ALLEN WOOD

Hi guys. Just an update from my last post. My unit started giving intermittent readings again and showed a temp of 95 degrees all of the time. It also would not work below 30 feet. My dealer called Cannon for a new probe which was the next step and Cannon advised that they would not be making or selling them any longer. Cannon was helpful, however they just had to many problems with their units, I guess. They wanted the unit returned and refunded the cost. It was a hurry up deal, but my dealer found one of the few available Fish Hawks in the country and had it overnigted last week and installed on Wed. We headed to Lake O on Thursday morning. Rough sailing out of Oswego all weekend. However, we did catch some nice Kings, but had to hunt hard for them. The Fish Hawk worked perfectly. I had one on the boat I traded in and should of stayed with it! Good luck finding a Fish Hawk. From what I know, they are back ordered and the wait is fairly long. Good luck fishing!

Hi Guys. Just an update for those of you who care. My problem with my downrigger probe is solved. When istalled, the dealer grounded the monitor directly to the negative side of the battery, which required the ground to go through the engine and into the water. Not a very good ground! I had them ground the unit directly to the hull. Problem solved! I used the unit this weekend down to 110 feet with now problems at all. Headed next week to Ontario. From the looks of the reports, it seems the fishing is pretty good. Now, I'll keep my fingers crossed for some good weather and low wave action. Thanks for your replies and help!

I have a new (this summer) cannon downrigger probe. It worked perfectly for awhile. Now, it gives intermittent read outs. Below 30 or 40 feet, I get no read out at all. I am miffed as to why. I haven't changed the batteries yet as they claim that the probe will run 200 hrs. on a set of batteries. That will be my next thing to try. The operation book says that the unit should be grounded to the water. I am assuming that means the hull? If it is grounded back to the negative terminal on the battery/electrical system, would that effect the operation? I will be calling Cannon today to get their take on it. I was just wondering if anyone has had similar problems and what your fix was. I am headed out to the big O next week and would like to have the problem resolved before then. Any help you can give, would be appreciated. Thanks.

Does anyone know if Fat Nancy's in Oswego has closed? I tried calling them and their phone number is not in service. Thanks for any info. Allen

I purchased 13 lb. torpedos a few weeks ago and they work very well. Very little blow back and I can see them well on the fish finder at any depth. They track perfectly. I would recommend them.

To update you all a little. Fish Hawk sent a new probe at no charge. I fished Saturday here at home and it worked perfectly at any depth!! They advised that they had a few probes that gave them some trouble. They have replaced them and all is well. Great customer service! Very friendly and helpful on the telephone. All they asked is that if the new probe solved the problem, to send the defective one back in the box they sent it in. Hopefully, there will be no more problems.

I did increase the gain. It didn't make any difference, so I returned it to the default setting of 15. I also shut off my fishing sonar to make sure I was not getting interference from that. That didn't help either. As far as blow back being the problem, it didn't matter what depth it was run at. I tried depths anywhere from the surface to 135 ft. and it still acted the same. There were short periods of time when it seemed to work ok, then the screen would go blank, then come back on with the wild temp readings.

Well, I spent last weekend on lake O out of Oswego. Thursday thru Saturday. As you all know the weather did not cooperate very much and neither did the fish. One small king and one brown. Fished from 100 to 400 feet of water and didn't see much. I didn't know about Harbor Fest! That was another problem in itself. My fault for not knowing I guess. I don't understand why they would use up virtually all of the parking area with carnival rides which left no place to park, however they still wanted their $10.00 launch fee. Oh well, I feel better now! Saturday we fished out of Mexico. No parking problems there but a long run to get into deep water. As far as the X4 goes, there were some problems. As some of you might recall from my previous posts, I decided on the Fish Hawk and installed it two weeks ago. Tried it out on my home waters and then headed to lake O. The first day we got out (Friday) the Fish Hawk worked fine until we got blown and rained off at 9 AM. Went back out in the late PM when things calmed down a bit. The down speed and temp did not work most of the time, no matter what depth it was at. When it did work the speed seemed fine, however the temp varied wildly. Reading 35 degrees one minute and then 80 the next when running at 80 - 100 ft. I spoke to another fisherman at the landing who had his for about a month and he was having the same problem. Fish Hawk was sending him a new triducer. I called Fish Hawk and they are sending me a new probe. Hopefully that will correct the problem for me. Has anyone had similar problems with their unit. If so I would be interested in hearing your story and did the problem get corrected? On a final note. I will be back the third week of August. Should I stay with Oswego or maybe move down the lake to Rochester and some of the ports to the west? Happy fishing to all!

I will be heading to Lake O next week for a few days. Could I get some addresses of tackle shops in the Oswego area, say within 25 miles or so. I have been to Jon's in Mexico. Just figured there must be others nearby. Please supply the address if you know it, that way I can pop it in the GPS and go. Thanks

Try netknots.com this is a good site on fishing knots and how to tie them. It even has animated videos to show you how to tie each knot. Allen

Nice to get a little debate going. That is what I am looking for, real world comments from guys who have used them. I guess either way I can't go wrong. It should be better than the way I have been doing it and that is blind and guessing at the right depth and speed. I hope I have made the right choice. I just didn't like the sound of messing with covered cable. I ordered the X4 today and hope to have it installed and ready to go before we head to the lake on the 22nd. Thanks for all of the input! Any other comments are welcome. Allen

I hate to sound stupid, but what exactly is coated cable. Why does it need to be coated? and what is it coated with? Where do you find it? Does anyone else have an opinion on the Moor unit versus the Fish Hawk?

I plan on adding a downrigger probe to my arsenal of goodies for Lake O fishing. I am considering the Fish Hawk X4. I have been reading all I can regarding this unit. It seems to be highly rated. I was wondering if I could get some real world info from any of you who have been using or have knowledge of downrigger probes, particularly the X4. Any and all replies would be appreciated. I would like to have one on the boat before we head to Lake O on 7/22. Ease of installation? Ease of use? Durability etc. and how much will this unit help my success rate? I am a Mainer and get to the lake four times a year. Is the money I will be spending worth it. Thanks in advance for all of your help.

Thanks guys for the info! There are so many techniques and different ideas. What a great site this is. If there are any ideas out there, feel free to chew my ear with them. Allen

I would like to try running dipsy's on my next trip to Lake O and I have a few questions. I would like to run two riggers and two dipsy rods. Why is wire used instead of mono? Will they work with mono OK? How heavy must the rod be to use them? Is a 8 or 9 foot medium action rod stiff enough? How far behind the dipsy do you run your lure etc. and do you need heavier line in order to run them. Do you run your leader directly from the dipsy to the lure? Any answers or suggestions regarding these questions would be appreciated.