Fish finders for ice fishing

[ocean]

Dont know anythiing about these portable fish finders.How much do they cost ,what kind of battery do they use and is there a difference with the regular fish finders?
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[addicted2fishin]

For ice fishing I just use my Eagle Ultra Classic (regular finder) mounted in a small tackle box with a zip tie holding a 12v lead-acid battery in there. It is good for a few days fishing on the ice.
I use that ice fishing and bought a second transducer and have that one hooked onto my boat for summer use. All I have to do is swap the transducer plug in the back of the finder. The good thing is that, without it hard-mounted to the dash of the boat I can have the finder anywhere on the boat with me for easy viewing.
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[Chester]

Find folks on the ice who have fish finders. Most are happy to share info about their unit, but occasionally you find a grumpy fisherman.(never understood that) I spent 2 yrs looking and asking questions. Thanks to all who answered my questions.

Chester
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[ocean]

Ok so i can still use my boats ff? I dont have mt boat but still have my ff its only been used 5 times before my wife got rid of my boat.So how deep in the water should it be to work?
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[maddawg]

If you want something really good for Ice fishing I would recomend a flasher unit

Maddawg
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[JHT]

It doesn't have to be very deep to work. You just need a little water on the transducer and you should have no problems.
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[ocean]

Hey do you know if a motorcycle battery would work with a regular ff?
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[addicted2fishin]

You just need the transducer submerged. You can put the transducer in the same hole you fish through, though I recommend having a separate hole so the fishing line doesn't get tangled in the transducer line.
It can actually work if you cut partway into the ice and fill the hole with water as long as there are no major air pockets below the hole. This can be useful if you have a hand auger and want to find out your depth before drilling all the way through the ice.
A 12 v. motorcycle battery should work, but won't last as long. Motorcycle batteries are not built to have the power drawn down like the lead acid batteries (gel cell) batteries are. This is the reason trolling motors use 'deep cycle' batteries. They are designed to have the power drawn down. The gel cell batteries are often used in emergency back-up lighting in businesses and they are smaller than motorcycle batteries. You can get one at Sportsman's for about $20 or I got a bunch at NPS for about $4.
Then there is the matter of the liquid acid in the motorcycle batteries. You have to keep them upright. You don't have to do that with gel cells. Just make sure you don't tip them over in the back of the truck bed and short out the posts!
Let me know if you have any other questions.
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[N.E.T.O.]

My Lowrance M68 has both the regular graph mode (like you would normally use in the boat) as well as the "IceMachine" mode, that emulates a flasher.
This is just my opinion, but I like the regular graph mode better. If you look away for a minute, then look back you can see if any fish have come into the area or not, as they show up on the graph, where if you are using flasher mode, if you look away for a moment and a fish comes into the area, and then leaves before you look back, you won't know there was a fish there or not.

Also, it seems easier for me to see my lure in relation to the bottom, and I can also see my lure "jigging" when fish are present, and can see the fish reaction (raises, lowers, leaves, etc.).

Maybe if I used a flasher exclusively I would grow to like it, but for now I just mine in regular graph mode and it works great.

Hope this helps.

Randy
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[ocean]

Whats NPS? And those batteries are they big and heavy?
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[addicted2fishin]

NPS is a place up in Salt Lake that deals in lost and damaged freight. I actually haven't been there in quite a while as they kept jacking up their prices and they had very few really good deals anymore.

I would say to buy from Sportsman's or find a place that supplies them as battery backups as you may be able to find them cheaper.

They are about 8"x3"x4" (guessing here). Basically look like a small black brick with the pos. and neg. connectors on top.

If you go into Sportsman's and look on the shelf below the finders you will see them there.
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[BearLakeMack]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Ocean,[/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Your cheapest route is to go with your exisitng fishfinder and modify it to use on the ice. There have been several threads of what's best on the ice, how to rig a fishfinder for the ice and what are the best batteries. The bottom line is how much do you want to spend?[/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Bottom line to make yours work for ice:[/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]1. Any 12V battery. It doesn't matter what you use. A car battery, a motor cycle battery, etc, etc, etc. Your unit does not draw enough power to put a dent in a motorcycle battery. Use what you can lay your hands on. The batteries at Sportman's are nice because they are small and don't weigh much. You can upgrade as you go.[/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]2. A new power cable for your fishfinder. Don't take the power cable out of your boat unless it is VERY easy to remove. Power cables are realitively cheap. Put battery clips on the end to hook to the battery terminal. Some have adapted 12V accessory plugs to make things cleaner and easier. You don't need to do this.[/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]3. A new transducer if the one on the boat is permanently mounted. Hook it to anything you can to get it down the hole and shooting in the direction you need. You can build a transducer holder from PVC or other materials or buy a ready built one from
Sportsman's.[/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]4. Some kind of container to house all this stuff. A lot of guys use ammo or dry boxes. others use soft sided bags and mount all their stuff to a board that fits inside, so be creative.[/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Do a search on this site on fishfinders, batteries, etc. There are lots of threads that have discussed this in depth.[/size][/black][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3][/size][/font] [center][font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=175370;#175370"]Posts on Batteries[/url][/size][/font][/center] [center][font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3][/size][/font] [/center] [center][font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=174807;#174807"]Making a FishFinder Portable[/url][/size][/font][/center] [center][font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3][/size][/font] [/center] [left][font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]I just did a very quick search and came up with these recent discussions. There is more out there. Good luck![/size][/font][/left]
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[Kent]

[size 1]I purchased off of eBay a Raytheon L470 (discontinued) fishfinder (which is an identical unit to the one on my boat). It comes with a feature called "A-scope" which shows raw sonar data directly from the transducer beam (which is the same way a flasher functions). This gives one a "real time" image of fish, my jig, and bottom structure directly below the transducer. It also displays a numeric reading on the bottom of the scope image informing me of the diameter of the sonar beam where it meets the bottom. I don't have three colors (like a Vexilar) but I can clearly see the size of the fish, where it is located in the beam, and the A-scope only takes up 1/3 of my screen, which means if I look away the history of what I missed is displayed on the left side of the screen. Also, I end up with a fishfinder that has zoom (up to x8 magnification) 500 W(rms) (when fishing next to other fishfinders -- the one with the most power wins) and 240 X 128 pixels. I purchased a through-the-hull transducer and mount it through a five-gallon bucket lid. It is a little more work to rig it to use it for ice fishing than a flasher, but in my opinion well worth the effort. Last year on Bear Lake two guys set up their flashers and told me how deep the water was. I hooked up my Raytheon and told them that we were in water three times as deep as they had calculated. I have all of the advantages of a flasher and a screen unit combined. Only thing that I must be careful of is to not leave the screen out in the cold too long and not turned on to keep it warm. Cesar, you will also have to keep your screen from freezing. When using it, unless it is above freezing, turn on the backlight, and when not in use, store it somehow so it doesn't freeze. Those small chemical hand warmers can do the job while you are storing it.[/size]
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[Coldfooter]

Hey Ocean ya old Ebay sniper. []
Look on Ebay because you can run across some good deals on 12 volt Gel Cells on Ebay in both the 4amp and 7amp sizes. You can figure a 4amp will last slightly over half the time a 7amp will. Normally I get 20 hours running time out of my 4amp gel cell without running the backing lights on the finder but I've never ran my 4amp batteries completely died.. I have on the 7amps, it lasted about 35 hours in 40 degree weather without running the finders backing lights.
The best thing about Gel Cells is they cant spill and their very small and light weight compared to an auto battery.
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[DKSRenegade]

Where is NPS? My son needs a battery and $4.00 would fit his budget about now. Thanks DKS
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[UintaIce]

I have a Vexilar FL-8se, and wouldn't trade it for any other unit out there! Cost: ~$230, and worth every penny!!!
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[addicted2fishin]

Last I knew the NPS warehouse was up near the airport. I think on Wright Bros drive.
However, they don't constantly stock anything, just what they happen to get in, and they are hit and miss on if the items are any good. Everything there is 'as is' so you may end up with junk.
I think you may just do better if you get in the phone book and find someone that sells supplies for backup power systems. I really don't trust the people at NPS and they aren't exactly customer friendly.
$4 was a good deal, but probably not really driving all the way out there hoping they might have one and hoping it works.
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[mikecromaine]

i have a raytheon L365 and it seems to work pretty good thou the ice as well i don't have the problem of it freezeing up yet i keep it in a cooler a small one and so far it is working great
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[DKSRenegade]

Thanks a2f. He will just get a new one to be safe.
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