Fish finder

[grampieshanty]

 I'm thinking about investing in one. Have looked at a couple via advertisers that support this site. Don't know to much about them & what make is the worst & what is the best & anything in between. I know the more expensive ones are going to be the ones to buy but I can only spend 3-400$$ & have done a little research on Humming birds & vexliars. Anyone have some advice or input? Also anyone have one to sell? Thanks

[Vtgooseman]

I would go Vex. They take a bit to get used to but once you get the hang of a flasher you wont fish without one.

[vticeman]

lowrance x67c !! 
1. - graph or flasher and in color
2. - you can buy a summer transducer and use it year round

[rboot]

I have a lowrance M68 IceMap for sale!

[fishhooker]

Just bought the ice35 at dicks. i like it, although i have nothing to compare it to.

[rboot]

my buddy has the 35, it seems to get real cluttered, he can't seem to adjust it so that you cn see ony the fish and your jig, don't know why, I use to use the Lowrance but this year I got an FL18 and I'll never go back.

[fishon_66]

My buddy has two of the vexliars, i never used one before this winter, holy crap these things work great! i have caught more fish using them than ever before. I would definately buy one of these units. I'm sure the humminbirds and other makes work really well also.

[Fish-On-VT]

I have a lowrance M68 IceMap for sale!

What are you asking?

[rboot]

I'll Take 250

[Weedmaster]

Are most of you guys with these jiggers? If you are also using for tip ups what are you looking for. I can figure out how deep the water is and I can jig to find what depth the bait fish are suspended at but if there is more to it I'm curious thanks.

[HOOKonICE]

They probably work great but still won't catch anything in Bomo! ha

[Weedmaster]

Pretty tight lipped on the use of your electronics fellas. I'm mostly interested in their use for pike. thanks again

[ship of fools]

Pretty tight lipped on the use of your electronics fellas. I'm mostly interested in their use for pike. thanks again

I've never used mine while pike fishing.....    but i am normally using tipups in shallow water (less than 30').  For tipups you can set your bait much easier because you can set the depth of your bait by watching the flasher.

For jigging it is invaluable.....    instead of fishing blind you can watch your bait, the fish and the way they react to your bait on any given day and your catch rate will skyrocket.....    for panfish you can watch them come up to your jig .... if it's slow you can lift your jig 6 or feet off bottom and it seems like almost immediately a fish appears and comes up to hit your lure. 

I can honestly say my catch rate has gone up dramatically while jigging......   so much so that i hardly mess with tipups.

We went laker fishing this week and i told my buddy i wasn't messing with tipups... it was cold, we were fishing deep water and if the fish are there and biting i can get em to hit a jig consistently .....   i then told him if he had a flag i would be able to jig one in the time it took him to deal with the flag, the fish and getting everything set back up ......  and an hour later when he got a fish ...    i did   

[Magog Landshark]

I have a Humminbird 345c portable. Use it in the boat in the summertime too.  It has different viewing modes including a circular viewing mode like a Vex.  Haven't played around with the sensitivity enough to pick up my smelt jig.  Smelt show up as baitfish markings and when a dink perch swims in it shows a fish marking.  

The main benefit seems to be keeping your jig out of dead water in the column underneath your hole and being able to adjust to where the fish are.  You start thinking about all the time you used to spend with your jig on the bottom while the smelt were swimming by at mid depth or up top and not even knowing it.  I think any kind of electronics would improve your efficiency this way.