Aaron Shirley Posted January 25, 2011 Report Posted January 25, 2011 I got out onto Lady Simcoe on Saturday with Tony, Johnny and Dave. It was definitely our first trip on the big frozen pond, as we packed heavy and didn't realize how much snow there was and how out of shape we were We couldn't physically walk all the way out to the spot we wanted to fish, so we had to cut our walk short and settle for fishing closer to shore. fishing was not good there, but we just couldn't move lol. We did see fish moving through all day, but they were very inactive. I got 2 bites all day, 2 more than the other guys. Four of us registered a skunk and almost killed ourselves walking out The Clam Base Camp Thermal: although it was tough fishing, I was able to test the HDS5 and my new Clam It was a cold day at -18 in the am, so it was a good test for the thermal aspect of the Clam. After a day on the ice in very cold temps, I am amazed by the Clam thermal! With my old Eastman, I would have had the Mr.Buddy on high all day. I only had it on low, and I had to get some air once in a while because it was so warm in there! Needless to say, I am very impressed with the thermal model, and it will pay for the extra cost in propane savings. Another note about the thermal model, is the claim about no condensation dripping down on you during cold days is absolutely true. Not one drop from the roof. I would have been dodging cold water droplets all day in the Eastman and got wet. I really like the design with 2 doors kitty corner with quality zippers (2 per door), with storm flaps to protect the zippers from snow and ice build-up. The interior is mint with all the storage. There is two large mesh storage areas on the inside of the roof. There are 4 nice sized mesh pockets that veclro shut on each side inside at chair level which is great. There are also 4 windows (that velcro shut not zippers) above each mesh pocket as well, which is awesome. There are 2 vents that fully velcro closed on the roof. The workmanship seems to be equally as good as the design, but time will tell for sure. The hubs and poles appear to be more solid and rugged than my old Eastman, although it requires more elbow grease to open up with the added strength. The material and stitching seems to also be good, although time will tell with heavy use on that as well. The one thing I found odd, and I'm not sure I like, is the way the hut secures to the ice at the base. I like that it can be secured in any corner for windy conditions, but it secures on the inside with a strap, not like the Eastman which has a metal gromet in one outside corner to make it easy to secure in wind. I can't say this is a bad design, as there wasn't much wind on Saturday for me to test this part. Setting the pop-up designed huts in a wind can be difficult, but securing one corner of the base first makes it much easier. I'll find out on the first windy day how well this design element works out. Overall, the quality and design is excellent on the Clam Base Camp Thermal, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a quality pop-up shelter. I like the carry bag for the shelter as well. It has a nice carry handle and ample room to fit the hut easily. The only thing I did was silicone spray the heck out of the door zippers on the inside and out, as well as the storage bag zippers. This will keep the zippers working well in really cold temps and help keep snow and ice from impeding the zippers. I do this with all zippers on any ice fishing gadget including my Lowrance soft case, rod carrier etc. I got my Clam from Fishing World for $355., and it was money well spent. I'm glad I upgraded to this unit this year. TonyB has one ordered now As for the HDS5 unit on the ice, I really liked it. It has an ice fishing mode as one of the options, which I will now leave it on for the hard stuff. It also has 4 noise rejection settings, which worked well when Tony fired up his bird close to me, although I switched over to the 83 transducer frequency setting and adjusted sensitivity that worked even better. I played with a lot of settings until I got it working the way I like, and I was able to mark my lures, a minnow on a hook well in blue and green. Fish would show up as blue and green on the edge of the cone, and yellow and red under it when it was close to my offering. The real time window was great with no delay, and I enjoy having the history. Often when I wasn't paying attention for a few seconds, I would look back at the sonar to see a fish had checked out my bait and left. A few times when I noticed early enough, I enticed them back. It was also nice to have the flexibility to dial in to whatever area in the water column I wanted, which was the bottom 25-30 feet on Sat. The Lowrance PPP 161 soft case worked well, as I threw out that slide-out contraption for the transducer that came with it and tie strapped two pieces of pipe insulation doubled on the transducer cable to act as a float. I also like the fact I had the Navionics hydrographic charts on the unit If you have an HDS5 on your boat or a 5" Elite unit, I would highly recommend a soft case to use it on the ice, you will like it. As a bonus, you can use it on a fly-in trip, resorts where you rent a boat, or just a small boat you use in rivers or back lakes FYI: I don't work with either company and paid full price for my units, so these are just unbias reviews from a hard-core angler. I'll be back on Simcoe next weekend looking for some redemption! Good ice fishing! Aaron
limeyangler Posted January 25, 2011 Report Posted January 25, 2011 For gawd sake Aaron...get a snowmachine!!!! Tough bite for so much effort....i can relate...the last few trips out for me have not exactly been highly productuive here either for me anyways. great reviews...gotta love straight unbiased opinion.
Gregoire Posted January 25, 2011 Report Posted January 25, 2011 Thanks for a great review of these products.
Ron Posted January 25, 2011 Report Posted January 25, 2011 Great info Aaron. Got a question though, what are the base camp dimensions? Do they come 10X20? Is there lots of ventilation in them? Would it be good enough to sleep in over night you think? Cheers, Ron...
livinisfishin Posted January 25, 2011 Report Posted January 25, 2011 Aaron what is the "thermal" lining made of?
Cosmos Posted January 25, 2011 Report Posted January 25, 2011 Thanks for report Aaron, What is brand of silicone spray you are using?
Dan668 Posted January 25, 2011 Report Posted January 25, 2011 How many people would you say fit comfortably in this hut?
cityfisher Posted January 25, 2011 Report Posted January 25, 2011 good report aaron, I have a couple buddies looking to get this tent. Where did you buy it from ?
Terry Posted January 25, 2011 Report Posted January 25, 2011 my next hut will be a thermal one and I love my hds5, being able to switch over to 83 when lots of people are close with fishinders sure clears up the screen, changing the pings speed can help too
Joey Posted January 25, 2011 Report Posted January 25, 2011 Thanks for the review Aaron, I can't wait to try mine this weekend
scugpg Posted January 25, 2011 Report Posted January 25, 2011 Aaron/Terry - do you notice the HDS picks up the line quite a bit as well? I did on the weekend and there was no ice on the line. tried dialing the sensitivity down and then couldn't see my jig
Terry Posted January 25, 2011 Report Posted January 25, 2011 some times when I am dropping the jig, it has picked up the line but never once it's down and could always see my jig I bought the smallest swivels I could to put between my braid and a few ft of mono and 102ft down it shows up all the time. drives me crazy
alexmedic Posted January 25, 2011 Report Posted January 25, 2011 Thanks for a great report. I also use a HDS 5 on the ice. I was unaware that there was noise rejection settings on the unit. How do you access those?? i I got out onto Lady Simcoe on Saturday with Tony, Johnny and Dave. It was definitely our first trip on the big frozen pond, as we packed heavy and didn't realize how much snow there was and how out of shape we were We couldn't physically walk all the way out to the spot we wanted to fish, so we had to cut our walk short and settle for fishing closer to shore. fishing was not good there, but we just couldn't move lol. We did see fish moving through all day, but they were very inactive. I got 2 bites all day, 2 more than the other guys. Four of us registered a skunk and almost killed ourselves walking out The Clam Base Camp Thermal: although it was tough fishing, I was able to test the HDS5 and my new Clam It was a cold day at -18 in the am, so it was a good test for the thermal aspect of the Clam. After a day on the ice in very cold temps, I am amazed by the Clam thermal! With my old Eastman, I would have had the Mr.Buddy on high all day. I only had it on low, and I had to get some air once in a while because it was so warm in there! Needless to say, I am very impressed with the thermal model, and it will pay for the extra cost in propane savings. Another note about the thermal model, is the claim about no condensation dripping down on you during cold days is absolutely true. Not one drop from the roof. I would have been dodging cold water droplets all day in the Eastman and got wet. I really like the design with 2 doors kitty corner with quality zippers (2 per door), with storm flaps to protect the zippers from snow and ice build-up. The interior is mint with all the storage. There is two large mesh storage areas on the inside of the roof. There are 4 nice sized mesh pockets that veclro shut on each side inside at chair level which is great. There are also 4 windows (that velcro shut not zippers) above each mesh pocket as well, which is awesome. There are 2 vents that fully velcro closed on the roof. The workmanship seems to be equally as good as the design, but time will tell for sure. The hubs and poles appear to be more solid and rugged than my old Eastman, although it requires more elbow grease to open up with the added strength. The material and stitching seems to also be good, although time will tell with heavy use on that as well. The one thing I found odd, and I'm not sure I like, is the way the hut secures to the ice at the base. I like that it can be secured in any corner for windy conditions, but it secures on the inside with a strap, not like the Eastman which has a metal gromet in one outside corner to make it easy to secure in wind. I can't say this is a bad design, as there wasn't much wind on Saturday for me to test this part. Setting the pop-up designed huts in a wind can be difficult, but securing one corner of the base first makes it much easier. I'll find out on the first windy day how well this design element works out. Overall, the quality and design is excellent on the Clam Base Camp Thermal, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a quality pop-up shelter. I like the carry bag for the shelter as well. It has a nice carry handle and ample room to fit the hut easily. The only thing I did was silicone spray the heck out of the door zippers on the inside and out, as well as the storage bag zippers. This will keep the zippers working well in really cold temps and help keep snow and ice from impeding the zippers. I do this with all zippers on any ice fishing gadget including my Lowrance soft case, rod carrier etc. I got my Clam from Fishing World for $355., and it was money well spent. I'm glad I upgraded to this unit this year. TonyB has one ordered now As for the HDS5 unit on the ice, I really liked it. It has an ice fishing mode as one of the options, which I will now leave it on for the hard stuff. It also has 4 noise rejection settings, which worked well when Tony fired up his bird close to me, although I switched over to the 83 transducer frequency setting and adjusted sensitivity that worked even better. I played with a lot of settings until I got it working the way I like, and I was able to mark my lures, a minnow on a hook well in blue and green. Fish would show up as blue and green on the edge of the cone, and yellow and red under it when it was close to my offering. The real time window was great with no delay, and I enjoy having the history. Often when I wasn't paying attention for a few seconds, I would look back at the sonar to see a fish had checked out my bait and left. A few times when I noticed early enough, I enticed them back. It was also nice to have the flexibility to dial in to whatever area in the water column I wanted, which was the bottom 25-30 feet on Sat. The Lowrance PPP 161 soft case worked well, as I threw out that slide-out contraption for the transducer that came with it and tie strapped two pieces of pipe insulation doubled on the transducer cable to act as a float. I also like the fact I had the Navionics hydrographic charts on the unit If you have an HDS5 on your boat or a 5" Elite unit, I would highly recommend a soft case to use it on the ice, you will like it. As a bonus, you can use it on a fly-in trip, resorts where you rent a boat, or just a small boat you use in rivers or back lakes FYI: I don't work with either company and paid full price for my units, so these are just unbias reviews from a hard-core angler. I'll be back on Simcoe next weekend looking for some redemption! Good ice fishing! Aaron
Terry Posted January 26, 2011 Report Posted January 26, 2011 you hit menu twice go to sonar and you will see noise rejection and surface clarity ..that is them
Aaron Shirley Posted January 26, 2011 Author Report Posted January 26, 2011 Hey guys, my Base Camp Thermal is 6' x 6' and 7' high. Plenty of room for two guys and all your gear, a bit crowded with three, but doable. They make larger sizes, like the Summit that would be ideal for three guys that could fish 4 at 6' x 8' wide, and a monster Command Post at 6' x 12' wide good for up to 6 guys. There is also the Fish Camp at 7' x 14', but I don't think it has Thermal fabric. You can view my unit at this link, and check out the larger models as well: Clam Base Camp Thermal Not sure what the Thermal material is made from, I forget from when I did the research, it was a while ago. Here is a video on the thermal: Thermal Fabric I bought mine from Fishing World in Hamilton. One thing I forgot to mention is the Thermal models weigh a lot more than the thin material models. The extra 10 pounds (Base Camp Thermal) is worth it IMO. I talked about sleeping overnight in it on the wekend lol. A couple of cots would probably do it, although I would use the 5lb or 10lb propane tank for overnight. TonyB just picked us both up a 5lb tank, which will be much better than having a few 1 pound tanks, and cheaper over time. I used a 10lb tank last year, but it's a bit heavy and bulky with mo machine lol. The larger Summit or Cammand Post Thermal would be better for overnight sleeping, as you could have lines down fishing while you have the cots set up for sleeping. Doable with Base Camp model, but would be tight. The one note about camping in them that was brought to my attention on Saturday, you would want LED lights in each of the 4 windows at night so you don't get run over by a snow machine. The HDS5 noise reduction settings are in the sonar setting menu. Hit menu twice, then choose the sonar menu. You can adjust the screen rate as well, which is better at about 4 in deep water 90' or more for watching fish chase in real time. Good fishing! Aaron
Aaron Shirley Posted January 26, 2011 Author Report Posted January 26, 2011 you hit menu twice go to sonar and you will see noise rejection and surface clarity ..that is them Hahaha, typed mine before I saw your reply.
alexmedic Posted January 26, 2011 Report Posted January 26, 2011 Hahaha, typed mine before I saw your reply. Found it! Thanks!
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