Using Helix 7 Ice in Shallow Water

I’m having issues trying use my G3 fishing shallower than about 12’. The depth reads incorrectly (I’ve tried going manual but doesn’t seem to help) and if I switch holes it sometimes takes minutes to show a correct depth before going buggy again. Also can’t seem to see my jig no matter how much I adjust gain. I’m wondering if there is a low power mode or another setting I’m missing. Getting frustrated

Try a factory reset, and check your open water or ice fishing mode.It seems to me mine is set for open water.

Thanks for the advice, first winter trying it on the ice. Went up to LOTW and it worked very well but of course was is deeper water. I did a factory reset and will try in open water mode vs ice mode. I’ve also read that putting SwitchFire into Clear mode is better for shallow water as well. Any experience with that?

Do you have newest software update? Check your unit and verify on HB website. This fixed ALL my issues. Hundreds of threads on here

Thanks. Just checked and need to update. Hoping my experience is the same.

Tight Lines

Mark Anderson wrote:

Thanks. Just checked and need to update. Hoping my experience is the same.

Tight Lines

There’s a software update for a Ice Helix 7 G3 ?

reddog wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Mark Anderson wrote:</div>
Thanks. Just checked and need to update. Hoping my experience is the same.

Tight Lines

There’s a software update for a Ice Helix 7 G3 ?

I did not see it there either??? too many models is making my head spin

eyeguy507 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>reddog wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Mark Anderson wrote:</div>
Thanks. Just checked and need to update. Hoping my experience is the same.

Tight Lines

There’s a software update for a Ice Helix 7 G3 ?

I did not see it there either??? too many models is making my head spin

Yes it is confusing. If you’re unit is registered with the serial number on the HB web site you should get a email notification of when a update is available for your specific unit is the way I understand it. When I go to the web site and look at the software update list my model Helix Ice 7 G3N chirp/Gps isn’t even listed. Does that mean there is no update for it and they will list that model when a update is available for it?

Mine is working great so unless I get a email telling me there is a software update I’m not going to worry about it. Even then I’m going to see what fixes or upgrades are involved and if I feel it’s not necessarily needed I’m probably not going to down load it.

I’m traveling so not looking directly at the unit to compare. I might be mistaken so will have to compare when I get home. Absent the factory reset recommendation any other thoughts on what would make my unit act as it does when in shallow water while in ice mode? Didn’t have the issue this past summer when in open water mode. Anything deeper than about 12’-15’ on the ice and it works as expected.

I appreciate your patience and input. Really working to ensure I can take full advantage of the features.

Mark Anderson wrote:

I’m traveling so not looking directly at the unit to compare. I might be mistaken so will have to compare when I get home. Absent the factory reset recommendation any other thoughts on what would make my unit act as it does when in shallow water while in ice mode? Didn’t have the issue this past summer when in open water mode. Anything deeper than about 12’-15’ on the ice and it works as expected.

I appreciate your patience and input. Really working to ensure I can take full advantage of the features.

Make sure you are on the widest cone angle. I’ve noticed with mine if I’m fishing in actual shallow water like 7 ft or less my jig will disappear while jigging because it goes outside of the cone angle. It doesn’t take much lateral movement to get it outside the cone on some of the angles in that shallow of water.

Thanks, I’ve thought of that and adjusted my cone angle with not much luck. Had a couple of times I could actually see my jig but mostly was blind.

I’m just back from A week at Lake Winnipeg. My H7 G3 Ice pretty much performed flawlessly. From 18 feet of water to 6 foot with 50 inches of ice. My only problem was making my 15 ah lithium last all day. It took real management to make it . It forced me to stay under cover of my otter shack in order to see the graph on a setting of 1 or 2 in the brightness setting. In fact, it sucked in regards to how much battery it ate. And yes, this was on night mode also with a black background. I loved the mapping with the Winnipeg Lakemaster. But if I go again, I’ll take some other unit for sonar.

reddog wrote:

I’m just back from A week at Lake Winnipeg. My H7 G3 Ice pretty much performed flawlessly. From 18 feet of water to 6 foot with 50 inches of ice. My only problem was making my 15 ah lithium last all day. It took real management to make it . It forced me to stay under cover of my otter shack in order to see the graph on a setting of 1 or 2 in the brightness setting. In fact, it sucked in regards to how much battery it ate. And yes, this was on night mode also with a black background. I loved the mapping with the Winnipeg Lakemaster. But if I go again, I’ll take some other unit for sonar.

Why not just take a spare battery with and change batteries during the day?

Karry, I did take a extra 7 along. Had to change out one afternoon. one thing I noticed was the % window was a projected time left. When I shut the sonar off to move, the battery % would jump 30 percent. Even when I ended the day at 3% my voltage meter was still at 11.3 or so, so in regards to running the Humminbird, there was still plenty of volts left. I struggled occasionally with the GPS tracking. It seemed I had to turn tracking on manually, which I didn’t understand. Why not track all the time and if you don’t want the track, hide it? Another thing, was when I was zooming in on a surrounding lake to read the name of it, (because it wasn’t legible at the zoom level I was on) the lake zoomed in but the font stayed the same illegible size, so I never was able to read what lake it was.

reddog wrote:

I struggled occasionally with the GPS tracking. It seemed I had to turn tracking on manually, which I didn’t understand. Why not track all the time and if you don’t want the track, hide it?

This has confused me before as well. My is new this year. The first time out up on Red I was out with the side by side with the Bird sitting on the seat with the GPS map up. I don’t remember ever having to go into the menus to turn it on it just started tracking.

After a few trips there were so many tracks it was getting hard to tell what was what. I’d go into the menu and tell it to delete all tracks and it wouldn’t. After about 20 minutes of screwing around I had to hit “Stop Tracking” in the menu which I’m sure I never told it to start tracking to begin with. Then it would delete all the tracks. Also don’t power off before hitting “Save Current Track” or it won’t be there next time you power up.