Sonar

[bronzwhaler]

Been pondering the idea of buying electronics to ice fish.  I usually fish blind.  The guy I usually go with does have a sonar and we find fish that way.  I then break away from and pick off what I can.  I am not looking to spend a ton of money.  Where I live, we might get ice a few years in row.  Then we may not any for a couple.  I have read about everything that you can.  I would like to know what is better...flasher or sonar?  What brands are better?  What would be the best for the type hard water fishing that I do here...gills, crappie, perch and getting into walleye.  Remember, don't want to dump a ton money into this.  Thanks for any help.

[BwayCGuy]

I fish a sonar, but 90% of the folks on here go with flashers.  You can pick up a single beam flasher pretty inexpensive.  I take my sonar from my kayak and use it, and with a little help for setting it up, it does fine, more versitle so i don't blow my wallet, i have several other hobbies that are expensive to fund!  My wife "LOOOVES" it!

[Townie]

Lowrance Elite 4X Ice Machine best value

[bronzwhaler]

I fish a sonar, but 90% of the folks on here go with flashers.  You can pick up a single beam flasher pretty inexpensive.  I take my sonar from my kayak and use it, and with a little help for setting it up, it does fine, more versitle so i don't blow my wallet, i have several other hobbies that are expensive to fund!  My wife "LOOOVES" it!

With this type of set-up, do you have to buy a conversion kit?  I believe this is the same type of set-up that my buddy uses.  He did say though, that most conversions have to be with a color unit.  Is that true?

[Whopper Stopper]

You can get into a good flasher for a very reasonable price. With You Tube and some practice it will tell you all you need to know. Good luck and enjoy whatever you get. You are heading in the right direction. Don't forget to keep an eye open on CL or the famous Bay auction site. Good does not have to mean new, if new isn't in the budget.

             WS

[BRIFISH]

i have the lowrance elite 4x ice machine and it is great, i took 9 year old and my 4 year old out today and the 4year old figured it out pretty quick

[rabbittrapper]

I use a humming bird 160.

[BwayCGuy]

Bronz,
what conversion are you talking about? It does not have the flasher mode on it if thats what your talking about.  When i bought it, it came with the carrying case which makes it handy for ice fishing.  Then after safe ice, i take the mount off the base and put it on my kayak, and run the wires. Nothing better than catching a moster striper from the yak! PB last year was a 45"er from the yak...but thats a different forum!

[bronzwhaler]

Bronz,
what conversion are you talking about? It does not have the flasher mode on it if thats what your talking about.  When i bought it, it came with the carrying case which makes it handy for ice fishing.  Then after safe ice, i take the mount off the base and put it on my kayak, and run the wires. Nothing better than catching a moster striper from the yak! PB last year was a 45"er from the yak...but thats a different forum!

After reading your ealier post, I got to digging in the garage.  Found my old Garmin 120 Fishfinder.  It still works.  Can I set it up to use on ice?  I have tried to pull info from the internet...no go.  Couldn't really find anything related to using Garmin and ice.  I did find other related posts here and other sites and they said you could.  You would have to create some kind of mount for the transducer and buy a battery.  Sounds like a cheap way to go for what I am trying to do.  Do have concerns related to sensitivity.  Would you think that it would be sensitive enough to pick up a small ice fly/jig.  Would there be something that I would have to do with the gain, scroll, etc?  Thanks so far for all the info.

[stripernut]

I use a Garmin'

I found the Garmin 300C Fish Finder to have all the features that I was looking for; Color with a high pixel count, a gain that lets me see tiny jigs in 40+ feet of water, a split screen with ZOOM, a flasher screen if I want it, but best of all, all for about $200.00.  It does not come or have available from Garmin an “Ice Transducer”, but Ice Shanty is full of ways to get around that. Now that I have used it a number of times, I can say that it performed very well. NO lag what so ever.  I did not get to try it around other user, so I can not speak about interference, but for me that is not a problem. I use 2 rechargeable 6 volt batteries ($20 total) in series for a total of 9 amps (cheaper than 1, 7 amp 12 volt battery). I tested the batteries for about 18 hour in two days and still had not gotten the batteries below 11.5 volts (unit works down to 10 volts). The dual beam is great and helpful split screen zoom!
It would not be the right unit for every one, but it has almost all the features of units selling for twice the money and will work even better for open water use.
Here is how I have used the tranduser;

[Muskyrush]

Lowrance Elite 4X Ice Machine best value

Agreed

[Crappielover89]

The marcum ice troller is the best way to go for you or maybe the showdown even. They are easy to use and at a reasonable price....

[keithire2]

Either the marcum ice troller or vx1 pro. Both on the cheaper side and will do what u r looking for