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1st snow & 24° tonight thinking icefishing does wet transducers work icefishing

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charlys1954:
Snowed today and tonight it'll get down to 24° so was thinking icefishing is just around the corner.

I have a vexilar FL-8slt dual transducer I've used for last 20 years still works great. This last spring I was given a Garmin Echo 551DV it has a flasher, anyone have any luck using the wet water transducer ice fishing.

I did test it a couple times this summer with a hook/weight, droped line down 10-12ft and nothing showed on the flasher. Adjust the gain and still nothing. So I am assuming wet water transducers will not work very well ice fishing, is this right?

seamonkey84:
They will work, you just need to mount it or wrap it so that it sits level looking down the hole. Problem with trying to see your lure when open water is mostly due to cone angle and if there’s any amount of drift from current or the boat moving.

westernmas:
You can use it for getting an understanding of the depth and bottom structure but as far as identifying a lure/jig and using it like a flasher it isn't the right tool for the job.  I'm sure you can adjust the settings to get it working better but not going to be ideal or comparable to something designed for the job.  They may offer iceducers for that model garmin.  I'd suggest spending the $50 for a new ducer.

charlys1954:

--- Quote from: westernmas on Nov 01, 2019, 09:48 AM ---You can use it for getting an understanding of the depth and bottom structure but as far as identifying a lure/jig and using it like a flasher it isn't the right tool for the job.  I'm sure you can adjust the settings to get it working better but not going to be ideal or comparable to something designed for the job.  They may offer iceducers for that model garmin.  I'd suggest spending the $50 for a new ducer.

--- End quote ---

Ya, as I said it has a flasher mode just for icefishing. I'd be using the flasher mode with a wet transducer is what I was asking about. As for buying a icefishing transducer their $110+. As fhogger said I'd have to put a float on it. I posted this just to see if anyone uses the wet trans for iceing.

I always use more than 1 pole so I wished I had a 2nd vexilars, one for each rod. I very seldom fish deep enough for 1 vexilar to read both poles.

Fishermantim:
Before I bought my current fish finder, I used a Hummingbird 100 fish finder. I attached the transducer to an old tip-up where the spool would normally be with thick rubber bands and it worked fine. The only problem you might encounter is battery drain. Most flashers designed for ice use will run well on 12v battery power, but an open water boat mounted flasher might have more of a power draw. Beyond possibly having to recharge the battery a little more often, the only issue you WILL have to aware of is that some boat mounted flashers may not handle freezing temps well. You'll have to check the owner's operational manual to see if it gives any mention to usable temperature ranges.

Other than that you should be fine!

Good luck.

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