Author Topic: Does Helix sidescan sonar work under the ice?  (Read 1793 times)

Offline pmmpete

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Does Helix sidescan sonar work under the ice?
« on: Apr 14, 2022, 02:01 AM »
I'd like to have a sidescan sonar setup for ice fishing so I can locate fish off to the side of my hole, but the Humminbird Mega 360 and Garmin Panoptix Livescope Forward fish finders are hideously expensive.  So I've been wondering: I have a Humminbird Helix 7 fish finder on one of my fishing kayaks which has sidescan features and a sidescan transducer.  If I buy a second sidescan transducer and mount it on a pole so I can position it a short distance under the ice, will it show bottom features and fish off to the sides of my hole? can I slowly rotate it to cover the entire area around my hole?

Offline ship of fools

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Re: Does Helix sidescan sonar work under the ice?
« Reply #1 on: Apr 14, 2022, 08:10 AM »
I'd like to have a sidescan sonar setup for ice fishing so I can locate fish off to the side of my hole, but the Humminbird Mega 360 and Garmin Panoptix Livescope Forward fish finders are hideously expensive.  So I've been wondering: I have a Humminbird Helix 7 fish finder on one of my fishing kayaks which has sidescan features and a sidescan transducer.  If I buy a second sidescan transducer and mount it on a pole so I can position it a short distance under the ice, will it show bottom features and fish off to the sides of my hole? can I slowly rotate it to cover the entire area around my hole?

I know for my Garmin SV the boat has to be moving - I would imagine it's the same.
Goin' where the wind don't blow so strange,
Maybe off on some high cold mountain chain.

Offline Ice_Fly_Guy

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Re: Does Helix sidescan sonar work under the ice?
« Reply #2 on: Apr 14, 2022, 08:52 AM »
I'm 99% sure it's not going to work unless the transducer is moving along, as it would in a boat.  You can take a regular ice ducer, somehow fasten it to a pole with a bent end (like a golf putter), stick it in the hole and rotate it around.  Obviously the depth won't be accurate because it's pointed at an angle, but it will work to "see" fish around the area.  I've done this before by just swinging my transducer around underwater, although it is hard to swing it when there is a lot of ice.

Offline Rebelss

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Re: Does Helix sidescan sonar work under the ice?
« Reply #3 on: Apr 14, 2022, 12:07 PM »
You need to be moving. Side Imaging Sonar works like an MRI. The beams are laser thin and as they move past an object they take 100’s of thin slices of the object and compile them into a high-detailed image of the object. If the boat is sitting still the beams will continue to take thin slices of the same spot and continue to show the slice of this spot continuously.
“The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation”  Thoreau

Offline filetandrelease

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Re: Does Helix sidescan sonar work under the ice?
« Reply #4 on: Apr 15, 2022, 05:30 PM »

 http:// While the clearest possible images require a moving transducer (either attached to a moving boat or part of a 360 Imaging device), Side and Down Images can be collected and used effectively in ice fishing situations.
 

Offline Buckshots

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Re: Does Helix sidescan sonar work under the ice?
« Reply #5 on: Apr 15, 2022, 09:02 PM »
Does Dolly Parton sleep on her stomach?? (Answer is no)

Offline filetandrelease

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Re: Does Helix sidescan sonar work under the ice?
« Reply #6 on: Apr 15, 2022, 10:34 PM »
 
What I posted came from walleye central
 Here is another
http:// https://fishontheice.com/can-you-use-side-imaging-for-ice-fishing/
 
 Ice_fly_guy look up beam bender
 
 
 

 



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