New Ice electonics

Im looking forward to hitting the ice hard this year for the 1st time and am trying to decide what to get for a locater/depth finder. Im thinking a portable fish finder by eagle or hummingbird. A cammera would be fun too, cabelas has their model on sale now for under $150 with the sony ccd cammera. Flashers would be the last of my choices because I’ve never used one and they seem a little complicated to read, and I would only use it during the ice season. Any pros or cons to help me decide? Or a good link that shows how to read flashers. Thanks

Flashers are the (IMO) the only way to go. I have used them for years and would never hit the ice without one. I have a camera too, but it seems to scare the fish. They are fun to play with, but not an ideal way to fish on the ice.

My camera broke a few years ago and I do not miss it one bit. I got a flasher and learned very quickly how to read it and won’t ice fish with out it but also use it in the summer vertical jigging.

I would think a flasher would be a must,they can be found cheap on ebay or craigs list.

I believe the Marcum site can give the basics in reading a flasher, then it takes pratice and time on the ice to get it dialed in.

I have both a camera(Marcum) and flasher(Marcum) and I most always only use the flasher for ice fishing ,unless you use real weeds on camera cord I believe the fish can become camera shy, but a great tool to use at times but if I could use /have only one it would be a flasher.

There is alot of people in your area(pool4)that would/could show you the way around a flasher.

Hello B-J-R,

A good flasher should be your #1 choice. Portable fish finders do not have a transducer specific to ice fishing, plus the read out you get from a flasher is 100 times more accurate then that of an open water fish finder. Flashers are key, and are specifically manufactured for ice-fishing. Not only do they require a specific transducer, but they are built to withstand the elements. They are super easy to use and read. With a Flasher you will be able to tell what depth you are in, what depth your lure is in, and most important what depth the fish are in. The more experience you have with your flasher the better off you will be. You will be able to determine the mood of the fish by the way they react to your jigging technique, subtle bait movements, etc. Cameras are great, and have their place, but certainly not a must. I would start out with a good flasher, and work from there. Welcome to ice-fishing! If you are anything like the rest of us you will be addicted for life!! Good luck!

Nate Riddle

I fished thru the ice for many years without a flasher and after I bought one I cant hit the ice without it. Dont waste your time or money on cheap electronics for the ice. Save up and get yourself a Marcum or Vexilar they are the way to go no doubt about it. In James latest episode of IDO he showed the marcum and how to read it while he was splake fishing.

http://www.idofishing.com/videos/viewvid.php/Number/832973/ontario-splake-at-pasha-lake

Its kind of towards the end of the show but very helpful to someone who has never used a flasher

Great call JJ,

Another great episode to watch is the Ontario Lake Trout episode from last year. James does a great job in explaining how to read the Marcum in this episode as well.

http://www.idofishing.com/videos/viewvid.php/Number/720838/ontario-lake-trout

Nate Riddle

See me I’m a really nice guy when we go fishing I’ll let you use the camera all you want, people love it, depending on the conditions and such fish sometimes care sometimes don’t. Had an awesome day fishing on Mille lacs with a camera, catching jumbo perch, I missed with the flasher, occasionally I’d see a walleye off in the distance, they normally stayed far away from me and the camera, perch didn’t care at all. Of course to me it was one outstanding example how a camera could outfish a flasher….

But any other average day, a flasher hands down will catch you more fish and let you see more than a camera will, biggest reason IMHO is you can see the whole water column, normally I find myself fishing near the bottom in my ice haunts, but every so often I see fish come though suspended, I can say those fish that come through like that are highly catchable and you’d never even know they were there with a camera.

I always thought flashers were weird and wondered how the worked and such, then I bought one, read the instruction and was a pro in a couple minutes on the ice.

Trust us, get a flasher and you’ll understand, why everyone says to get one.

You may be able to find a Marcum event ( I suspect they are doing them again) and try a bunch of units out on the ice, (not just marcum’s either ) with people that really know how to use them, free, I suspect if you watch for upcomming detail, you can see when and where the events are.

There is also the discussion that more than one company makes flashers…. I only know of one Marcum, everyone else is trying to catch up.

the flasher is a great tool when ice fishing. You are able to ID fish,structure etc. I also have a camera, I use it to confirm what i think is going on. It also is great entertainment for the kids when they are with. I would invest in the flasher first. You will figure it out quickly.

When it comes to electronics I have a harder time than most people I know I got a FL-18 a few years ago,and with little or no help was useing on first outing.Last year took buddy with 8 year old son,he was useing it in a few minutes.I think the flasher is the only way to go. My favorite ice spot is 1 hour from home,if I forgot it I would drive back and get it.This year I purchased new LX-5 and will keep my FL-18 to loan to buddies I take.Useing one when your buddy does’nt have one can make you feel bad.Half the time I loan mine and then I’m fishing without one.LX-5’s are a great deal this year $399 to $449.When you buy one have them show you basic settings.Then on the ice first time use a little larger than normal lure like a jig w/2” twister.Lower it down and watch on the flasher.Then drop your ice jig down to the bottom lift up a foot or two and wait for that first red flash to come up to your lure and grab it,you’ll be hooked too.If you are like I was you fish near bottom most of the time .You will be suprised what you have been missing in the water column.Some days a lot of fish are suspended.Any questions you have your dealer or someone on IDO can help you Good luck. Steve

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When it comes to electronics I have a harder time than most people I know I got a FL-18 a few years ago,and with little or no help was useing on first outing.Last year took buddy with 8 year old son,he was useing it in a few minutes.I think the flasher is the only way to go. My favorite ice spot is 1 hour from home,if I forgot it I would drive back and get it.This year I purchased new LX-5 and will keep my FL-18 to loan to buddies I take.Useing one when your buddy does’nt have one can make you feel bad.Half the time I loan mine and then I’m fishing without one.LX-5’s are a great deal this year $399 to $449.When you buy one have them show you basic settings.Then on the ice first time use a little larger than normal lure like a jig w/2” twister.Lower it down and watch on the flasher.Then drop your ice jig down to the bottom lift up a foot or two and wait for that first red flash to come up to your lure and grab it,you’ll be hooked too.If you are like I was you fish near bottom most of the time .You will be suprised what you have been missing in the water column.Some days a lot of fish are suspended.Any questions you have your dealer or someone on IDO can help you Good luck. Steve

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Exactly what he said… I once caught 22 fish sitting next to my buddy who hadn’t caught one yet… We were fishing in 20 feet of water but all the fish were 3-5 feet off the bottom. Needless to say…he now owns a flasher.

The most valuable part of the flasher to me is knowing I am not fishing a dead hole. Drill a hole or twelve. Put the flasher in and see if there are any marks down there. If there are, throw your jig in and slowly jig it down to a foot or two over the mark. Play with it a little. If it doesn’t come up and check it out, lower your presentation down in front of it’s nose. Your other option is there aren’t any marks in the fishing column. Still drop your jig down for the sole reason that the fish might be a few feet away and out of your transducer column or the fish are hugging the bottom so they don’t differentiate from the bottom on the flasher. Fish a hole for a minute or two, maybe use a few different presentations, and if still no luck…MOVE ON!!! No need to fish dead holes!! You know they aren’t there or at least aren’t interested…so…you move!!

Years ago we would drill a hole and stay there whether the fish were there or not…not anymore…

Flasher first…add other accessories after!!

I recently bought a Marcum LX-5 but used a FL-8 for years. Happy with both so far.

I use my Lowrance 135 and see stuff my 2 buddies don’t see on the flasher. They do make iceducers for these units, I have one. I would never go back to a noisy blinking thing when these work so well and you don’t need to buy an extra unit.

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I use my Lowrance 135 and see stuff my 2 buddies don’t see on the flasher. They do make iceducers for these units, I have one. I would never go back to a noisy blinking thing when these work so well and you don’t need to buy an extra unit.

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While I do respect your opinion and it is good to hear you’ve been very happy with your Lowrance 135 out on the ice my experience using similar units has been poor at best. The lack of switchable transducer cone angles, poor target separation and slow response time had me counting the seconds until I could get back to the flasher. And I was test driving a unit owned by a member of this website that felt he had his unit “dialed in” for winter use. For what I’ve come to expect out of a flasher it really wasn’t even close to the tool I’m used to using.

But that’s just my opinion. Everyone’s entitled to one and anyone that feels they can get the same performance out of a graph set up for winter time use get a tip of the hat from me. I could not however recommend one as the tool of choice for ice use.

I can hear it now …the midnight hum of electronics, with the occasional flip-flop of a crappie on ice. Put that on a Relaxation CD and make a bundle.

Can’t wait for some hard water.

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I can hear it now …the midnight hum of electronics, with the occasional flip-flop of a crappie on ice. Put that on a Relaxation CD and make a bundle.

Can’t wait for some hard water.

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Throw in the hiss of a propane heater and you’ve got a hit on your hands.

Don’t forget the pleasantly light flapping that occasionally happens when the wind comes up against the Otter!

Joel

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Throw in the hiss of a propane heater and you’ve got a hit on your hands.

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I would have to have my own CD…the one with the BOOM of the propane heater.

I’ve never used the 135, so I had to go look up it’s specs. I have used and Eagle portable graph through ice. Thought it was perfect. Digital depth and all.

Then along came the Marcum TC-3. I never knew what I was missing. Kinda like my dad and air conditioners in cars.

I’m not an expert ice guy like a lot of these guys here. I get out maybe four times per year fishing. But I’ll go as far as saying my Marcum will put more fish on ice than any lcd graph out there.

(Not trying to offend anyone)

Getting back to the original post. I love my camera, but there is too many reason to have a flasher first.

A flasher isn’t depended on water clarity.

A flasher allows the angler to see the whole water column.

Using a flasher on the ice can tell the angler the depth before cutting a hole. (‘course a LakeMaster chip and GPS will get very close)

Walleyes are not flasher shy as they are with cameras. I know, using Reel Weeds Camera Cable with eliminate that too.

A flasher is much faster to use because there isn’t a cable to unwind and rewind after usage.

Now on the other hand…once fish are found…there’s nothing like a camera to watch the fish take the bait or find out how they are reacting to your bait.

MANY times when I’ve watch gills on camera, the reason we didn’t have any or only a few on ice was because they would suck in the bait and spit it out without the spring bobber twitching, much less being able to “feel” the bite.

Those are the days when you see the red line move up to and become one solid line with your bait on the flasher then slowly move away. These are the times, the angler knows there are fish around and knows what depth they are at.

A camera will tell me EXACTLY when to set the hook!

Now with all that said, I was one of those guys that bought a camera, used it a couple times and put it in my closet. If the fish were too deep or night time set in..I might see a fish if the lure was less than six inches away from the camera.

Then came the next generation of Marcum camera with DarkWater Technology. It’s like comparing a Lowrance “green” box to today’s sonar.

1. Fishing license

2. Ice rods

3. Bait of choice

4. Flasher

5. Camera for taking photo’s

6. Underwater camera

and the list goes on from there and some would argue about the order of 2, 3 and 4.

Which ever way you decide to go….Good Fishing!

I once got off work early to ice fish the Croix. When I got there I realized I forgot my flasher. I went home.
I’m as hooked as anyone on the technology. Cameras can be fun but after the newness wore off I quite using it.

Lets get some of those used VX1 and LX3tc for sale on the site. We got some folks interested and Im sure there are some wanting to go to the 5 series. cmon get them listed for sale.

FISHINFOOL

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Im looking forward to hitting the ice hard this year for the 1st time and am trying to decide what to get for a locater/depth finder. Im thinking a portable fish finder by eagle or hummingbird. A cammera would be fun too, cabelas has their model on sale now for under $150 with the sony ccd cammera. Flashers would be the last of my choices because I’ve never used one and they seem a little complicated to read, and I would only use it during the ice season. Any pros or cons to help me decide? Or a good link that shows how to read flashers. Thanks

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B-J-R:

Everyone on here’s done a great job of explaining many of the ins/outs of ice-electronics, and I couldn’t agree more with the “flasher-first” philosophy. Both cameras and flashers are phenomenal tools to help you better discern what’s going on under-ice, but if forced to use only one, a flasher offers several distinct advantages already noted here over a camera-only approach.

You’re obviously doing your homework, researching a bit more about using flasher/sonar technology, and that’s a great thing. At one point or another, you’re going to be bombarded with ice-electronics features, specifically flasher features, if you decide to go down that road. Each company has their own whiz-bang features that they use as take-home points to drive sales.

Going back to the basics however, much of what gets lost in the ice-electronics debates regarding features, is the general capability of the sonar you’re using. When it comes right down to it, we’re talking about the quality of sonar; the ability to send, receive, and ultimately, properly interpret these signals with the greatest sensitivity and accuracy. When you’re doing your research on the sonar itself, you’ll find that any of the Marcum sonar systems outpace the competition by several orders of magnitude in regards to this sensitivity and accuracy.

3/4″ target separation is unheard-of outside of their lineup. This gets chatted up as a feature, or a selling-point, or “pitch”, but in all reality is the cornerstone of their technology. Moreover, it’s why they have a niche in the market today.

You’re wise to ask the questions you are, and to conduct the research you have been. The more informed you are about this purchase, the more likely you are to enjoy it and use the flasher to it’s fullest potential!

Joel