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Hey Kent,
I noticed in another post that you mentioned an ice fishing transducer. Is there really such a thing, and if so, how does it differ from a regular transducer? Cover a wider area?
I have the hummingbird 565 and just use the transducer that came with the unit.
Thanks for your help!!!
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Most ice transducers are shaped like a bullet and hang from a float that allows you to just drop it into the ice hole, Also they are designed to hang straight down from the float, eliminating the need for some wild contraption to hook a standard "skimmer" type transducer to. They are pretty convenient.[/size][/black][/font] [signature]
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Rich answered your question. I was told that Vexilar holds the patent on a float for a transducer so in order not to have to use the extremely inconvenient metal arm that comes with the ice fishing package for my Lowrance I purchased a Vexilar float to use with it. It works great. One huge advantage of using an ice fishing transducer with a float is that one can put the transducer down the same hole that one is fishing and easily pull it out of the hole and lay it on the ice when one hooks a fish. Then one merely puts it back in the hole, and with it being self-leveling it is immediately functional again.
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If your fish finder has an ice-fishing transducer as an option it is one of the best $50 or so that you can spend.
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Unfortunately Humminbird doesn't have an ice transducer available, at least according to it's website. I'll be rigging mine up using the ever useful pvc.
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Humminbird does offer a puck through-the-hull transducer that would probably work.
[url "http://www.humminbird.com/normal.asp?ID=799#puck"]Link to Humminbird transducers:[/url]
In previous years I used a Ray Marine fish finder with a through-the-hull transducer for ice fishing. I mounted the transducer through the lid for a five gallon bucket. I would just sit the lid over the top of a second hole next to the hole I was fishing in. It worked quite well, except sometimes I had to do some work to clear away snow and slush so that the transducer could reach the surface of the water.
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I read something today about Humminbird offering a new ice transducer, but IIRC it won't be available until January.
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] I've seen a couple of examples on this site that I might try to use. 