I fished all through my Winter Break without any electronics (with much success), however it was something I definitely needed to invest in. Purchased the Ice Helix 5 because of its compatibility with GPS and ability to be used during open water and hard water. Only really got to use it a few times during this ice fishing season because of being up at Orono, mostly perch fishing and my trip to Moosehead. Never fishing in any water deeper than 70 feet. However, I made a trip home this weekend for one last shot at the big lake with the new electronics. Not giving any spots out but I preferably fish areas that tend to have significant drop offs 80 feet down to 115 very quickly for instances. The standard transducer uses a 15-21 degree cone, 15 being the tightest. I'm use to have "dead zones" of 1-2 feet, but when fishing those steep drop offs I noticed I had a 10-15 foot dead zone because it would read the top of the ledge as bottom, due to the fact that its portraying out a 35 foot circle down on the bottom. I changed the CHIRP and then messed with the gain and the smallest I could get the diameter was 29 feet at that depth. Only once I moved off the ledge and into 135 feet did I knock the dead zone down to a foot, but at that point I had a 40 foot circle all around me and it makes it damn frustrating when you mark fish but can't have a true sense of how close they are even when the mark gets dark red. I'm curious what other people's thoughts are about this and if Humminbird sells a different version of an Ice transducer with a tighter cone, such as 9 degree as I'm still new to using this.
