Helix users, assistance please.

I used my Helix 7 for the first time this weekend. I was left unimpressed. I messed around with it some but, just not crazy about it. I know I need more time on the water (ice) with it. I had my Ice-55 next to it to compare. On my 55 I pick up the tiny swivel in my line above the jig, I don’t with my Helix or maybe it doesn’t separate it. It doesn’t seem to show separation as well either. Do you have any suggestions?
Do you use it in the ice mode?
Do you ever use the open water mode?
What settings do you use? clutter? Gain?
Do you leave it in auto depth? It does seem to jump depth, 13 to 14 feet.

I made my own shuttle for it, kind of heavy. I used PVC plastic. Cut down on the weight by using a hole saw to honeycomb it. Did reduce the weight by half.

Any tips would be appreciated.

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My Helix settings are:
Ice Mode on
Gain varies based on depth
Set depth range to just a few feet deeper than you are fishing
Turn screen brightness down to help battery life
I use the split screen with flasher on one side and graph view on the other side. The graph side allows watching your jigging cadence and figure out how the fish are reacting to it.

To cut weight you could switch to a lithium battery. Search IDO for lithium group buy. Someone organized this for the Dakota lithium batteries. Otherwise if you watch they can be bought for about $80.00 on sale. If you switch you will need a different battery charger. Another thing to keep in mind if you switch to a lithium, the battery charge indicator on the depth finder will not be accurate.

make sure your ducer is level and over your bait. Its not a very big circle of coverage in 12 feet of water. I run a vex fl18 and a helix 7 gn 2 side by side no intereference and I can see my swivel sinkers and bare hook when my minnow gets loose or eaten. A little current can move a light jig out of your coverage. A small line to line knot on my unit appears as the smallest line on the screen. But not always it may take some fiddling to get that return. I learned the most from others fishing with the same unit. Trial and error on slow days and reading stuff on here.

Mike

I use it with a black background, night mode and backlight down. Not having any battery issue.Not going lithium till I am sure it is going to be my main unit.
When you set depth are you talking about the max depth setting or lower limit?
I have been using it with split screen too. I am not crazy about the signal picture and it isn’t very sharp separation.

Have you ever tried using it in open water mode?

Is there a way to sharpen the readings?

Sometimes the +/- buttons control zoom, sometimes it controls gain, is there a way to set it one way or another?

Might get it out this afternoon.

Thanks

No shortage of slow days so far.

Thanks

Turn off clear mode, adjust surface clutter & gain, set bottom depth manually, and you shouldn’t have any problem seeing your barrel swivel above your bait. I’ll see if I can get some pictures and specific setting levels from my unit this weekend.

max depth should always be set manually when ice fishing – not just the lower limit but the true max depth setting

Can anybody tell me how to switch the active screen when using say flasher display and scrolling zoom? I saw a video on it at one point, but can’t for the life of me find it, or remember how to move the green arrow.

Also, I’ve found that using A-Scope produces much better target separation. Instead of rounding off the marks, it displays them as true readings and can be the difference in telling if that fish is sitting on your jig or right below it.

To change which screen is active just hit menu once and the top should be left or right and an arrow. That is where you change active screen left/right.

Captainpaddlefoot wrote:

To change which screen is active just hit menu once and the top should be left or right and an arrow. That is where you change active screen left/right.

Thank you!

Other than manual depth my G2 ice unit that obviously comes in ice mode has been turn on and fish. Gain usually stays at 10 give or take 1 with a 1/64 tungsten jig/waxie. Unless it’s shallow and weedy my Fl20 is entirely a backup unit now, I found it works slightly better than the helix in that one condition so far. But, I didn’t have time to monkey with settings.. It does get along fine with the helix when I run 2 holes. Tried all screens and split screen 2d with the zoom on the left in 4x or 6x is my primary mode. Been out all but 1 weekend since T day and love it! Just got a K-drill too, I’m one happy fisherman! Cost per pound is way up for the moment, but much progress has already been made.

If you have a gen1 helix, I’ve read they don’t do ice well.

If your helix is a Gen 2 it should have no problems doing what you are doing, and the display for me is very crisp. Like others have said, i don’t have to do a lot with the settings. Ice mode, enough gain to pick up my jig, set depth (if you are in 12 fow, set it to 13 or 14), and start fishing.

Captainpaddlefoot wrote:

Sometimes the +/- buttons control zoom, sometimes it controls gain, is there a way to set it one way or another?

If you are using split screen with Flasher on the left and Graph on the right this should explain what is gong on.

First Press Menu and check to see if left or right screen is selected. It will say Left or Right, that is the active screen.

If Active screen is a Graph screen which allows zoom pressing +/- will change the zoom level. There are two graph screens one will display 2x, 4x etc that screen be zoomed can be zoomed the other screen does not show the 2x etc and that does not seem to support zoom.

If the Active screen is the flasher, +/- will set the zoom range on the ring of the flasher screen.

If you want to change the gain press Menu, arrow down to Gain and press Exit then +/- will adjust the gain on the active screen. To stop this press menu arrow up to where the active screen can be changed and press exit.

Hope this helps

Captainpaddlefoot,

The guys in the forum were very pretty helpful to me back in Nov when I was setting my Helix up for the first time. Tim and all above are pretty spot on with things here… What I’ll add is that many of the more detailed adjustments are available when you go to the “Advanced” usermode under Settings. The second thing I do is go to the last tab and hide the views that I don’t want to use. I typically like the split view with flasher and zoom but use a few others too.

Next I make sure that my RTS window is set to “Ascope” for both Sonar and flasher views. For me, I had to bring up the flasher view set the RTS for that, then went to Sonar to set it up. I like how the mark is wider or thicker based on how close to the cone center the fish is or whether it is a larger fish. I also like my sonar zoom RTS window set to Wide to enhance the detail of the “Ascope” setting.

One other item is that while in zoom mode, if you see a suspended fish outside of the zoom view you can hit the up (or down) arrow to slide your zoom to that location. This can be extra nice when you have the Max depth set just below the bottom so your full zoom view is in effect.

What else…? I keep my sonar speed set at or near Ultra. I keep surface clutter very low, and rarely have the brightness above 5. The check mark is the best way to toggle interference/CHIRP settings. Some like the sonar Switchfire set to Max (if deeper than 10′) and the Noise filter Low.

Enjoy!
-Bruce