Ice-35 vs. FL-20/Fl-22

[Zugunruhe]

So I sold my FL-8 yesterday on Craigslist in about three hours, which kind of surprised me seeing that we're nearing the end of ice season.  Anyway, I've started fishing a lake where the fish are very bottom-oriented and would like to upgrade to a unit with zoom.  I like the flat faced units as we typically fish two people off of one flasher and they are much easier to view from a variety of angles.  I regularly see the Humminbird Ice 35 compared to the FL-18, why isn't it compared to the FL-20 or FL-22?  How does it compare?

I'm a Vex guy and really want to march out and buy a FL-22 because I never fish water deeper than 60', but am having second thoughts due to the price point of the Ice 35 and lack of potential interference issues between it and my other FL-12.  There appear to be a lot of nice features on the Ice 35 for the money, just not sure if it is an apples/apples comparison to the FL-22.

For that matter, what additional features do the Ice 45 and 55 add other than the digital depth display (which I could care less about)?

[Knoodles]

It has been a long time since I researched HB units as I bought mine years ago but I believe the 55 you get digital readings and more colors on your flasher.  You can switch between 3 different color modes. 

I owned a 20 and went to the 55 just because I wanted something new and all my buddies had vex.  When fishing 3 or 4 units in our crank down we constantly battled interference so I went to an HB as it runs on a different frequency.  Honestly they both mark fish and there is not a huge difference other than cosmetics, bigger screen, etc. 

I am in NO WAY trying to start a flasher war as I could care less which unit I am running but..........you read very few issues regarding Vexilars.  They are simple units so they do not have digital issues like others.  The HB's had a ton of issues off the line early in the game and I am hopeful they corrected these but have no idea.  If you search this site you seem to find a lot more threads on issues with Marcum and HB than you do with Vex.  That being said the lower end Marcum models are straight non digital flashers so I am guessing they don't have the issues the new ones do. 

Another thing to keep in mind.  I ran my 55 next to a guy with a 35 and we could never get rid of interference just from 2 flashers.  If you fish with someone else who has an HB I would think twice before buying one. 

My two cents.......I have never owned a Marcum so I cannot comment on these but if I were to buy another flasher and my buddies didn't all have vexilars it would be a vex.  My buddies have been running the same vex units for years issue free and reliability is a big deal. 

[PFUNK]

It has been a long time since I researched HB units as I bought mine years ago but I believe the 55 you get digital readings and more colors on your flasher.  You can switch between 3 different color modes. 

I owned a 20 and went to the 55 just because I wanted something new and all my buddies had vex.  When fishing 3 or 4 units in our crank down we constantly battled interference so I went to an HB as it runs on a different frequency.  Honestly they both mark fish and there is not a huge difference other than cosmetics, bigger screen, etc. 

I am in NO WAY trying to start a flasher war as I could care less which unit I am running but..........you read very few issues regarding Vexilars.  They are simple units so they do not have digital issues like others.  The HB's had a ton of issues off the line early in the game and I am hopeful they corrected these but have no idea.  If you search this site you seem to find a lot more threads on issues with Marcum and HB than you do with Vex.  That being said the lower end Marcum models are straight non digital flashers so I am guessing they don't have the issues the new ones do. 

Another thing to keep in mind.  I ran my 55 next to a guy with a 35 and we could never get rid of interference just from 2 flashers.  If you fish with someone else who has an HB I would think twice before buying one. 

My two cents.......I have never owned a Marcum so I cannot comment on these but if I were to buy another flasher and my buddies didn't all have vexilars it would be a vex.  My buddies have been running the same vex units for years issue free and reliability is a big deal.

The interference depends a lot on depth and bottom content I think. My girlfriend runs a 35 and I run a 55 and can usually tune out all interference by running on different beams, one on wide and one on narrow. If you want to run the same beam, you gotta play with the noise rejection and that clears up most of it if you play with it for a bit. Sometimes a little remains but it is usually minimal and is not enough to bother me. Both are still fishable. The 35 is gonna run you much less and is a great value. I am heading out now but will try to give more information later.

[Knoodles]

The issue have with running 2 HB's together is that it takes that much tinkering to get them interference free or mostly free.  If you run 2 vex side by side they rarely have any issues.  You can actually run 3 without a ton of problems but if you get to 4 it turns into an IR war.  Having 2 units side by side should not require one to be on a different cone.  I am not sure why HB struggles with this? 

Bottom line from my end is from my experience if had a buddy with a HB I would not want to buy one and deal with the issues.  I will mention that some vex's have fished with have caused a mess of interference on other vex units - generally they were older units.  I mention this only because maybe one of the two of us has a goofy unit???

[Knoodles]

On a side note does the 35 have the dual cone or is that an upgrade once you hit the 55??  I never fish with my wide cone but generally I  am fishing over 15'.  If you fish deeper water I would recommend having the dual cone or just buy a ducer with narrow beam. 

[PFUNK]

On a side note does the 35 have the dual cone or is that an upgrade once you hit the 55??  I never fish with my wide cone but generally I  am fishing over 15'.  If you fish deeper water I would recommend having the dual cone or just buy a ducer with narrow beam.

Yes the 35 does have dual beam. I run wide beam almost exclusively. I dont see any reason not to. I can get great definition of my jig with wide beam and i can pick up those suspeded fish. Only run narrow if fishing weeds, steep breaks, or really deep. I dont see any advantage to running narrow beam especially if suspeded fish may be around. Those suspended fish are usually hungry.