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Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! => Equipment => Ice Fishing With Electronics => Topic started by: Homewrecker on Mar 01, 2017, 06:49 AM
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Normally I take a back up sonar on long trips with me.
The back up one is just off my boat. Works really good on boat.
It is hit and miss on the ice . Some days really good some days not.
Transducer normally just sitting just in the water a few inches down just hanging under a 2x2.
Should not make a difference but would it work better if pushed down lower below the ice. Lorance Fish-marker
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I'm certainly no expert, but I have always heard to put it even with our slightly below the ice at the bottom of the hole to reduce interference. Seems logical to me as the sound waves don't bounce around in the hole on the way to/from the tranny.
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it only needs to have the air removed from the bottom to work.
being high in the hole also helps reject others pings if others are fishing. like an added ir feature. keep it centered all the time tho. if you move it to the side, the side it's moved to will/can reduce the ping return and blind it on that side of the area.
being high also helps reduce tangles landing fish. this helps from cutting the cable too when no fishing string is yanking on it.
they can work on top of the ice too if you put some water on the ice first and if the ice is not full of air bubbles. this will at least let you see bottom.
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it only needs to have the air removed from the bottom to work.
being high in the hole also helps reject others pings if others are fishing. like an added ir feature. keep it centered all the time tho. if you move it to the side, the side it's moved to will/can reduce the ping return and blind it on that side of the area.
being high also helps reduce tangles landing fish. this helps from cutting the cable too when no fishing string is yanking on it.
they can work on top of the ice too if you put some water on the ice first and if the ice is not full of air bubbles. this will at least let you see bottom.
^^x2 Sonar will shoot through clear ice like its water. No need to go below the ice. I know Marcum says to have it just under the water. I'm not sure what the other manufacturers recommend.
To the OP, drop it below the ice and see if it works better.
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^^x2 Sonar will shoot through clear ice like its water. No need to go below the ice. I know Marcum says to have it just under the water. I'm not sure what the other manufacturers recommend. My take is Marcum says that because their cords are cheap and get damaged when down the hole. If i have 2 feet of ice and the xducer is only a couple inches down how is it going to produce a cone.
To the OP, drop it below the ice and see if it works better.
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use the vex all the time on first ice clear ice and it works like a dream. will shoot right thru the ice and can locate fish without even drilling a hole. great when on a really hot bite too not having to remove it from the hole all the time. just have to have a little water around it. have to be a little careful when it is really cold cause it can freeze to the ice but a little water from the hole will have it free in no time.
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What is happening ,there are days when everything is working great ,then the next day I go to same hole and I can not see my hook .
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sounds like your talking about the graph off your boat...? and you have rigged your open water transducer to use for ice fishing.? not sure what your using ( brand i mean ) if its old and is not compatible to use with an ice ducer than its likely not real time sonar. if its the old green box flasher from the 70s or early 80s then you get what you get. and in no way can have the same results as an lx7 or any other newer ice fishing flasher or graph. no matter where you have the transducer in the hole.
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sounds like an aiming problem now. you asked how deep, but just removing water is all it needs to work correctly. boat transducers are for high speed and also use a much wider cone angle than ice transducers use. high speed transducers skim the water and are designed to be just barely in the water. if you read your manual it will tell you hot to adjust it on your transom so it is maybe a 1/2 inch under the transom or even with it.
you can use water proof double sided tape to hold one on it.
hanging it off of a 2x2 isn't aiming it. maybe try a bubble level on it next. hanging it like that means the ice shavings and any thing else will aim it wrong. use the bubble right on top of the transducer. keep only the bottom of it in the water. make a mount so it can be raised/lowered to match the ice. look into a pvc mount home made. maybe some clamps with wing nuts to adjust the height. you have to keep it all center balanced tho and the bubble level will let you know if it is.2
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If you have an old wooden tip up without the reel will work just snap tie it, or pvcpipe bolted together , I don't like messing around I just drill a second hole for my trans ducer then it stays put
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I put my ducer almost level with the bottom of the hole. The deepest hole I drilled this year was 37-39 in. 2/3 years ago I drilled about 52-54 in. I have a 7 ft ice ducer cord why not utilize it. If guys are getting nicks in their ducer cord pop a third hole for it
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I just have the puck covered, works fine but I don't fish very deep.
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There's a great online video put out by Vexilar that talks about cone shapes, as well as single and dual cones. The cones are not perfect, which is why there may be times you don't see you bait.
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I hang my whole transducer under the bottom of the ice. The cable hangs over the edge of the hole so it is out of the way.
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What is happening ,there are days when everything is working great ,then the next day I go to same hole and I can not see my hook .
3300 is on the right track but there's other stuff too.
First the "aiming" thing. You should know that your transducer signal (and return) shoots down in the "shape" of a cone. So the narrower your "beam" angle (say 10 degrees vs 20 degrees) the more critical your aim because it includes less water. Kind of like a scope on a rifle. The higher you magnification the smaller your field of view. There is a good discussion here:https://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=203154.0 (https://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=203154.0)
Additionally, any kind of "schmutz" on the business end of the transducer can cause issues. Even a thin film of oil/gas can reduce effectiveness. You may not even be able to see or feel it but give it a nice clean wipe anyway. You might be surprised. Other stuff in the water that wasn't there before can impact too. Plankton clouds, small (like really teeny tiny) baitfish, or just dirt can interfere. I occasionally fish near an inlet that dumps from a cranberry marsh and if there is a lot of water flushed from that the water gets visibly dark and also impedes my locators ability to define like I'm used to. Temperature changes are also visible on a well tuned sonar and appear as something when it's only a temp differential. Most often that is seeing a much denser cold layer in a warmer body (like a thermocline). I wonder what a warm water band would look like in cold water....
Be diligent with you aim and go from there on the rest of the "details".
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What is happening ,there are days when everything is working great ,then the next day I go to same hole and I can not see my hook .
I have had a few times when a small amount of current pushed my bait out from under the cone. I fish a channel on a large lake and the current goes one way in the morning and the other in the evening and evens out in the middle of the day. A little heavier jig helps and tungsten picks up great on a vex.
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first off, what model of Lowrance do you have?
If your Lowrance is a graph unit, guessing it is...If it works fine one day and not well the next you most likely need to adjust some settings. Turn off all of the auto depth settings you can. Manually set the max depth. Manually set the ping speed, etc.
second, get rid of the janky 2x2 and just loop the transducer cord