HDS 7 for ice fishing?

Has anyone tried using a HDS 7 for ice fishing. I’ve kicked around the idea of using mine, getting the lowrance ice ducer, to have GPS capabilities and using my map chips. I read on another forum guys using their HDS 5. I assume it would have same capabilities. My main question is how does the “marks” show up and stay on screen. I also have a LMS 520. Considered using it since it has a flasher mode, but it doesn’t have internal gps antennae like my HDS 7. Any input or suggestions.

I have used my LMS-522 for ice fishing inconjunction with the Lowrance Ice Ducer and pack. It works fine other than being slower than my Vex. It is certainly handy to have along as a spare on a trip to Lake of the Woods or something so if somebody has a problem there is an extra unit around. Your lure and fish draw lines on the graph just like if you were sitting still in open water.

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Has anyone tried using a HDS 7 for ice fishing. I’ve kicked around the idea of using mine, getting the lowrance ice ducer, to have GPS capabilities and using my map chips. I read on another forum guys using their HDS 5. I assume it would have same capabilities. My main question is how does the “marks” show up and stay on screen. I also have a LMS 520. Considered using it since it has a flasher mode, but it doesn’t have internal gps antennae like my HDS 7. Any input or suggestions.

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I have my HDS7 rigged for on a Genz blue box. I mainly use it for the GPS but have used the 2D sonar also but I prefer my FL20. Not sure what you mean by the “marks” but I would assume you mean fish? They will come onto your screen as a flat line and will move up or down according to what the fish is doing. You can see your jig/lure and watch the fish come up or get closer to your jig and then wait for the hit. It works but like I said I prefer my FL20.

Was on the lake the other day and swicthed my lowrance over to flasher when we anchored and used like for ice fishing and it worked great to see the jig and fish. I mount mine on the 4-wheeler with a ram mount and mount the puck also on it.

Jeffrey,
Do you have a HDS 5 or a LMS unit? I don’t think my HDS 7 has a Flasher mode, unless I’m missing something.

Try Sonar/Menu/Sonar Options(rigth click the top one)Split and scroll down to Flasher/enter

I wanted to say that.

Thank you. I will try that.

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I’ve been lugging around an HDS5 primarily as my GPS the past two winters. It works pretty well for fishing too. The big drawbacks are you’ll sacrifice target resolution and be restricted to a 20 degree transducer compared to a flasher.

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Is there still a noticeable “lag” time between actually lifting/dropping your jig and seeing it on the screen as their was with past Lowrance builds?

Joel

You might be fishing alone a lot. Like it not. I don’t think any of summer unit made by whoever has interference rejection. Whoever you are fishing with using the ice units most likely will be able to fitter you from their unit but you won’t be able to anything about it.

This is an old thread but thought I would post pics of my modification of the HDS7 to the Genz.

I don’t use the HDS for sonar anymore just for the GPS function but I left room on top of the back area to put a puck holder for the transducer.

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my buddy uses his hds7 in open water mode for ice fishing. he prefers the graphing so to see the past and present in the screen, to see how the fish are reacting. he prefers the hds over his ice35.

fishingishot wrote:

You might be fishing alone a lot. Like it not. I don’t think any of summer unit made by whoever has interference rejection. Whoever you are fishing with using the ice units most likely will be able to fitter you from their unit but you won’t be able to anything about it.

This and the battery life are the two biggest drawbacks that I’ve heard. They don’t play well fished close to other units and you’ll most likely want to carry an extra battery.

Will Roseberg wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>fishingishot wrote:</div>
You might be fishing alone a lot. Like it not. I don’t think any of summer unit made by whoever has interference rejection. Whoever you are fishing with using the ice units most likely will be able to fitter you from their unit but you won’t be able to anything about it.

This and the battery life are the two biggest drawbacks that I’ve heard. They don’t play well fished close to other units and you’ll most likely want to carry an extra battery.

I have an HDS5 gen1 set up for ice fishing and have used it a few years now.
I can tell you it has adjustable noise rejection which is basically another name for interference rejection. I used it this year in 50 fow fishing next to a vex and humminbird… no one had interference issues. I’ve also used my vex in the boat for fall vertical jigging and didn’t have interference with the HDS.
I can also tell you I’ve never had the 10ah sla battery die on me.

They have all the totally awesome features and options that the marcum digital units have plus 1 other neat feature.. a fully capable GPS chart.

I do still prefer using a standard old-school, outdated technology flasher. Features and options don’t catch fish. The HDS is still always with me on the ice and used for a GPS… that does help catch more fish.

Will Roseberg wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>fishingishot wrote:</div>
You might be fishing alone a lot. Like it not. I don’t think any of summer unit made by whoever has interference rejection. Whoever you are fishing with using the ice units most likely will be able to fitter you from their unit but you won’t be able to anything about it.

This and the battery life are the two biggest drawbacks that I’ve heard. They don’t play well fished close to other units and you’ll most likely want to carry an extra battery.

I use my humminbird 597HD and it has 3 levels of interference rejection. No lag time in flasher mode. Using the IR on my vexilar I can get rid of all interference when using the two units 4 ft away in water up to about 25 ft. But I don’t fish deeper that that very often so it works well for me.

I actually have found myself not bringing the vexilar on solo trips anymore and only using the humminbird so I don’t have to carry another unit. Have never had the battery die on me during a single day. I think once it lasted two days for about a total of 14 hours of usage before the battery meter showed empty. That being said, I do carry an extra battery just in case.

Will Roseberg wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>fishingishot wrote:</div>
You might be fishing alone a lot. Like it not. I don’t think any of summer unit made by whoever has interference rejection. Whoever you are fishing with using the ice units most likely will be able to fitter you from their unit but you won’t be able to anything about it.

This and the battery life are the two biggest drawbacks that I’ve heard. They don’t play well fished close to other units and you’ll most likely want to carry an extra battery.

Will, when I was using the HDS for the sonar along with the GPS I was getting at least 4-6 hours on a full charge and brightness turned up to at least 8. Could have knocked the brightness down quite a bit. Also, never noticed my buddies with the Vexilars ever complaining about interference issues. Maybe my hearing was bad along with my memory LOL!

It’s been a few years since I fished with someone who was using their summer graph so it’s quite possible the newer units play much nicer with others. I was using an LX-5 at the time and I believe the Lowrance was an LCX-27… No issues on my end with but if I fished within 20′ of my friend his lit up like a Chinese fireworks show.

As to the battery life I’ve set up a portable system for attaching my HDS-7 & 10 to an ATV or friends boat so that I can use the GPS features and my experience has been about 4-5 hrs with a 9 AH battery typically using brightness level 6. I’m almost positive that if I used my lithium it would last all day though.