Ice fishing and fish finders

[BobbyBoucher]

Sorry Guys I'm new at this and wanted to pose a question

I'm new to ice fishing this year and wanted to know if I can use my regular all around fish finder to go ice fishing with. Also, how would i set it up and if not what is recommended.

Like I said I'm new so whatever responses I get would be appreciated.


Oh and hook a brother up with some tips for this year.

[SteveO]

Hi Bobby - welcome to Fish-hawk! I look forward to seeing some of your reports!

Short answer is yes. There was a post on here a little while back that showed a screenshot from a regular 'summer' fish finder being used while ice fishing. The ice is nearly here - give it a try! You might notice your LCD display refresh slows down in the cold weather...or maybe doesn't work at all...but you should be able to get some useful info from it.

However, there are sonars made specifically for ice fishing, and reasons why people spend a lot of $ on these instead of just using their summer ones. There are quite a few differences...you may have seen them before...flashers that show a circular disc of with bars of light to represent the bottom, fish, and your jig. The transducers on these units have a much narrower beam angle since you are just interested in the water column directly below your hole. The narrow beam angle also helps reduce reflections from the underside of the ice surface. You can see your jig and the fish with a target seperation of about an inch...very useful for suspended fish since you can drop your bait in front of their nose. Also, these ice fishing flashers are effectively "real-time"...what you see on the display is what is taking place under the ice at the same instant in time. Finally, interference rejection is an important feature because unlike in boat fishing you'll often end up sitting close to or right next to someone else also using a sonar. The ice-fishing flashers have interference rejection...you may run into trouble with your summer unit if you are close to other people.

The main manufacturers are Marcum and Vexilar....Prices range from about $300 to $700...Might be worth searching this forum for those keywords....Lowrance also makes a kind of hybrid version...

For the record, I'm no expert! I just recently bought my own flasher - I haven't used it yet and I haven't tried using a summer unit on the ice...many others on this site have way more experience.

[BobbyBoucher]

I thank you very much for that info. It is very helpful. Now I just need to get set up for the winter.

Thanks dude.

[Gord]

I tried using my LCD finder on the ice a couple of years back. I found it essentialy useless in temps below -5C, but if you were in a hut it was OK. Last year I invested in a flasher(Marcum LX5).......there's no turning back now........it's a whole new way of icefishing!

[Wallyboss]

Hey BB there is nothing like a flasher on Frozen high quality H2O, but if you want to use your lcd fish finder you will have to try to ignore the whole screen and keep an eye on the part to the right on the screen. and possibly speed up your ping speed. Just remember that ice fishing what you see on the fish finder should not move, IE depth and bottom anything that magically appears on the finder is either bait or fish.

But like many people say a Flasher is the way to go. but some LCD are fast enough to be used, and try to keep the screen warm.

[Wallyboss]

BB at the bottom of the page you will see that you can bring up the posts from a year ago, do that and have a good read lots of helpful info in there.

[BobbyBoucher]

Ok thanks guys for the replies. I have gone back a year a looked over the posts. That was a good idea.

Now here is the next question can I use one of these vexilars in the summer and how useful are they in the summer?

Oh and it's currently -15 as I post this. Is this good? Really want to get out there for some ice fishing.

And when you guys get back to me on this question I will have another one.

Sorry I'm really interested in all this and as you can see i'm new and just want to take it all in, just like a little kid.

[BBRich]

I have a cheaper Humminbird 100SX fish finder and I use it for ice fishing. Actually with the settings tuned just right, it can be the next best thing to a flasher. Basically what you want to do is turn off any extra feature you can. Fish ID, depth ID, alarms, etc. This will narrow down the delay in what you see on the screen and what is actually happening underwater.

With mine adjusted properly and on the most sensitive setting, I can get the delay down to about half a second. I can also watch my lure on the screen .. although it's not like a flasher, I can still see it bouncing as I jig. I can also see if a fish swims up to it.

Last year when I first figured out how to set it up, I was amazed watching my jigging spoon go up and down on the screen. Soon a blip started showing up beneath the spoon. 4 or 5 times, then suddenly, BAM, I had a half decent pike on. I guess he was circling the spoon before finally taking a swipe at it.

Since then I won't ice fish without it!

[Bondo]

what's the price on those suckers BBR. That sounds like its right up my alley. I would love a Vex but there's no way the wife if gonna go for it with #2 on the way.

[SteveO]

Bondo -

I would also suggest that you PM toobinator and inquire about the Marcum VX-1...it might be in your price range. There is a $50 US mail-in rebate until Dec 31st.

...and with the money you save you could by an ice rod, or two, lots of jigs....and a heater

[slushpuppy]

Bowzog uses his flasher in the summer too.

As for regular fish finders, you have to also worry about batteries. We have a portable fishfinder that uses AA batteries. Those batteries don't work too well when it gets too cold, neither does the screen, as it's made for warm weather.

[BobbyBoucher]

Cool Thanks

Now here's the other question. I work some graveyards and on the days that I'm off, I'm still up all night cuz I'm going back to work on the graveyards. How is the ice fishing at night, say 10pm to 3am. And what would you guys suggest for lures and stuff. I picked up a couple of glow in the dark jig-heads at Wal-mart for $1. What else will I need.

[BBRich]

what's the price on those suckers BBR. That sounds like its right up my alley. I would love a Vex but there's no way the wife if gonna go for it with #2 on the way.

It cost me about 150 ... about 8 years ago. I think they are cheaper now.

And it runs on 2 lantern batteries. 2 batteries usually last me through the whole winter then I replace them in April.

Make no mistake, it's not even close to being a vex.. but if it's all ya got, it does the job.

[BobbyBoucher]

ok thats cool

Anybody go a used Vex they want to unleash for real cheap....