Is there a system that you can use on your boat in the summer as depth finder, etc…
Then in winter plug a chip in and use as lake map?
Let me here the suggestions.
IDO » Forums » Fishing Forums » Ice Fishing Forum » Electronics for Summe and Winter
Is there a system that you can use on your boat in the summer as depth finder, etc…
Then in winter plug a chip in and use as lake map?
Let me here the suggestions.
Lowrance Elite 5 or 7 would work well. I use one on my boat in the summer for a gps and put it in the ice pack in the winter for both a gps and a depth finder
I still use my marcum 99% of the time for fishing and the 898 for GPS 90% of the time. My Nav app the other 10%
@Irott2003 There are lots of options for what you are describing. Are you primarily looking for a unit for your boat or for on the ice?
I think Ice. I can get depth finder for boat no issues. I have hand held garmin oregon series too I guess I could use for ice maybe
1) Do you fish a handful of lakes, or do you like to get out and explore new bodies of water?
2) Are you more of a stay put in a spot that produces well, or hop around trying to always stay on the fish type of fisherman?
3) Would you say you a ice fish few times a month here and there, once a week, most weekends or several days a week?
If you already have an ice fishing flasher and aren’t looking to replace it, and you answer yes to more of the beginning half of the questions 1-3 above then I would consider looking at boat graphs like the ones mentioned by Riverrat, and FishBlood. Consider one that can do everything you need it to do for your boat, and make a platform to carry it and a battery on the ice. Some of the Lowrance and HB units have ice fishing setups to convert your unit into something more portable, check to see if the ones you’re interested in can do this. I’ve heard 50/50 reports on some of the sidescan units not working well with the ice fishing transducers, while others say they do just fine, so hopefully FishBlood will add a few cents on that. I’m personally not a big fan of the Lowrance Elite 5 setup for primary ice fishing sonar, but others really like them too, so it may come down to preference for you, they have ice fishing combo packs for just under a few hundred extra bucks. I would spend some time playing around with the different modes on any of these and see if the displays/features are what you are looking for.
If you currently do not have an ice fishing flasher, or you’re in the market to upgrade/replace yours and you tend to agree with the 2nd half of questions 1-3 above then I would take a very good-long look at Marcum’s RT9. The 9″ screen with 3D Navionics mapping with a chip slot are attractive features for the boat or ice. You can add on later an open water transducer or 2 for the boat, as well as an underwater camera for winter and summer use.
Last year I narrowed my options down to 3 different units (Vex’s FL20,HB Ice55 and Marcum LX7) I tested them all out amongst a few others a few times and after all that I got a good deal on an LX 5 that I used for about 3 weeks and then sold it and bought an LX6 instead. So be open, and test everything you can out. You may find that an FL8 and your smart phone are all you need, the best way to know for sure is to get a good look at all the features on each unit you’re considering, get as many opinions good and bad and after all that, go with your gut!
Just bought a Humminbird Ice 688ci HD Sonar Combo last night for the very reason you mentioned. I have it set up for ice fishing now and can get a transducer and quick mount installed in the boat for summer use. The reason I went with the bird is the Lakemaster chips. I have a Garmin handheld and the latest lakemaster chip is from 2010, works great, but not as great as the newer chips.
I think that the lx-7 is going to be your best bet for summer and winter. Reason being is that I’ve ran a Humminbird 345c for both, and although great for softwater, it leaves you wanting more target seperation for the ice.
I currently run an lx5 for summer and winter, but with this case, if I’m not fishing on top of a fish, I usually won’t know that I’ve driven over a bunch of fish. It tells the depth great, but the history helps a ton during softwater.
The RT-9 will do even better lol.
gave the Bird 688 a test run up in South Dakota on a high def lake and it takes a bit to load the map data from the Lakemaster Chip and it was impressive. Still need to permanently attach the quick connect base, but it all worked well and marked a few spots for ice fishing. Just take the head off of the boat and put on the quick connect base/battery and hook up the transducer. The only thing I need is the arm for the transducer b/c I hate the float taking up so much room in the hole.
I’ve been using my 788ci HD openwater and hardwater seasons for a couple years now. I love having the GPS and lakemaster map right on my ice fishing unit! And I realy like the scrolling sonar view.
I’ve collected some screen recordings and screenshots to share. Here’s some video of different views and some screenshots.
All clips show my jigging spoon and fish being caught.
Video 1: Shows the sonar zoom view. (2x zoom on the bottom on left half, and full water column on right)
Video 2: Shows the sonar view with wide RTS window on right. I didn’t like the wide, and preferred the narrow RTS window as shown in video 4.
Video 3: Shows the circular flasher view. I don’t use this much at all.
Video 4: Shows the sonar view with narrow RTS window on right. Shown using full water column at first, then changing the settings to adjust the upper depth and lower depth to ‘zoom in’ on the bottom.
Video 5: Shows sonar view with full water column.
how is the quality of sonar for ice fishing. I have a fl20 now. I guess I could use both. I have a handheld garmin with mapping chip I am going to go that route this winter see how it goes an then maybe in future get unit like this. thanks for the input though and I hope that works well for you.
Thanks for the post. I will look into it. Going to go route of handheld garmin with mapping chip and use my vexilar this winter. Only had to pay $75 for the chip so it is a cheap experiment.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.