Ice fishing flasher
 

I'm trying to decide which ice flasher I should buy. I don't whether I should buy the Humminbird ice-45 or the ice-55 or buy some other brand. Need some input on what guys are using. Thanks.

If you have the money to spend and want one that will last a lifetime , go with a Vexilar.

Any of them.

Whatever your budget allows.

X2 on the Vexilar. It’s a little spendy but they just plain work.


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If an Ice 45 or 55 is your decision, go with a 45 and buy the case separate. Ice 45 is on sale at Cabelas now. There is a $200 difference between the price of a 45 and 55. The case is $70

If you go with the 45 or 55 and you do a lot of lake trout fishing I would go with the Ice 55

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I have an ice 45. I would recommend a vex as well. The 45 is sometimes a little temperamental. I like it for the most part, but I wish I got a vex because they are reviewed better and have a higher reputation than marcum and humminbird

I don't have any experience with a 55 but I use a 45 in deep water. Fishing in Cold Lake at 150' and being able to see the barrel swivel at that depth is good enough for me. I have zero complaints with my 45 that I've had for 6 or so years.

O you silly gooses we all know these flashers are dated now.

The garmin panoptix is cheap and effective :snapoutofit:

I would consider a Helix 5 or 7 Ice over any flasher mostly due to the ability to have GPS waypoints, Autochart map in the summer and have it for the winter as well.

Is there anyone that has used a helix out there still recommending a flasher? I kind of doubt it. Helix is the way to go in my opinion.

Another vote here for the Helix. My cousin has the Ice Helix and it's deadly. He runs the graph and flasher modes side by side on the screen which is fantastic. He also bought a summer ducer and used it in the boat all the time.

I wish my lx7 or lx9 had gps and waypoints :(

I would not trade my vexilar. I have a handheld gps if I want to save a spot. My summer sonar is a garmin unit with gps but I love how fast and simple the vexilar is and it works great

I have an Ice 55. Works okay. More features on the Ice 55 when compared to the 45. Are they needed? That is a personal preference.

Buddy has a Vexilar FLX-28 and it has way better sensitivity and a much clearer display.

My vote would be for a Vexilar.

I've used Vexilars and Marcums, and I prefer my Marcum LX-7. They all generally do the same thing, with some minor variations that boil down to personal preference.

I’ve had all 3 major brands and would have to give it to Vexilar with the helix being a close second. The ice 55 I had did not have good target separation and wasn’t able to pick up tubes below 80’. My buddy’s ice 45 was the same. I’ve had my Fl20 for 9 years and the only thing I’ve needed to do to it is change the battery out. It’s great.

Have used or tried them all. Have two Vexillars, on over 30 years old with thousands of hours on it. Has had the brushes replaced once and one new battery. Read outs are clear, very good target separation, easy to set up and use, and virtually bullet proof. SNS2 tried 3 or 4 flashers, most more expensive, and had issues with each of them before finally getting a Vexillar and staying with that.

Same here -- love my 45.

I think you would be happy with any unit.

so many pro's and con's to all of them.

Or atleast so many pro's and few con's

Thanks for all the input, I've decided to go with the Vexilar FLX-20.

I am not disputing your experience with Huminbird Ice...………However, my experiences are not in any way similar to yours. At 150', 9 degree cone, with lots of gain left to go if I needed it, I can pick out the smallest of barrel swivels 6' above my tube. At 150' full gain is too much in fact as the tube appears like an angry red blob and fish appear as submarines.

Were you on the 9 deg cone?

WC

I use a Helix. Why buy a unit that's only good for ice fishing, when you can get one for all seasons

I sure was on the 9 degree cone. Fished it by itself with no other units around etc. New batteries, all sorts of things and it just did not perform as good as the other flashers I have owned. I’ve run just about all the round dial flashers over the years here and that one seemed to not be the greatest. Maybe the 3 in my fishing group were lemons but if yours works great and you like it, all the power to you. I just know the ones I was around I wasn’t impressed with.

as others have said , go Helix , good for summer and winter , I have the 5 and love it , 2 seconds to swap the ducer and your go to go with a portable in summer !!! zero complaints:sHa_shakeshout:

I picked up the Marcum Showdown at Cabella's and love it. Vertical rather than horizontal and much easier for old guys to see. comes set up to ice and the depth changes auto so you are not spending extra time adjusting, just adjust if there is a bunch of noise.

Very easy to use, to see and easy to carry. you can even remove it from the main battery and it will run on aa's if you want to move around and check FOW before drilling

I just saw a cool one on YouTube on one made by Garmin. It comes with 2 types of transponders: one for horizontal scanning and the other for vertical (cone) scanning. Check it out!

If you are referring to the Garmin Panoptix Livescope set up, it is very cool. It's also over $3k here in Canada. You can buy a lot of conventional flashers or Helix units for that.

this is it right here!

https://www.gpscentral.ca/products/garmin/panoptix-ice-fishing-bundle-plus.html

Add Livescope and you add another $2k for a total over $4500.