Temperature and Speed at Downrigger Ball

OK!! 2013 is the year for me to purchase a speed and temperature unit for my downrigger. My question is without looking at cost, What is the best unit out there??? Depth Raider or Fish Hawk, or any other suggestions. Thank You for your thoughts

Ok thanx luckylou. What is your target temp. I've read 42 to 48 but that seems cold to me.

Keep it the highest. Find you target temp and fish everything at/around/below it. There's no reason to risk having that probe down deep. I run mine highest everyday. I find my speed and temp, everything goes south of that.

I have the depth raider. And like it. The coated cable does have to be used with care do it don't link. Installation was easy. My question is what rigger do you put it on. The one you generally have the deepest. And what do you guys think is the ideal temp. I read 42 to 48 is a good range to look for.

Cell phone service doesn't matter at all. You do need an Android device like a cell phone or notebook. There is a transducer mounted to the back of the boat that points back instead of down. The probes send a signal every few seconds to the transducer. The transducer connects to a transmitter which sends the info via Bluetooth to the phone or notebook. Attached is a picture of the old phone I'm using with the Smart Troll app. The probe names can be changed and the depth can be adjusted. There are no special cables. It's wireless. I do have a short video of the app working. If anyone wants to see it, send me your email address.

I have used both the depth raider and the fish hawk units. I am currently using the fish hawk because the coated cable on the depth raider is a PITA. Yes you need a transducer for the fish hawk but so what it takes 15 minutes to install and your done with it. Also the display for the fish hawk actually looks like something from this decade and has a nice blue back light for early morning and night fishing. Here is one downfall that I can see from the smart troll. I fish out of the port of Manitowoc and I am constantly dropping calls on my cell phone when I am 8-15 miles off shore. Seems to me that if I have no cell service I would also have no Smart troll service. Is that a correct statement or am I missing something. I have to be quite honest I have not done much research on the smart troll so I don't really know how it transmits to the android device that the person would be using. If I am wrong than the next time that I am in the market for a Speed and temp unit I would definitely look into the smart troll. And as far as speed, temp and depth are concerned my priority would be speed first, then temp and least important depth. That is of course just MY opinion. Captain Bill Semper Fi Charters

The speed is important but not as much as the Depth and Temp. I will probably upgrade when the speed is available. What is so nice is you can put these probes on flatlines, leadcore, dipseys, pump handles, ect.. and know what the depth and temp are at those locations. No more guessing how deep your 5 color leadcore is or your dipseys.

I'm a rookie , so horseman are you not concerned with the speed or do you also have a second unit for speed now . I bought a new old stock cannon speed and temp I like it and the only reson I. Got that over the other ones was because it has depth , speed , temp . After buying I kind of wish I would have got fish hawk. Or waited untill smart troll got the speed thing working . It would be really cool to have 6 probes reading at once .

I have and am a big fan of the X4. You do not change the DR cable. I think I'm on my fourth year with it and it's performed flawlessly and in my opinion worth the extra money to not have to deal with the coated cable issues.

The Smart Troll with speed should be out soon. I ordered the one with the speed first but because it wasn't available yet I got just the temp and depth. Darrell (the inventor) said I could upgrade later if I wanted.

I’ve been interested in the smart troll for a while now but when do they plan on having speed ?

Check out Smart Troll. No special cables. I just got mine. Gives you temp and depth at up to 6 different locations. Works great!

The depth raider requires coated cable... or the new cable that has a wire inside. Fish Hawk does not require anything from a cable perspective. Issues with both are relative... Depth Raider needs cable Fish Hawk needs a transducer mounted on the boat I personally have 2 of the new depth raiders with the new connectors... I was down 190' with it yesterday and no issues. Be sure to go directly to the battery not any distribution panel. Makes a difference. I've also ran mine this season without changing the battery! The new depth raider also tells you the battery and signal strength. If you have any questions feel free as I'm obviously partial to the Depth Raider and have used all of them in the past. Tom SeaNile Too Fishing

One more thought on trolling speed. This is a VERY general point on speed. If you're mainly catching Lake Trout then you're probably trolling too slow. Yes it's true that there may only be Lakers in the area or if you're fishing tight to the bottom chances are good you'll hook into a Laker. But Lakers prefer a slower troll speed than Cohos and Chinook salmon. Rainbow trout prefer a faster troll than salmon do. You'll just need to experiment with speed and these past couple of weeks have been tough no matter how fast you're trolling. Good Luck. SS

The Fishawk units show a little faster down speed than the Depth Raider DR1000, older model I had. I'm guessing but the Fishawk unit ran about .4 or .5 mph faster than my 2007 Depth Raider. Speed is all relative. Find the speed that gets you bit and repeat it. I ran the Fishawk from 2.2 to 2.8 at the ball and the Depth Raider at 1.8 to 2.4 at the ball. I really liked the Fishawk because you didn't need that PITA coated cable. The X-4 units have a better probe design with less blowback now too. Not so sure about needing the XD-4 feature of knowing the depth the probe is at though. My graph marked my weights just fine. Good Luck. SS

I run a Fish Hawk x4D. I really like it but I know it reads faster than the DepthRaider that I had. Does anyone have any comments as to the proper speed using an x4D? I've been running 2.3 to 2.6 with it.