a very nice Humminbird fishfinder on his boat, which was submerged for a day. It survived and works flawlessly Humminbirds are tough!

Ah, I knew that Lowrance has owned Eagle for while, I just didn't realize they finally did away with the Eagle brand. Oddly, they didn't shut down the website... http://www.eaglenav.com/   Upon further inspection it does seem out dated though.. "New for '09" is listed for many of the fish finders.  I guess I bought my last one about then.

Anyway, I have the old Eagle equivalent to the Lowrance X-4 Pro which can be found for as low as about $80 online and it is still far superior to the Norcross.

Haha, I'm still using an Eagle Cuda 168. Not even the best Eagle at the time, but still does the job. I've gone through a few finders, but still have the original transducer Lexelled to the kayak because it worked with all the low end Eagle fishfinders. My next one will probably be the Lowrance X-4 so I don't have to change transducers, I doubt the transducer is a dual band model.
My kayak has been through the mill, I can't see spending $500 on a fishfinder. I use it mostly for depth, structure and temperature.

... I want to upgrade but everytime I try to pull the trigger on a sidescan unit, I Huli or take a huge wave and think "would my 750 sonar survive that?" I just go for it with my cheaper equipment. Lol.

A member of another forum I am on had his boat capsize at the dock. He had a very nice Humminbird fishfinder on his boat, which was submerged for a day. It survived and works flawlessly Humminbirds are tough!

I'm liking the report above.

After I put my Humminbird on my kayak and encountered some rough weather that kept washing over the bow and spray was flying all around, I emailed HB support asking just how waterproof my unit was.  They quoted me a guarantee of 30 minutes total submersion.  After that I stopped worrying about covering the cooling grill on the back when I rinsed it off after each trip. Below is their email statement.

The units are water proof such as if they were dropped over board, the unit will float for a few moments to give time to retrieve the unit, it is not recommended that they are in contact with water at all times.  However, if submerged the unit is water proof for about 30 minutes and down to one meter. 

My kayak has been through the mill, I can't see spending $500 on a fishfinder. I use it mostly for depth, structure and temperature.

Me too on the former and me neither for the latter! BUT for an extra c-note you can get a good enuf FF with a gps/chartplotter that''ll  give you tides and currents. The Lowrance Mark 4 runs about $200, is tough as nails and slicker than snot.

dlewallen,

The Lowrance X4 is on sale at Fisherman's for 84.99 right now.  I bought the Eagle version a year or two ago just for the transducer for a much more expensive FF.  At the time it was $69.99, a new transducer alone was $79.99.  I now use it more than the more expensive one.  It works great.  Of course I am mainly looking for structure and the bottom.

I haven't popped in for some time, But as a few know I got a 29ft. sailboat at the begining of the year, the Electics were all ruined and need replaced, I'm very low on funds as I paid for a years dock fee at Salmon harbor,in winchesterbay and Also need a Chartplotter/fishfinder, SO if anyone who has an older one thats laying around after they upgraded and maybe have one to sell cheep? I'd really appechate it. the Transducer on the sailboat works I wired it to my old Fishfinder from my Lil blue Sink,so at least I can tell how deep the water is and I see a fish from time to time too lol.