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Hi all,
New to posting messages, but by far not new to reading the posts and being on the ice  Could anyone tell me what the good ice-fishing fish finders are, giving the price/quality/features ratio? I think it's time for me to stop being "handicapped" out there w/o the fish finder. Some links will do, too! Thanks in advance for the advice!
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Welcome! I guess it just depends on how much money you want to spend. Fish finders range anywhere from $50 - $1000.
Humminbirds seem to be the best and most popular, but Lowrence is good too. I just picked up a Piranha off Ebay for under $100.
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Lavaman, thanks for the info. Are most fish finders suitable for ice fishing, or some of them are for open water only? Looking at Piranhamax 210 on ebay...
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Nice! That's the same model I just won on Ebay! I think the Piranha Max series give you the best bang for you buck. I was impressed with it. Now of course, if you want to spend a lot more, there are better ones out there. But for me, it will do just fine.
I think others in here might be able to help you out on with that question, but I think MOST finders can be used on both Ice and Open Water.
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Thanks! This is the one I will probably go with. Anyone else wants to throw their 2 cents and help me out with some advice... please?
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[cool][#0000ff]If you look up at the top, you will see a line that says "Utah Fishing". Click on that and you will get a menu of some of the other boards for Utah. We have several archive boards with different topics. The one for [url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?forum=129;"]TACKLE & GADGETS[/url] (LINK) has several past threads on the topic of fish finders. Your question is one that comes up at least once a week so there are quite a few past threads with the answers you are seeking.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]You can also use the "Search" button to look up any word or subject you want. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Welcome to the forum and hope you get a good setup.[/#0000ff]
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TubeDude -- Thanks for the URL! I appreciate the help.
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Welcome FishingIsLife
I love my Fishin Buddy 2255 model and six of the guys I fish with have them now because of my success. It's not better than the rest but it's easy to use. It uses 3 "c" batteries. My dad has a model 1200 Fishin Buddy and he likes it also. The important thing I think is that you can see an ice fly with a meal worm at 30 feet and I can with my Fishin Buddy.
P.S. I bought the new Fishin Buddy 4200 just to have the latest and greatest but it's not as good. I sent it back to Johnson to see if there was something wrong with it. They sent me a new one and wouldn't said if the old one was broke. I used it at Strawberry last week and it was better but I was unable to see my jig at 30 feet so it's going back to Cabela's ASAP
GOOD LUCK from the Tapper
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I just got a vexilar fl-8 (about $270.00) at the first of this ice fishin season and it's great. i'm not that experienced with a fish finder, but I am 100% sold on a flasher. good luck.[unsure]
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The story of my fishfinder: (By N.E.T.O.) This happened approximately Spring of 2004.
Short version: I bought the Lowrance M68c.
Long version:
One day, I wanted a fishfinder. I went down to Sportsmans and the guy talked me into whatever the Black and White version of the X67c Lowrance is. It was $219.00 at the time. I got it home, opened it up and showed my wife. Since she was with me before and knew that I was looking at the ones with color screens, she asked me why I didn't buy the color (x67c). I asked her to be a little bit more specific on what she was telling me...she told me to take it back and get the color since that is what I wanted. So, I went and bought the x67c model, which was $299 at the time. I brought it home and once again was looking it it and I had my Garmin GPS out also and I was trying to figure out a way to attach my GPS to the fishfinder. Once again, my wife asked me if they made a fishfinder with a built in GPS. Since I knew they did (m68c) I once again asked her to be more specific in what she was telling me. She finally just said "Look, just go buy the one you WANT, not the one you think you can afford..." (Up to a limit of $400), so once again, I took the brand new x67c back and got the m68c, which was $399 at the time...and still is.
The m68c has the built in GPS and is color.
Here is a list of pro's and con's.
Pro's:
1.Highly visible in ALL conditions, that means dark, light, sunlight, direct sunlight, etc. etc.
2. Has the "Real time flasher" mode (They call it Ice fishing mode), like a Vex or Marcum. I even used it side by side with somebodys flasher once and it really is real time, BUT, I like the regular screen better for ice fishing anyway.
3. Can use it ice fishing, in fact, you can buy the m68c ice machine for about $50 more and it comes with a case and an ice transducer. I built my own case and use the regular transducer on a stick.
4. I love the built in GPS. Once less gadget to haul around with me.
5. The color is awesome. Different sized fish show up as different colors (Red=BIG, etc.) as well as the actual ping size on the screen.
Con's:
1. Price tag. $400 for the m68c, $450 for the ice machine version.
2. Screen size. Apparently my eyes have gotten worse in the last 3 years because only now am I wanting a larger screen. However, the next size screen up from mine is about $300 more!
I have had a lot of people comment on how clear my screen is under bad conditions. I now have 3 transducers: One in my BIG boat, one in my FISHING boat and one in my ICE FISHING case. I just swap around the same head unit in whatever rig I take with me.
If it were to suddenly get stolen, lost or broken somehow, I would go buy the exact same one again....well maybe I would buy the one with the bigger screen...
However, this is just me. I know a lot of people who have different fishfinders who are just as happy with theirs as I am with mine and paid a lot less money. I have had mine for almost 3 years, and take it with me EVERYWHERE. Its been dropped, stepped on, submerged, etc. etc. and the darn thing just keeps on working. I've had other people turn theirs off and just use mine (while ice fishing) as mine is so much clearer (in some cases!)
The bottom line (no pun intended) is that you need to figure out what is the MAXIMUM amount you can spend on one, (amortize it and remember you could have it for many years, makes it less painful to purchase...example: $400 x 4 years = $100 per year, for me that = $2.00 per fish outing (went 50 times last year!))
and then go buy the most you can get.
Randy
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I used to N.ot have E.nough T.ime O.ff to go fishing. Then I retired. Now I have less time than I had before. Sheesh.
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N.E.T.O.,
Thanks for the reply. What's interesting is that the price of m68c did not go down a bit since Spring '04.
I will see if I can skip a few trips to the ice this year in order to be able to afford something like that
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get the hummingbird 565. For 200 bucks you get 640 vertical pixels, plenty of power, dual cones (wide and narrow), and real time flasher which is an absolute for ice fishing. Basically all the features of a higher priced unit at a good price! I have several friends with them and they all love them.
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How is the 'real time flasher' different? What's different? I took one of the finders off my boat and have been using that as an ice finder. Fishmark 320, I still haven't got it dialed in.
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Some of the newer, middle and upper priced units have a real time flasher feature. Its called different things on different brands. Basically the flasher is located on the far right of the finder screen and is about 1/2 inch wide. It give the raw feed back of the sonar without any interpretation of the data. The returns from the water are instantaneous so it is "real time". You can watch your jig go up and down the water column without any processing delay. You get the same thing from a "flasher" finder only it displays on LED lights rather than an LCD screen. Go to the hummingbird or Garmin websites and read about the real time feature. Its really cool for ice fishing! Hope that helps
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As Bigcat mentioned, most fish finders have the realtime feature on the side of the screen on one of the modes.
The newer color finders have a flasher mode that looks just like (well, close) the flashers you buy. My Humminbird 787c2 has the flasher mode that is real time and runs in a circle. I have yet to spend any time figuring it out as I am used to using the LCD screen.
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These modern Birds are nice finders. From the $200 greyscale models up into the big buck models like the 700 series. That 787 is all the sounder I would ever need in fresh water. The 567 will probably be my next.
As I understand it, Real time sonar is the result of a new computer component inside your finder. Older finders had a single microprocessor that would send a signal and wait for the return signal before sending the next signal. This caused a slight delay in the information on the screen, longer delay in deep water. Sometimes when ice fishing I can hear my transducer sending signals, it's not that fast.
New technology allows signals to be sent at a rate of about 6 per second and randomly recieve them back for display. Thats about 0.166 of a second between signals (Just a touch slower than John Force on a good day) instead of a full second.
The reason flashers work so well is that they send a signal every time the contact passes Zero, about 8 times a second (at 480 rpm) and recieves them in random order as well. That is why it is considered real time.
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