Humminbird Ice Helix 5

[B-DUB]

Looking at purchasing the humminbird Ice helix 5. Wondering if anyone with experience has any input on this specifically the LCD screen versus the tried and trued regular mechanical flashers.

[Elkhnter]

B-Dub: Well you will hear alot of different story's on what folks prefer on this website. Myself I have never like Flasher" Circus Lights" yellow, Green and Red light bouncing all over the place.. Myself I prefer to see a fish as a fish on a finder- Black solid line when you drop it down you see that, move you bait up you see that. and then OH and then once another blip shows up on the screen you know its a fish and you can visually watch it come up to your bait and you can move it slightly or drop down to them and watch the whole thing happen on your screen..

For me: Fish Finders "ALL" the way!!!! And those Helix 5 are pretty sweet..............

[SpitzoMT]

Showdown 5.6 was my first unit & I still have it. A black line for the jig & a black line for a fishy on a vertical display. Simple, simple simple.
Never thought I'd like a flasher. Bought a FLX-28 & I really like it. I'm simple minded so I think the "Circus Lights" actually keep me focused - LOL.
All of the units on the market today are nice & all will help you catch fish.
Keep us posted & have a great season !!

[B-DUB]

Thanks for the input.  I was just going to get the ice 35 but then the helix caught my eye for only $100 more than the 35, was trying to decide if it was worth the extra coin.

[SpitzoMT]

$100 more you say..........I'd definitely get the Ice Helix 5 then !!

[varmonter]

can't say anything about the ice5 but i have the regular helix 9 on my boat and it is amazing. i have a marcum lx7 for the ice

[filetandrelease]

I have a 5 and it is fine , I have a hand held and my phone for gps so I got the no frills model ,

[Instro_Mental]

I'm running Helix 5 DI GPS and just picked up the ice transducer for it.

besides putting it on 200kwh(?) frequency and ice fishing mode what do other people do for setting when they run this set-up?

the ice was cracking non-stop yesterday so my flasher would never read properly - it was all over the map. and im not sure if its because I had a wrong setting or if it was actually all the feed back noise from the ice cracking around us all day.

flasher was either reading 70' or else the proper 10' - was super annoying though, first time on the ice with it and it wasn't how I expected it.

[Instro_Mental]

nevermind I figured it out

change user settings from general to advanced

 - then -

under sonar change 3D/DI to 2D so the flasher works alongside the head unit.

just remember to change this back come summer or when you put the DI ducer back on.

[matzilla]

Turn ice mode off, bump up the surface clutter, manually set max depth

[Instro_Mental]

Turn ice mode off, bump up the surface clutter, manually set max depth

what are the differences between the two?

[matzilla]

Ice mode automatically updates sensitivity and several other settings on the fly, it makes consistency a pipe dream

Surface clutter filters out stray signals at the expense of response time performance

Manually adjusting max depth has the same impact as adjusting the gain on a flasher

[Iceballs204]

I say get the helix. I started off with the elite 4 for about 5 yrs ago. Was happy with it and got another lowrance. I wanted this unit solely for the dual beam ducer. I have gps, split screen zoom, etc but no dual beam. I also like the wide rts window. I would've bought this if it was out 3 yrs ago but didn't exist in canada yet. There was the 688 ice but it was $70o cnd vs $500. I fish up to 25 ft 99% of the time but if I start going to deeper lakes options would be nice. It's hard to walk away from winnipeg greenbacks

[FishWhistleOutdoors]

I have Helix 9s on my boat and love them.  I bought the helix 5 and have been using it for GPS and sharing my lake chips only.  I get unfishable interference on mine when any brand unit is close by.  No matter what settings you run, it will either non non stop flashing colors in the water column or it will not read the jig or bottom.  I can not get this dialed in.  I use my marcum lx6 but it gets frustrating when a friend or my girlfriend come along and need a locator. 

[matzilla]

I have Helix 9s on my boat and love them.  I bought the helix 5 and have been using it for GPS and sharing my lake chips only.  I get unfishable interference on mine when any brand unit is close by.  No matter what settings you run, it will either non non stop flashing colors in the water column or it will not read the jig or bottom.  I can not get this dialed in.  I use my marcum lx6 but it gets frustrating when a friend or my girlfriend come along and need a locator.

Circular flasher view or graph view? Its much easier to tune out interference with graph view. Things to do, turn on noise filter, decrease surface clutter setting, reduce max depth manual setting, adjust sensitivity, raise your transducer in the ice hole, etc. I've used mine next to every flasher you can think of and have never had interference stop me from seeing my jig or fish

[52isntbigenough]

Looking at purchasing the humminbird Ice helix 5. Wondering if anyone with experience has any input on this specifically the LCD screen versus the tried and trued regular mechanical flashers.

One of my buddies has one and used a Genz Box to get it all set up. Worked awesome for both GPS and as a sonar on the ice and He used it in temps in the teens with zero issues.

[Lsranger406]

Purchased a ice helix 5 in December. Have had it in temps from -27 to 40 above with no issues. Did have major interference issues with the hook 4 chirp side by side. Runs flawlessly next to my ice 34 45 and 55. Being able to watch a graph and fine tune your jig patters is the greatest part of having the sonar unit. Love this machine. So far so good.