Fishing Buddy w/ side finder

[Ice Hoosier]

I have one of the first Fishing Buddy fish finders with the side finder.  I loved it at first, and still love the idea of the unit, but I have not taken it out this or last season because I was beginning to feel like it was just not accurate.  I would double check all good holes with the Vex and had a different reading on them.  I am considering getting a newer model, but am asking anyone who is experienced with these finders to give me their opinion.  Thanks.

[JP-TKO]

buy a vex

[littled62]

I use 1 on my jon boat when fishing the rivers it gives me a fair idea whats along the bank as far as holes for cats to hide in, tryed it a few years back on the ice without much luck it will see the fish but has a slow reaction time plus not a lot of detail kind of a low resolution screen

[Ice Hoosier]

I have a Vex FL8.  I used the Buddy to get myself in the general area of the fish on lakes I'm not familiar with, then I would sit down with the Vex.  Problem is that I would mark a good number of fish with the Buddy, sit down with the Vex, and there would be nothing there.  I began to distrust the Buddy readings. 
After over 140 looks at this post and only 2 comments, I would have to imagine that not many people use this equipment ice fishing.

[WYeyes]

I have both a fishing buddy and fishing buddy ll.  I got to say on the ice they are only usefull for reading the depth, like trying to map out a point or hump. As far as marking fish, they are about useless on the ice.

Where i use mine the most is packing pontoon boats into the mountains on a 4 wheeler,they are light an portable.

IMO you would be way better off with a flasher unit or one of the LCD's made for the ice.

[scoutb]

I have an older Fishin Buddy from when they were still made by Bottom Line.  My fishing partner has a vex.  We use the two together to narrow down the location of the fish.  I agree though that my Buddy lies to me a lot, telling me there are fish where the vex says there's none.  It does seem to give me an accurate depth and the side finder has led us to a few schools of fish.  I'd say it has its uses but I'd much rather have the vvex.

[Ice Hoosier]

I have an older Fishin Buddy from when they were still made by Bottom Line.  My fishing partner has a vex.  We use the two together to narrow down the location of the fish.  I agree though that my Buddy lies to me a lot, telling me there are fish where the vex says there's none.  It does seem to give me an accurate depth and the side finder has led us to a few schools of fish.  I'd say it has its uses but I'd much rather have the vvex.

Thanks scoutb.  Exactly what I used it for and exactly my problem.  Over 250 views on this subject and only one person who did what we do.  I don't think I will be buying a newer unit, although I will keep taking the one I have for the side finder and locating possible schools.  TIGHT LINES.

[Townie]

I've used the Fishin' Buddy 2255 unit on ice for years; turn up the gain to max. & it will find the fish just fine. LCD delay is only slight-- i can find my jig in the water column & approaching fish.  Aggressive fish show up as darker marks & I can anticipate the bite. The main draw back is the 2' transducer shaft which has cost me many fish as line gets tangled around it. Battery life is also short--maybe 2  trips per 3 C-cell batteries. These units can make due; but if my budget afforded it I'd get a Showdown or Ice machine...

[Ice Hoosier]

I've never tried to use the Buddy as a flasher Townie, but that's pretty cool that you found a way to make it more useful.  Next time I take it out, I will turn up the gain as much as it goes and see if it makes a difference, but I will still drop in my Vex when I find my hole to fish in.  Nice pic.  Thanks for the info.

[GraniteBass]

I have a Fishin' Buddy 120 and use it on the ice all the time now. I have the mount attached to the side of the sled.

I had very good luck with it so far. Finding the depth is the trivial part. I did set the sensitivity to pretty high and this way I see everything. Sometimes it does not mark fish as fish but you will most certainly see the sonar waterfall track when something is under the transducer.

I can see even my jig / bait on it, so it is really easy to put it right in front of the fish.

Two things I will say is that I sometimes have to switch out of the "automatic" depth mode because it can go crazy and marks the depth way higher than the real one. (I think it may be that it gets secondary bounces from the ice.) So I just set the depth above of what the real should be and it works great.

The other thing is that the "search cone" is not really wide on this unit, so you can get a surprise attack from fish like pickerel with no warning.

But overall I am totally addicted to watching the thick black lines converge on my bait

Like Townie said, it can get pretty crazy when the fish - who apparently are aware of good anti-fish finder tactics - start to wrap the line around the shaft. One hand on the rod, the other frantically trying to pull the finder out of the water is the name of the game there.