The HawkEye F33P fish finder by NorCross marine is a pretty simple, yet incredibly innovative fish finder.
Normally, I stick to reviewing fish finders from Humminbird, Lowrance, Garmin, or Raymarine, but I’ve made a special exception for the Hawkeye.
From Amazon
It is incredibly inexpensive, and is designed to give readings of fish, structure, weeds, and depth up to 100 feet. That’s pretty impressive for something this tiny! It fits snugly into the palm of your hand, and the screen is pretty easy to see and read.
Unlike other fish finders, the screen doesn’t draw an image so much as it shows indicators instead – so it will show little symbols that denote either fish, structure, or weeds. It does most of the guesswork for you, and there is no way to change this setting – you can’t attempt to read echoes for yourself.
This makes the NorCross a good fish finder for beginners, but experienced anglers won’t like the simplicity. You can select SONAR sensitivity up to 4 settings, but that’s about it.
What I like best about the Hawkeye is that it is incredibly small and three quarters of the price of any other entry level fish finder on the market. You can easily fit it in your pocket, backpack, tackle box, or any other storage container you like!
The transducer is also very cool. The way NorCross has designed it, you can either throw it in the water to float it, you can troll it if you are in a boat, or you can even suction cup mount it on a boat. There is also an option to broomstick mount it on a long rod and get highly targeted readings in any direction that you like.
Aside from the simplicity, I don’t like that you can’t gauge the size of a fish. With a regular fish finder, you can make a good guess at the size of a fish by the kind of SONAR reading it spits out at you. Since the Hawkeye just shows a little icon wherever it thinks there is a fish, it could be anything from a tiny little trout to a monster salmon!
Bottom line, the HawkEye is a great choice for someone that goes fishing on weekends to have some fun and maybe catch a fish or two – but if you’ve got your own boat and are a serious angler, you may be happier with a more advanced model. For instance, you may want to check out our advice on which is the best fish finder for the money.
From Amazon
