# open water/ ice fishing fish finder



## wis2ohio (Jan 20, 2012)

I'm looking for a fish finder that can be used for both open and hardwater seasons, looking for one that does mapping, DI, traditional and flasher mode?


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## bustedrod (May 13, 2015)

garmin hands down , I use my garmin 5 chart plotter on the boat and in the winter I use it for ice fishing. I don't care for flasher mode I prefer on the ice using A scope with sonar. I can see my jig very well ...and ya don't need a separate ducer to fish ice...


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## Rooster (Apr 8, 2004)

Plenty of options from Lowrance, Humminbird, and Garmin. Pick a flavor, and then choose the biggest screen size you can accommodate with respect to budget, weight, and power consumption.

I used the Lowrance Hook 5 for the past two years in the kayak and on the ice, and had no serious complaints. It takes some initial dialing-in, but once I got the settings right I never had a problem finding my jig or marking fish. I don’t use the flasher mode, but there is one available. Lowrance REALLY needs to update their ice transducer.

The Humminbird Helix gets great reviews from both hard and soft water. The Humminbird ice transducer is far superior to the Lowrance, and the DI/SI might be the best of all the brands. I did a lot of research, and I was all set to go with a Helix, but I then discovered Panoptix.

I went with a Garmin Echomap this year. The ice transducer might be better than the hummingbird (CHIRP and adjustable beam width), but mine will probably never even see the water. From everything that I have read DI/SI is Garmin’s biggest weakness. However, Livescope may make all other scanning sonar obsolete.

Whatever you go with, just realize that within 6 months there will be something “better” out there. LOL, Garmin announced livescope a few weeks after I got the Panoptix transducer (at least I was able to take advantage of a nice rebate). The technology is changing very quickly, and I can’t wait to see what we will be using in 5 years.


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## My Demeyes (Aug 2, 2010)

I 2nd the Garmin recommendation, I haven't used mine for ice fishing yet, but vertical jigging in flasher mode the 1st week of December last year was incredible. It was just like ice fishing from the boat, if i marked them, i generaly caught them. Garmin has some awesome new technology with the panoptix, that I plan to get for the next boat.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


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