Big M 5/17 and 5/18- New Lowrance Eagle Eye 9 Review

[bferg]

Fished the Big M area over the weekend.  4 guys, two boats.  Caught a lot of fish… almost 100 fish Saturday between us.  
Bottom line: there are a lot of ways to catch them.  Most of our fish were on either a top water or a 3.3 swimbait.  
We caught multiple spawned out LM throwing walking baits in bushes that are still in the water.  A few on spinner baits as well.  So, there are a few shallow fish left for now.

The schooling topwater deal is kind of weak but it’s there.  Look for gravel points near spawning areas.  We would see a couple of fish feeding on the surface- it was kind of spread out and not aggressive- but they would eat a topwater some.  We stayed around those fish and they ate the swimmers pretty good.  Almost all of these fish were spots that had not spawned.

Also caught some on topwater near docks where Shad spawn…

On the top water: bone colored walk the dog was by far the best performer. 
 

This was my first trip with my new Lowrance Eagle Eye 9.  If you are unfamiliar:  Lowrance launched a forward facing sonar solution that costs $999.99.  My boat is older and I just can’t justify sinking $4 or $5k on a full on Livescope set up.  
the Eagle Eye 9 has no box in the back of the boat- just a transducer that plugs directly into the 9” graph.  This is Lowrance live target 2 technology.  With traditional 2D and Down Scan as well.

They hit the $999 price point by having fewer sending units in the transducer- so they don’t need a box to “stitch” the images from multiple sending units together.  The result is a blind spot- kind of a triangle straight down and extending to about 30 degrees forward.  Other than that- this is exactly like Lowrance Live Target 2.  I was VERY impressed with the performance.  My takeaway:  75-80% of full Live Scope/Live Target technology for 33% of the cost.  
 

Also- due to not having the box in back, very low power pull- and simple installation.  Great solution for older boats, John boats or kayak fisherman.  Couldn’t be happier with my purchase.  

[Quillback]

You guys did well, I have not been over there in a while, good to hear they are biting!

Thanks for the info on the Eagle Eye.  

[dan hufferd]

How was the sonar? Normal or was it a lesser version? Thanks for the real world review.

[bferg]

1 hour ago, dan hufferd said:

How was the sonar? Normal or was it a lesser version? Thanks for the real world review.

2D was good!  Honesty- I didn’t mess around with the DownScan much but I will next time.  My understanding is this is the standard Lowrance Chirp and DownScan with their “Fish ID”.  The Active Target is the latest version.  My Brother has LiveScope on his boat and I do think Garmin’s scope is a little more clear. 

[jdmidwest]

I bought one back in the spring at BPS big sale.  Put on the troller of the jet and piddled around at Wappappello for a while, spotted a few fish, but had trouble with it going full backlight.  It was just flashing.

Tried it a few weeks ago on another boat and a transducer pole of pvc  and got erratic depth reading and no display  of forward scan.  Don't know if I have a dud or just not trying enough.  Lack of trying has been an issue this year.  1 trip to TN and a Spring River trout trip last weekend.  Few futile attempts at working my arm a Wappappello for some casting practice, that hole of water sucks.

[bferg]

1 minute ago, jdmidwest said:

I bought one back in the spring at BPS big sale.  Put on the troller of the jet and piddled around at Wappappello for a while, spotted a few fish, but had trouble with it going full backlight.  It was just flashing.

Tried it a few weeks ago on another boat and a transducer pole of pvc  and got erratic depth reading and no display  of forward scan.  Don't know if I have a dud or just not trying enough.  Lack of trying has been an issue this year.  1 trip to TN and a Spring River trout trip last weekend.  Few futile attempts at working my arm a Wappappello for some casting practice, that hole of water sucks.

That’s not right- maybe you should check on getting it warrantied out.  I plugged mine in, turned it on, and was off to the races with no adjustments- worked great out of the box.  L

[jdmidwest]

I am going to give it one more try, if I can ever get back on water to make sure it's not my error. Then back to the mother ship it will go.

How did you mount yours? First time out mine was on a trolling motor.  Second time, I made a PVC transducer pole separate.

[bferg]

I put it on my trolling motor- which also has a transducer for my Humminbird on it, made sure it was facing the right way and level.

[slabseeker]

Thanks for the report. I am considering the Eagle Eye 9.  Any updates since the last post? 

[Bill Babler]

I will tell you that Active Target 2 the latest version from Lowrance of FFS is much better that the original. It’s not quite but pretty close to the original LiveScope. 
LiveScope Plus however defines the targets at a much higher level. Its separation from both structures and the bottom far exceed either Lowrance unit. 

On my LiveScope plus I can see both the tail and fin movement of the fish. You can now identify the fish not only by seeing how they react to each other in a school but by body configuration. 

In the war of FFS there is always something new on the horizon. New is old. 

There are rumors that Power Pole has FFS in the works and Garmin is just about ready to step it up again. 

No matter the degree of under water peepers the fish still have to bite. I’m rejected 90 plus percent of the time with either live or artificial bait. 

What it does for me is eliminate water which amounts to time. Our most precious commodity.