When or if to upgrade sonar electronics

[LeXXington]

Other than new technologies like side scan, downward imaging etc.  I was wondering how much of a difference is new electronic base sonar compared to the older sonar when ice fishing.

I have a 2013 Lowrance Elite-5 I use for ice fishing.  Works great, other than the magic window, marks fish no problem and i use it on my kayak in the summer.

Looking at the 7 year old unit and other than the pixel count 480 by 480 pixels of resolution is it worth upgrading.

Has any new technologies made a difference? 

yes, i would love panoptics but i would add this to the boat first

 

[Terry]

A portable case and your garmin and live scope becomes your icefishing  toy

my old Lawrence 67c  fishfinder still sees my 1/8 oz jig in 100 ft of water and the battery lasts a whole weekend 

my garmin 95 goes through batteries like no tomorrow nice to have the big screen. 
but doesn’t really give you more info

Edited December 10, 2020 by Terry

[Fisherman]

What Terry said.  I still use my X67 and it will pretty much do the same thing.  Unless you're intent on seeing bugs walk on the bottom of the lake bed, there comes a time when hype and moneys worth just don't justify the end.

[AKRISONER]

Livescope goes both in the boat and on the ice

 

if you can afford it, it’s a game changer...if not then stick with what you got.

[DanD]

40 minutes ago, AKRISONER said:

Livescope goes both in the boat and on the ice

At 2 Grand a pop, I hope you tape a whole lot of bubble wrap around the thing. LOL I'm just joking but I'm also jealous that I can't afford one.

Dan.

 

[Sinker]

Nope. What you have will mark the exact same fish at the exact same time. 

 

[misfish]

I have the elite 4x,5x and HB 598 hd si di w/ gps. All serve any purpose I need. All these new fancy things out now,I have no use for,so I will stick with what I have. They serve me well .

I can mark a small dropper bait in 115 fow with all of them .

[crappieperchhunter]

I have an old vex I got maybe 15 years ago second hand from a member of this board. Don't know how old it actually  is. For my ice fishing needs the only way I will leave this unit for newer tech is if it croaks. It does everything I need it to do on the ice. 

[aplumma]

Being that you are ice fishing meaning you are not in a constant flux of moving trying to measure lots of different elements, I think the improvements a new system would have would be wasted. When I am either running over 50 MPH or stationary in the boat I use my flasher more than my Lowrance unit. It tells me the depth, bottom hardness and floating objects easily at a glance. When I am looking for things I cruise between 2 and 8 mph then I use my Lowrance down or sidescan. 

Art

[misfish]

16 minutes ago, aplumma said:

When I am either running over 50 MPH or stationary in the boat I use my flasher

Sure glad I cant row 50 mph, or I would need a flasher. LOL

[LeXXington]

thanks all that's what i figured but reading all the sonar reviews you would think new sonar would tell you the fish type, size, and weight

[Terry]

Well garmin livescope just about does. 
You know if it’s coming at your bait or going away.    Last winter I was fishing and I could see the guy fishing 30 ft away from me.  His lure and when fish were about to hit.  It was fun watching 

[AKRISONER]

honestly lex...you seem to be getting a lot of answers from guys that havent fished with a live scope talking negatively about it lol.

Live scope without a doubt is as expensive as hell, but it is 100% a game changer. Dont let anyone tell you otherwise. 

Wanna know why even for a "stationary" activity like ice fishing where you think a flasher does the same job? Because you pop a hole and you shoot the damn thing across the area you want to fish and rotate it and voila...it will tell you exactly where the fish are if there are any...so yes if there are fish 50 meters away to your right...your flasher aint showing you that.

I havent had the pleasure of using one while ice fishing yet, but I already know how deadly that could be for fishing crappies when they are constantly moving. Instead of me drilling out a big grid of holes and then running around trying to stay on top of them I could simply rotate the deucer when they move off of my hole and figure out exactly what hole I should be fishing out of next.

Now from experience fishing smallmouth...phhh how about being able to see smallies 30 feet off of the front of your boat and then casting out directly ontop of them rather then waiting until your boat is on top of them to see them. Chris Johnston won a BASS event this year doing exactly that on lake O...hed mark the fish off in the distance by rotating his trolling motor head to scan the area and then cast out a drop shot right too them without spooking them with the boat.

Once again, its super super expensive stuff...but dont let people poo poo it...its crazy when you watch schools of smallmouth and walleye swim under your boat...or even crazier watching your crankbait 10 feet down swim live across your screen from 40 feet out in front of you...no joke.

[misfish]

5 hours ago, AKRISONER said:

Once again, its super super expensive stuff...but dont let people poo poo it..

I do not think anyone is poo pooing it . It,s just a lot of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ for something that is not really needed by everyone .

I can tell by the line if it is a small fish or not. I know what I am fishing for,so really do not need a finder to tell me what it is. Anything else caught, is a surprise.LOL

[aplumma]

You also run the risk of not catching any fish with the live scope because you never wetted the line because you were watching the screen all day. It really is facinating what you see but what is the line where you have to big of an advantage over the fish. I think that when you go out some of what makes the good trips better are the trips where you did poorly. I enjoy looking at a flasher and figuring out the puzzle of what is going on below and then proving it by catching the fish. 

Art

[misfish]

On 12/10/2020 at 4:36 PM, crappieperchhunter said:

I have an old vex I got maybe 15 years ago second hand from a member of this board. Don't know how old it actually  is. For my ice fishing needs the only way I will leave this unit for newer tech is if it croaks. It does everything I need it to do on the ice. 

I remember getting one of these from you on a very cold Saturday morning some 15 years ago I believe Steve . They both still work like they were brand new .

 

 

 

 

[crappieperchhunter]

47 minutes ago, misfish said:

I remember getting one of these from you on a very cold Saturday morning some 15 years ago I believe Steve . They both still work like they were brand new .

 

 

 

 

Glad the X55 is still working for you Brian. I got it I believe in the early 90's to take along on our Fly In trips. When we stopped doing the trips it was just sitting in my basement on a shelf getting dusty.