Lowrance 5x DSI Review

[jedimaster]

As some of you may recall there was a sale on some lowrance portable 5x DSI units during boxing week. I picked one up and I have been tinkering with it. I thought I would give a full review here since I have now spent 2 or 3 outings with it.

 

 

The Rig

 

The first thing is that to use it on the ice you need to make a bracket of some sort. I just took to sticks 1"x1"x16", and put a bolt with a washer in between them. This left me with an "L" shaped bracket that I can fold up for storage and it's adjustable so I can tweak the angle. I am going to switch the nut I have on the end for a wing nut and that will let me lock it into place a bit better. I also taped the transducer wire up the vertical shaft to keep it from flopping around.

 

 

 

For Power, It came with an 8 D Cell battery pack(batteries not included). They lasted really well actually, with the 8 going down about .4 volts for a full day. Probaly would be good for 3 or 4 full days on the ice.

 

I switched over to using a UPS AGM battery, a 12 volt 9ah battery. It started at 12.6 volts and at the end of about 7 hours fishing outside in -10 temps it was down to 12.4 volts. So lots of juice left.

 

 

The Settings

 

I turned the contrast right up to 100 percent (there is no sensitivity on this model as its sensitivity is automatically adjusted according to the contrast).

I played around with the brightness and light setting throughout the day according to angle and lighting conditions, but at no time in the day was I unable to clearly view everything from standing or sitting.

I was fishing in about 25-30 fow and I just left the depth setting to auto.

800 mhz setting didn't produce anything, but the 455mhz setting worked great.

I found using it on split screen was nice with one screen zoomed into 4x and the other zoomed out to full, but I always ended up back at one full screen with 2x zoom. You are able to zoom down to 4x and you can adjust the height of the zoom with the up and down arrows if you are fishing for suspended fish.

I have owned and use many flashers, vex, Marcum, humminbird etc... I found this to be a very nice experience. I really enjoyed being able to visually see how many fish are looking, how they are reacting to each other both in real time and over history.

 

 

Am I saying that this unit replaces a flasher...umm it’s going to make some flasher owners angry but yes.

Over all for the price I paid for it and considering it will be used during the ice season and as a primary finder on my boat in the summer I am very satisfied with the purchase and I would recommend this to anyone on a budget looking to get a unit that will do the job in the summer and the winter.

 

The Drawbacks

 

Doesn't come with a rechargeable battery

It doesn't work well in under 10 feet of water

There is no option to buy a downward looking "Ice Ducer" for the DSI model. However I was fishing with a 6" hole and I didn't have any difficulties using it as is, but an ice ducer would be much more convenient.

Edited February 11, 2013 by jedimaster

[Terry]

Good review.

 

[DRIFTER_016]

Nice!!

I bought mine to add to the dash of my boat during the open water season.

It will work in concert with my LMS-350 until I can put away the $$$$ for an HDS-10/Structure Scan outfit.

I couldn't pass up the deal when it went on sale.

Looking forward to checking it out come the spring.

 

Only 4 more months until ice out!!!!!

[jedimaster]

Yah, it'll be dual purpose for me, I am itching to see what its like on the softwater while cruising, apparently at slow trolling speeds it works awesome. Not alot of options like scroll speed etc... but for the price on the deal, I am very satisfied so far.

[BucktownAngler]

i was under the impression that DSI (downscan) is not good for ice fishing. Apparently you need to be moving.

 

i guess thats not the case

[Marko]

Hey thats looking nice. I have my contrast set to 60 but i am only fishing 10-15 feet.

How big is that lure that you are using ? Sometimes on 800 mHz i think i see my jighead tipped with a bigger minnow....its hard to tell fishing really shallow.

I`ll set it to 455 mHZ and play with it next time out....if i can get it to a point where i can see my bait that would be prety sweet.

 

Thanks!

[adempsey]

Interesting. I saw that unit for a great price and almost bought one, but then read many mediocre reviews. Your review made me wish I had gone ahead and ordered one.

[jedimaster]

Well seeing is believing the lure is an 1/8 ounce eye dropper jig with a medium sized shiner. I bought it and read the reviews after and was dissapointed until I got it on the ice. It is a bit finicky getting it angled properly but once its set its great. You need to get it pointed right at your lure. The beam appears to be very narrow so side to side angle and front to back angle on the transducer is critical. If you can't see your lure its not set right. What I was doing was putting it in the hole, dropping the lure and when the lure was about 2 feet off the bottom, I slowly adjusted the angles until I could see the solid bar and then fished away.

Edited February 12, 2013 by jedimaster

[northernpike56]

good review. I bought the same one from the link that was posted here, and I think a bunch of other people did as well. I've only got to try mine out once so far, now I need to made the makeshift ice ducer like you did.

 

Really, I'm just planning on using mine to know the temprature, depth, and bottom structure and it looks like it delivers that all for just over $100.

[wall i]

Got one too for fly-ins. I see the lack of an integral rchargeable battery pack as a plus. Just get rechargeable D's. Those integral battery backs always die a premature death and then where are you? My son has been lamenting the fact that I dont have a flasher for ice but I dont do ice. Seems like this will fit his needs.

Edited February 12, 2013 by wall i