02-10-2021, 04:00 PM
I had this on another thread as a response. Thought it might be worth posting as a new thread of info for those thinking about Ice fishing sonar options. As TIP as mentioned below you can find some pretty good units online for great deals, that can easily be converted for Ice fishing use. I spent a little time looking online surprised at some of the deals out there.
My two cents worth on the Sonar issue. To each his own. Flasher or Graph either one is a great plus and will help to locate structure, the appropriate depth, and of course fish. They can also help determine how the fish are are responding to your presentation. It often comes down to cost and user ability to interpret what is going on and the quality of the unit being used. A flasher vs a graph are just different way of displaying this information. On many quality Graphs they will have an ICE Fishing setting" The ice mode has a bar on the right hand side that is a live action readout in a vertical format instead of a circle like a flasher, with the added advantage of the history as it scrolls to the left, so you can see what happened if you were not watching every second. The other big advantage is my Graph has a GPS with ability to add lake map chips so I can locate spots that I have marked from soft water fishing and locate structure depth etc., before ever drilling a hole. The cost for the unit when new, it is an Elite 5 Lowrance was about 600 Bucks, I did not pay that much. I had an earlier similar Eagle unit minus the GPS sitting in the Garage that I had converted with an ammo can, a small 12Volt battery (actually my 12 volt ATV battery that I keep in garage in the winter anyway since I usually park them for the winter) and a short length of aluminum strip that I clamp to the side of the box to hold the transducer in position in the ice hole. It all fits in the ammo can, the battery lasts forever, It has worked out great for me. I realized that the transducer on the old unit was compatible with my upgraded unit, so I unhook it from the mount in the boat and pop it into the ammo can plug it into power transducer connection and now have the set up with GPS. I can now use the same unit on soft water and or ice and get year round use out of it. So the set up I have can actually be more than a flasher but I like have GPS built in and not have to use separate GPS or phone app. And, I also don't have to have a unit for ice fishing and one for Soft water,
Just a tip but looking online you can buy some of these graphs used online for less than a flasher and the plastic ammo can and battery options are not that expensive. Try to find one that has an ICE setting, you can use graphs for ice fishing without it but it is a nice option to give you "flasher" and traditional graph display. The picture attached is of my old Eagle unit, I now use the Elite 5 in the same set up. This picture is with the unit in simulator mode, you can see the "ICE Flasher" side bar on the right hand side of the screen.
Tight lines
Mildog out
![[Image: Ice-fishing-Graph-set-up.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/p1GJLPy/Ice-fishing-Graph-set-up.jpg)
![[Image: thumbnail-IMG-8740-1.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/zFhWV1T/thumbnail-IMG-8740-1.jpg)
time spent fishing isn't deducted from ones life
My two cents worth on the Sonar issue. To each his own. Flasher or Graph either one is a great plus and will help to locate structure, the appropriate depth, and of course fish. They can also help determine how the fish are are responding to your presentation. It often comes down to cost and user ability to interpret what is going on and the quality of the unit being used. A flasher vs a graph are just different way of displaying this information. On many quality Graphs they will have an ICE Fishing setting" The ice mode has a bar on the right hand side that is a live action readout in a vertical format instead of a circle like a flasher, with the added advantage of the history as it scrolls to the left, so you can see what happened if you were not watching every second. The other big advantage is my Graph has a GPS with ability to add lake map chips so I can locate spots that I have marked from soft water fishing and locate structure depth etc., before ever drilling a hole. The cost for the unit when new, it is an Elite 5 Lowrance was about 600 Bucks, I did not pay that much. I had an earlier similar Eagle unit minus the GPS sitting in the Garage that I had converted with an ammo can, a small 12Volt battery (actually my 12 volt ATV battery that I keep in garage in the winter anyway since I usually park them for the winter) and a short length of aluminum strip that I clamp to the side of the box to hold the transducer in position in the ice hole. It all fits in the ammo can, the battery lasts forever, It has worked out great for me. I realized that the transducer on the old unit was compatible with my upgraded unit, so I unhook it from the mount in the boat and pop it into the ammo can plug it into power transducer connection and now have the set up with GPS. I can now use the same unit on soft water and or ice and get year round use out of it. So the set up I have can actually be more than a flasher but I like have GPS built in and not have to use separate GPS or phone app. And, I also don't have to have a unit for ice fishing and one for Soft water,
Just a tip but looking online you can buy some of these graphs used online for less than a flasher and the plastic ammo can and battery options are not that expensive. Try to find one that has an ICE setting, you can use graphs for ice fishing without it but it is a nice option to give you "flasher" and traditional graph display. The picture attached is of my old Eagle unit, I now use the Elite 5 in the same set up. This picture is with the unit in simulator mode, you can see the "ICE Flasher" side bar on the right hand side of the screen.
Tight lines
Mildog out
time spent fishing isn't deducted from ones life
time spent fishing isn't deducted from ones life