By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

It looked a little suspicious – two men rustling through the trunk of a rental car in the parking lot of a 24-hour restaurant in a suburb outside Buffalo, N.Y., as the morning commute traffic sped by.

As it turns out, there was no mischief involved – just two guys gathering demo versions of a new product ready to be introduced to the fishing industry.

My introduction to the new Lowrance HOOK2 series of fishfinders/chartplotters took place in a corner booth over breakfast as Daren Cole, the global brand director for Simrad and Lowrance, explained how the feature-packed units represent a quantum leap forward from the original HOOK lineup.

Bottom line, Lowrance has figured out a way to pack a plethora of features into a unit while simplifying the user interface even further.

Most notably, the HOOK2 units will feature Lowrance Autotuning sonar, which actively corrects sonar settings for the clearest underwater view. It will allow anglers, Cole said, to spend more time fishing and less time making manual adjustments to their sonar settings.

Lowrance has launched HOOK2 in three sonar categories and with five different screen size options. Most models will feature full navigational capability and pre-loaded, high-detail mapping. Anglers can also cover more water with new Lowrance wide-angle Broadband Sounder and CHIRP sonar. SideScan and DownScan Imaging is also available on select HOOK2 models.

The HOOK2 series is available in a TripleShot, SplitShot and Bullet models. TripleShot will offer the most features with 3-in-1 sonar with High CHIRP, SideScan and DownScan Imaging. SplitShot will give anglers 2-in-1 sonar with High CHIRP and DownScan while the Bullet level will offer broadband sounder.

The TripleShot models will be available in 5-, 7-, 9- and 12-inch versions while the SplitShot is being offered in 5-, 7- and 9-inch versions. The Bullet features a 4-inch widescreen design, an upgrade over previous vertical 4-inch displays.

Most HOOK2 fishfinder/chartplotters will feature full navigational capability and pre-loaded, high-detail mapping with 1-foot contours of more than 3,000 U.S lakes.

HOOK2 fishfinder-only models – with the exception of the sonar-only HOOK2 4x Bullet – include a built-in GPS Plotter (without charts) for saving waypoints, following trails and navigating to favorite fishing spots.

Pricing on the HOOK2 lineup starts at $99 and runs up to $1,499 for the top-end TripleShot. The units are expected to be available at Lowrance dealers next month.

More for information, visit lowrance.com.



Check out the below video to learn more about the HOOK2 lineup: