I consider the Clam Legend XL a 1.5 person shack. My daughter won one in a tornament. Her and I can fish out of it together since she is still small.

Supply and Demand, not cost to produce, determines the price of a product. (Cost of production does factor into the supply side)

I learned a lot last year about fish reactins to top side stuff with the livescope. I would mark a small school of fish, leave the transducer facing them, go drill holes, check back and they would be gone. This was a small lake that doesn’t get much pressure. I am hoping swithcing to an electric auger spooks fish less. Moral of the story, use a forward sonar and experiment on what scares them and doesn’t

set the depth manually and get comfortable adjusting it as you move around.

Crappie 55369, are you in the market? I have a livescope (no graph) new in box from cyber Monday, hit me up if interested I’ll give you a good guy discount

Watching Jay siemans YouTube videos, it looks like you need an 8″ hole. No idea on availability. Garmin has a $200 rebate on livescope and a 9″ echomap for $699 at Cabelas. Probably get that a lot faster if you are not brand picky

This will be my 4th season with Livescope. The knowledge you gain with forward view sonar is amazing (Garmin, Lowrance & Hummingbird all have it now).

I fish a small shallow low pressured crappie Hotspot. A friend and I drilled out the entire lake and never marked a fish with traditional 2d sonar. Came back the next year with livescope, would find small pods of fish and drill right on top of them, go to fish them and they were gone, scared off by auger. A new forward view scan would show the same school 10-20′ away. Repeat the drill over them, they again again scare off. But the 3rd time finding the same pod and drilling over them they would get use to the auger and stick around and bite. I’ve seen this exact behavior several outings since. With 2d you are completely blind to them, you can drill hundreds of holes and not see a fish, when in fact they are hiding just outside of the cone angle. Suspended crappie just can’t hide with forward view.

I decided to go the drill route this year, so I don’t have a history with it. But this has probably been the most discussed topic this off seaons. what my research showed, is that if you can afford it, the 40v is tough to beat because of ease of use and power. However, people with drills and lite flites seem very happy as well. I am someone that uses tools a lot, and all of my yard power tools are dewalt, so it was easier for me to justify putting money into tools and batteries that I can use all year. It is not a big thing to bring out some extra 5 ah batteries becuase I already own them. Lowes has a deal going on a kit with a DCD998 hammer drill, an impact driver and 8 ah battery for $299, plus you can pick a free bare tool (I picked a $200 circular saw). So for me it was a good oppertunity to boost up my tool game as well. I think having a big enough drill and the strikmaster cuts easily, it should hold up.

here is the lowes deal I got, it is good until 11/17: https://www.lowes.com/pd/DEWALT-Power-Detect-XR-POWER-DETECT-2-Tool-20-Volt-Max-Brushless-Power-Tool-Combo-Kit-with-Soft-Case-Charger-Included-and-2-Batteries-Included/1002097720

If I am fishing, it is always full screen livescope. sometimes if I am moving around on stucture I will split the map and livescope for a bit, but that is rare. I have nevery seen a need to use the flasher mode since I have livescope

Yes, panoptix is not livescope, but it is a huge upgrade to any traditional 2d sonar. Traditional panoptix can also see out further than Livescope. I personally have livescope, but if panoptix is what your budget allows, I say go for it.

that is a good point, I have a basic 570 right now that I haven’t tried in snow yet, that will probably be a lot easier to push out of spots, I had an old Honda 300 TRX, that was very easy to get unstuck

All good points, the trailer i have can handle it fine. The ability to tow around my Lund would be nice, but the extra wieght and maintenance are concerns

Good call on the wieght. It looks like it is almost 800 lbs more than the 570 full size I have now. I have a 3/4 ton truck that I don’t ever plan on driving out, so the ranger will be all season once we have safe ice.

It looks like a good setup, but $3K for the Helix 9 with Live will have me staying with my Livescope for awhile longer. I like that there is no black box to add weight to the kit, and the transducer looks less bulky. Forward looking sonar is a completly different game and a ton of fun.

James Holst wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Whateverbites wrote:</div>
Does anyone know when the new Strikemaster 40v will be available for purchase?

People that know are telling me the 40 volt should be in stores by mid October.

Thanks James! That is my next ice purchase.

Does anyone know when the new Strikemaster 40v will be available for purchase?

If you plan to use live, I would suggest getting a 9″ screen. I have Livescope on a 9″ screen and love it, I don’t think I would like a 7″

It seems like a lot of the snow this season has missed that area this winter, so I would think you should be good, but I would still confirm with a local bait shop.

I purchased a Flambeau Rod Bunk Box after black Friday this year for around $35. I love it, it is not as heavy duty as an otter box, but I am not throwing it out the truck at 55 mph either.

it fits 3500 plano boxes in the slots
the Clam spoon box (can’t remember the size) fits perfectly in the middle
I can put my recon camera in there too.
I have had 7 rods in there, but 5-6 is more comfortable

I bought it for the rod protection, but the gear organization has far exceeded my expectations.

Their Facebook page has a lot of updates.

It looks like they wanted to make it completely random, but that would not fly with the gaming commission, it has to have some skill involved, or it is just a raffle.

The 150 prizes are scattered evenly amongst the top 500 fish, so if you are in the top 500, you have a 30% chance at a prize.

I would assume Pike and Walleye will make up most of the 500 in top lenth, but wont be surprised to see some crappie and tullibee get into that top 500.

the 128th longest fish will win the truck

as someone mentioned earlier, there will probably be less than 1500 contestants, a certain percent will not catch any fish in those 3 hours. a certain percent will catch fish, but fail to correctly register them.

Personally, I will target pike, but if its 2:30 and I don’t have a pike, I will transition to getting the longest possible crappie to make sure I have a fish on the board.

Good luck to everyone participating, and thanks to the Jaycees for adapting and overcoming this year

I purchaed the 597 ice kit when they first came out, ran it for several seasons on the ice and in a canoe. great unit. I sold it last year for around $200 I think. I wouldn’t be worried about the unit itself being archaic, but probably plan to replace the transducer at some point (but plan on that when buying any used flasher)

use it in graph mode, not the circular flasher.

the two biggest sacrifices you would be making vs. a newer unit would be target separation and interference rejection.

I would like to see how the 360 performs on a hard bottom vs. a soft bottom. Last weekend episode was clearly showing strong returns of the perch over soft bottom, but I wonder if they would blend in more against a hard bottom.

An area I think the LS has over the 360 is that you can use it for jigging as well, not requiring a 2nd unit/ducer dedicated to jigging

I’m gonna try hot dogs this year

hnd wrote:

the idea of santa claus giving more to our kids vs their kids didn’t sit well with us either.

-This is why Santa brings more modest gifts for the kids at our house. My 5 y/o still believes, but she knows that some come from mom and dad, others from Santa. We don’t ever want another kid to feel that they didn’t deserve something big from Santa.

If I am shallow, near weeds, I am for sure dropping a line. if you figure the cone with of the average flasher is 1/3 of the depth, if you are in 9′ of water, you can only see 3′, I like to throw a jig down quick to see if something enters the cone quick, but will not stay long if there are no fish.

I would also use a heavy tungsten jig to get down there fast.

Try drilling two holes and setting up tip ups, and casting one line and see what the DNR does

check out st. croix bass-X line, it tends to have a slower ore parabolic action

anyone that ordered from Cabela’s have any updates? I emailed them today challenging them on why they would have a sale on items that were never in stock with no intention of reordering.

there is a facebook group called Garmin Ice Fishing that has a ton of examples of custom build options for LS.

in short, if you purchase an Echomap plus (73 or 93) and the live-scope you have all the core items you need from Garmin. all you need then is something to mount it too, a battery and a pole to mount the transducer.

if you watch the sales, you should be able to pick up a echomap 93SV plus for around $600, and that will give you a side imaging ducer for your boat too!

I don’t expect it to be canceled, I don’t think they carry an inventory of them at Cabelas, and fill orders as they come in. (just a guess)