Flasher choice?

[obifishkenobi]

To all the people who prefer a flasher to a graph view, why what is the advantage?
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[rgreenland]

I have 3 of those 4.
I don't have the Marcum.
I'd go with the Vexilar.
....and, for me, I can have all three of them within 20-30 feet of each other being used by friends or family and have never had a problem with interference.
I typically fish alone with two holes. Humminbird in one and Vex in the other.
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[Brighamfish]

I picked up a used Humminbird Helix 7 with both boat & ice transducers for $300 a few years back. My buddy I fish with a lot has a Showdown and he says the Helix 7 shows far more detail and is easier to read. I usually use the screen that has a vertical display (like the showdown) but also streams the history to the side. If I step away for a few seconds when I come back I can see if a fish was just nearby and can try to get its attention again. It also has the circular flasher screen if you still prefer that style of display. Being able to use it year round and having down imaging is also a plus. An ice ducer is definately easier to plunk in/out of the hole when managing bigger fish and line in the same hole as your finder. Hope to get a newer Helix with GPS and Chirp in the next couple years but couldn't be happier with the used purchase.

I have had varying degrees of interference, giving or getting, with friends who have Marcums, Vexilars and Humminbirds. Slope of bottom and distance apart seem to be the biggest factors in how far we've had to fish away from each other. Making sure no one sets up directly downslope from each other helps out a lot in my experience. With that in mind a comfortable talking distance in the open is usually not a problem. Tents up can be a little harder to talk comfortably and avoid at least some interference.

Whatever route you go a quality finder is a game changer for ice fishing. Just as much for telling you where the fish aren't as for where they are.
And when you get into aggressive fish that are chasing lures all over your finder screen, nothing better than that [fishon]
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[JArner]

I don’t necessarily prefer the flasher type, what I noticed is that the Vexilar screen was clearer in defining the water column ( top, bottom, jig, and roaming fish).

I admit to being fairly inexperienced with finders in general, so I could have had interference or not had the transducer pointed in the right orientation. More experience/testing could change my opinion.
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[Taggmon1]

Ice transducer allows you see more of the water column. Pulling and dropping transducer out the hole running and gunning searching for fish. Not having to worry about lining it up in your hole to see your bait. I used the boat one first trip when I got it , the next trip I had the ice transducer much happier
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[dubob]

[quote obifishkenobi]To all the people who prefer a flasher to a graph view, why what is the advantage?[/quote][font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 3]For ice fishing, the flashers present one picture of the water column or a split zoom/full column.I run my FLx28 in split mode with the zoom set to 6 feet. The colors are bright and instantly show fish size and location. On all of the graph units that I've looked at, the colors are less bright/washed out compared to the Vex units and I really don't care what was under me 3 to 5 minutes ago. Flashers are instant read 100% of the time and the blip size changes as the fish moves in and out of the cone. I haven't noticed that with graphs the few times I was looking at somebody else's graph. Seemed to be always just a line that maybe moved up or down with no real indication of size. On my flasher, the fish appears as a thin green line as it enters the cone and the blip can increase to a solid red bar 3 to 5 times wider as it moves into the center of the cone. Anything is better than fishing blind (NO sonar), but the units that give me the most information while ice fishing are the flashers.
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 3]The Vex separation is as good as, or better than, other brands and their dependability and customer support is second to none.[/size][/#800000][/font]
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[Kent]

[quote obifishkenobi]

I do not have the Ice transducer for my Striker 4 and have a hard time justifying spending an additional $100 for it, what is the advantage of having one? The transducer for the boat works well, but I do have to make sure it is facing the right direction to see my gear, but that is easily accomplished.

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I have always spent the extra $ to get an ice transducer for my various fish finders that I have use for ice fishing. Paired with a Vexilar, or similar, float attached to the cord, one can drop the transducer in the ice hole and it is immediately lined up and pointed straight down the ice hole.

This is especially nice when landing a fish. Lift the transducer out of the hole. Land the fish. Drop the transducer back in the hole and go back to fishing.
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[dubob]

[quote kentofnsl]Lift the transducer out of the hole. Land the fish. Drop the transducer back in the hole and go back to fishing.[/quote][font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 3]Nah - drill two holes side by side and use one for the transducer and one to fish out of. [][/size][/#800000][/font]
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[Kent]

I actually drill three holes, with the transducer down the middle home and a rod down the other two holes. I do this except when I am hole hopping and then I just have my transducer down the same hole that I am fishing.
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[Jedidiah]

I feel like I resolved the problem I was having with the Striker 4 the first two times I was using it, and that is that it didn't seem to pick up what was actually on the bottom under me. Did some testing yesterday and I figured out that the round part needs to point straight down, not the wedge shaped piece that sticks out of the side. I saw a Youtube video about it where a guy had added a piece of PVC pipeto the inside of the pool noodle that he had and then run the cable for the flasher through and then mounted the flasher to the piece of PVC pipe so that it is always pointing down in the perfect orientation.

When I was being careful to orient the cable so it was pointing down like this, I could see a tiny tungsten jig 75 feet down no problem. The accuracy and faster updates on the Striker 4 get it my vote by far, but also the fact that you can see the wide and narrow beam sonars at the same time is key because you can see what's right under you and what might be approaching. It's really easy to look at that display and visualize something very far down circling around the area under you.
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[obifishkenobi]

I use the three hole set up and put my transducer in the left hole, fish the middle hole with my rod in my hand and a dead stick in my bait bucket rod holder in the right hole, unless I’m using my jaw Jacker then I will drill 2 holes and put my Jaw jacker 15-20ft away from me in my 3rd. Hole.
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[Kent]

I prefer to put my transducer in the middle hole and then I typically put my right rod on the bottom and my left rod suspended in the water column. By putting the transducer in the middle I can always see both jigs and I can see the shallower jig higher in the water column than if the transducer is further away. Occasionally, I will get both lines tangled while fighting a fish, but that happens very rarely. Also, by just having the bottom of the transducer hanging even or barely below the bottom of the ice fish do not get wrapped around it.
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[obifishkenobi]

I agree about how fast it updates I notice faint blue lines angling in from the bottom or down from up higher in the water column which I think are fish out on the edges of my transducer cone. I reel up or down to them and often times they will become a fish arch. Speaking of arches I really like how I can see individual arches and have a rough estimate of the size of each of the marks in the column and target the larger ones. Mounting my transducer to a stiff pvc stand really helped me set up and find and keep my best transducer angle.
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[Ticklestick]

I use a Helix 7 from my boat, I just purchased a XI 9 1521 transducer for it a couple years ago, its been nothing but amazing.
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[Brighamfish]

"On my flasher, the fish appears as a thin green line as it enters the cone and the blip can increase to a solid red bar 3 to 5 times wider as it moves into the center of the cone."

A quality graph will give you this AND the history on the split screen. Update should also be instant. I totally agree that a lot of graphs (generally the kind that just show fish arcs) are not nearly as good for ice fishing as a flasher, but a quality graph with ice fishing mode built in can really be incredible.

Not trying to knock anyone's flasher or personal experience, just saying there are good graphs out there that can do this too.
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[ratnest]

Catchinon,

I look forward to hearing of your thoughts after some hands on experience.
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[JArner]

https://youtu.be/q6Up5dFM35Q

Here is a quick video I put together on the Garmin Striker 4 using the stock transducer as well as the ice transducer.

I’m no pro youtuber or fisherman. I do enjoy tinkering with gadgets and finding out what works best for me.

Bottom line is I’ll be using the ice specific transducer on the hard deck.
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[ratnest]

Thanks for taking the time to put together this video. For the occasional ice fisher, I struggle to justify the cost of some of these finders. The Striker 4 is very reasonably priced, although the screen is seems small. I think this is the one I am going to go with shortly.
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[JArner]

Looks like someone is selling a Garmin on ksl http:// https://classifieds.ksl.com/listing/58768860
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