Hey all,
I remember reading something in outdoor news a month or two ago where somebody mentioned they use their standard vexilar icefishing transducer at an angle to scan around in a circle and ID groups of fish. They described a homemade pole that tilted the ducer head horizontally instead of vertically.
Has anyone had experience doing something like this? Do you find it to be useful and if so, how did you build the contraption?
I’m not sure what that would look like on the screen of a flasher or if/how it would even be useful.
Get a small diameter pvc and a 90 degree angle. Tape or velcro it all the way down to the bottom and the ducer so it sits on the angle. I’ve seen it done a few times. No idea on the effectiveness, but I heard it works looking for fish
I was taught to do this years ago and still do this when hole hopping. Dunk the ducer, swing it in a circle. You will see “blips” show up when fish are around but not under the hole. If you do it enough and get used to it, it can be a great tool in showing which direction the fish are moving. Its a heck of alot quicker than me walking back to my livescope and scanning.
Hey all,
I remember reading something in outdoor news a month or two ago where somebody mentioned they use their standard vexilar icefishing transducer at an angle to scan around in a circle and ID groups of fish. They described a homemade pole that tilted the ducer head horizontally instead of vertically.
Has anyone had experience doing something like this? Do you find it to be useful and if so, how did you build the contraption?
Was it Tim Lesmeister? A few weeks ago on Outdoor News Radio he was laughing at how popular forward facing sonar has become because he has been doing exactly as you describe for years. He acted as if it’s the same thing as the forward facing sonar. Umm no, Tim, not quite the same thing.
You’re 100% right, couldn’t remember where I heard/read it but it had to be the podcast.
I was taught to do this years ago and still do this when hole hopping. Dunk the ducer, swing it in a circle. You will see “blips” show up when fish are around but not under the hole. If you do it enough and get used to it, it can be a great tool in showing which direction the fish are moving. Its a heck of alot quicker than me walking back to my livescope and scanning.
I have done that a few times but I worry about damaging the ducer wire by doing that frequently, have you run into issues doing that?
No, handful of different vex’s, Never had an issue.
I would think once any part of the cone hit the top of the ice it would stop marking fish, so if you were at a 90 degree angle can’t think you would be scanning too far out-I wobble my ducer to see if anything is just outside of the cone.
The real 360 should get smaller and cheaper. Eventually
There was a product made called Beam Bender by Northwoods Innovations I bought many years ago (but never got around to trying out) that was clipped on the transducer and cable that held the transducer at your desired angle (I think it had 3 angle choices) and slowly spun to find signals beyond the normal transducer cone. It eliminated people having to “swing” their transducers to accomplish the same results. This was being marketed before all this side imaging and forward facing sonar hit the market. It looks like their website is now down, but does seem they had a Facebook page active as of a couple years ago. I still think if you have 2d sonar only and don’t plan on jumping to new forward facing equipment that the idea has merit if you like to tinker with things.
51285528-D128-4C02-9719-7FF2CB16506F.png
Ok for me this would not be worth the effort, looks like you have to clip your cord into the thing but then once you are fishing you would want to unclip, you are only extending your range by a little bit and I think I can do that by wobbling my ducer-when I do that wobble (scouting) I only see a mark for a instant but that’s all I need to se if the hole is worth fishing.
working 3 silly little clips is too much effort? Isn’t the whole purpose of side scanning to locate fish? What’s next? Demanding they swim out of the hole for us to gather on top the ice?
As you can sure use a vex or other flasher in this capacity, it is not the same technology as live/forward sonar, not even close. For someone to say they have been using it for years before the live sonars came out is not even close to being possible.
Funny how bored we get when conditions go to hell!
Bearcat was on it… maybe a small length of pvc notched out to fit your ducer….. and rig a rubber strap or velcro to hold it for a quick peek device.
I always wobble my ducer….cuz dragging the LS around is a pain.
Saw a video on book face where a guy took one of those cheap plastic ice skimmers with the wood handle and cupped the plastic skimmer part into a semi circle and zip tied it in place and then snapped his transducer into it and bingo he had forward facing sonar for three bucks. He swore by it. Just saying.
of course we are still waiting for someone to say: …this what I did and it worked great’
There was a product made called Beam Bender by Northwoods Innovations I bought many years ago (but never got around to trying out) that was clipped on the transducer and cable that held the transducer at your desired angle (I think it had 3 angle choices) and slowly spun to find signals beyond the normal transducer cone. It eliminated people having to “swing” their transducers to accomplish the same results. This was being marketed before all this side imaging and forward facing sonar hit the market. It looks like their website is now down, but does seem they had a Facebook page active as of a couple years ago. I still think if you have 2d sonar only and don’t plan on jumping to new forward facing equipment that the idea has merit if you like to tinker with things.
Looks like an ad for Peronies disease…
I know quite a few guys that have been shooting 2d beams horizontally under the ice since the advent of the Lowrance Paper graphs. Successfully They all say that’s the unit to use. Commercial fisherman did the same thing in our area with the same Lowrance paper graph,
As you can sure use a vex or other flasher in this capacity, it is not the same technology as live/forward sonar, not even close. For someone to say they have been using it for years before the live sonars came out is not even close to being possible.
It’s the same basic principle meeting 21st-century computing power and engineering to make sense of the signal in a more and more refined and accurate way. The way things are progressing, it wouldn’t surprise me in ten years that we will be looking not at blobs on a screen but at representations of the actual species and size of the fish down to crawfish crawling around in the rocks if they are present.
I’m not sure what that would look like on the screen of a flasher or if/how it would even be useful.
When it comes to stuff like this, I’m a dinosaur LOL. My brother and I did this with our ‘ole Lowrance green boxes back in the very late 70’s/early 80’s. Well before the days of the Genz box for a Vex, we had to make a folding tri-pod for the transducer. While chasing perch on lake Mendota, we flipped the transducer up to a 45 or steeper angle and rotated it around the hole. Wasn’t hard to learn the signal return on the dial. Because it transmits as a cone, you got multiple returns. Distinguishing them became quite easy. In 60 fow of water and the transducer on an angle, you may see marks at 25, 55, and 100ish (*making an example not 100% accurate) The cone would hit the bottom of the ice (25′) and faintly return bottom (if at all at maybe 100′) But the strongest signal return at 55’ would be fish. We moved and leap-frogged in the direction we marked the school moving and stayed on them the best we could.
Down fall is limitation of distance with old equipment. Ironically the old green boxes produced a much better return signal than the Sitex (now Vexilar).
This is a good example of how the technology evolution works.
What amazes me is how good we have it, and the idea of what the US Navy must have.
This is a good example of how the technology evolution works.
What amazes me is how good we have it, and the idea of what the US Navy must have.
Great Point. Remember the old Side Imaging technology they would drag a submarine type thing behind another boat? I think they still do for greater accuracy and distance.
Humminbird (as far as I know) were 1st ones able to get it into a small transducer and that’s what blew the market and technology on SI for fishing boats wide open.
In other words, we at the fishing end are actually behind compared to Military and other aspects of technology.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
