HUMMINBIRD ICE 55 FLASER, ANYONE GOT THE GOODS AND BADS ?

[CJH]

Can you say "written by a Marcum Marketing Rep"??!!!!

Garbage Review, 'nuff said.

[Surface Tension]

I'm a die hard LX5 guy. The Ice 55 has some pretty big expections to fill.

I like the fact the Ice 55 user select menu defaults back to Gain control. IMO gain adjustment is what you'll be fine tuning more then any other function. I have yet had to use the noise reduction when fishing along side a MarCum as the MarCum didn't need any IR adjustments either. Big plus there not only because your not tuning out noise but your able to use gain to its full potential. What I mean by that is when you get 3 or more flashers together it is certain that you'll be able to reduce clutter with IR but you have to make somewhat of a comprise with gain. Shallow and soft bottom situations that is not much of an issue. In deeper water when more gain is needed to mark your lure, bait fish, and fish for that matter, noise starts to become an issue. If your over deep water with rocks the noise is compounded. Plan on having to reduce gain as a compromise. When you do that your not getting the full benefit of using a sounder as your suppressing the information it sends back.

When using narrow and wide cone angles with the Ice 55 you will notice that you'll need more gain under wide angle. That is acceptable to me. Comparing the gain level as scale between two different brand flashers is not what you do. When changing brand flashers you change how you would use them, as in it takes a while to learn and get the fullest out of that flasher. After all they are different. If things didn't change between brands where would be.

I've been using sonar for 30 years. I feel I know what I'm doing. Knowing that it is going to take using the Ice 55 on many different situations to get a good feel on which I prefer. So far I've had the Ice 55 on two outing in shallow water with soft bottom and weeds.

I like what I've seen so far. Some obvious pluses, large flat screen. Auto depth and digital depth read out.

I'll be using the Ice 55 in deep water for lake trout which will give me the opportunity to see how the 55 performs there.

There I'll be experimenting with zoom, cone angles on steep breaks and among large boulders while testing dead zones.

Fishing among smelt and ciscos and how they mark in relation to my lure and Lake trout coming into a cone

angle. Lastly target separation, easiest way to explain that is the distance two targets meld into one. Less distance = better.

[bigbad401]

The guy who wrote that was not going to like the Bird no matter what, and you could tell that in his opening paragraph. Down2earth, take that "unbiased" (that was one of the most biased reviews I have ever read) review with a grain of salt. I bought my Bird 35 last year after owning a Vex FL-8. I have not regretted it one bit. There are pluses and minuses to each brand. If you read this forum you will find a lot of people that like their brand, including Humminbird. You can't go wrong with buying the ICE 55, as it is a very nice unit. But with that, you couldn't go wrong with the Marcum LX-5 either.

[Down2Earth]

Well I currently own an FL-18 and love it. I'm sure I would like a marcum just as much. The 4 points of the review biased or not that caught my interest was the buttons falling off, the one crystal in the ducer vs 2 (which does make sense), the large target separation, and how even at full gain he couldn't pick up the lure at 24ft in wide angle (but maybe the small angle is like the wide angle on other units and the wide angle is even wider for shallow fishing then other units). But at $399 for the 55 I could see myself picking up one to try out and always sell it and get my money back if I didn't like it. Plus maybe these issues were corrected with the 2009 model being this review was on a 2008 model.

ST thank you for the nice reply

[fishersofmen]

Just got my ice-55 from ups. It sure is pretty and man that screen is huge compared to the vex! Its like I just got a new flat screen TV. No more strain on my eyes. Will test it out tomorrow and see how she works.......

The majority of reviews I have read are very positive. It would seem there are some underlining motives with this one like the above post said.

[wildmanp]

ICE 55-

I'VE HAD THE SAME PROBLEM WITH MARKING MY JIGS AT DEEPER DEPHTS TOO. I had to turn the gain up pretty high to see my jig(bait), but the signal kept going in and out the screen. THIS WAS THE MAIN REAON I RETURNED MY ICE 55 AND PURCHASE A MARCUM LX-5.

I do like ICE 55 large screen feature, but 3 colors are confusing enough for me on a flasher screen. To have 6 colors on the ICE 55, boy I think I'll need a degree for that!!!!!

[wildmanp]

great review

[fishersofmen]

Then why not just use it on mode 1 with the 3 colors......

Harvey Lee have you had problems finding your jig on the screen with these?? Or have you had to turn your gain way up??

[Down2Earth]

Then why not just use it on mode 1 with the 3 colors......

Harvey Lee have you had problems finding your jig on the screen with these?? Or have you had to turn your gain way up??

What about in the wide angle mode at depths deeper then 25ft?

[MaskedMallard]

My dislike on the Humminbird 55 is the ZOOM feature. It only goes in 10ft incroments & I can't adjust foot by foot.

If I'm fishing in 17 feet of water, I'm forced to read either 2 feet into the bottom & have an 8 foot Target area above that, or target the 1 foot above the water & have it zoomed in from 16 to 6 feet of water. Turn the knob & its either that or like I said earlier, 2 feet into the bottom & 8 feet above that.

I'd love to be able to set my target depth at 17 or 18 feet & then have the zoom feature 5 feet above that & then if desired increase it to a 10 foot zoom area.

I can understand a 10 foot zoom if I'm in for example 100 feet of water, but come on, to target a 10 foot water column in less than 20 feet of water.

As for fishing the Bird in more than 30 feet of water, I have no experience.

As for the 6 color display. I love it. For people that are used to the 3 color dispaly. Accept change & enjoy the advancement of 6 colors. Is it really that hard to realize Light Blue is a soft target, Green is something more dense than Light Blue, & so forth? If you are going to complain about 6 colors, instead of 3, stop fishing & quit driving. Did you complain when a 3 second pause was put in for the stop lights on cross traffic? Meaning cross traffic got a red light & you had to wait 3 seconds for your green light to happen? Welcome to advancement & change.....

As for battery power, wow, people like to complain where they can. Do you complain your gas tank isn't big enough on your auger? No, most likely not. You just bring more gas. Cell phone battery doesn't last long enough? Jeeze... How many of you actually run the battery to zero & then feel you are SOL, with no way to charge it? I'd assume if you are fishing that long, you have access to a power supply to recharge said toys. Either it being a Hotel or a fish house with a Generator. With that being said, the less than 5% that just like to complain because they can & are putting an extream test on, just buy another battery & the problem is solved.

If I had more than 2 thumbs, I'd give the Bird everything but the max. Reason is, see above mentioned. The ZOOM needs a little tweaking & I also have no experience on deep water.

Stay safe, keep fishing, keep the drag taunt & set the hook!!! Good luck.

FWIW, I got my Bird for 399.99. I got it at the "C~b~l~s" in Rogers, Minnesota. There was a tiered coupon. Spend soooo much & get soooo much off. Basically spend $500.00 or more & get $100.00 off.

[Scott K]

I have the Ice-55 and the zoom is 10 foot, but you can adjust it anywhere you want in the water colunm. I believe it is in 2 foot increments, but I am not sure of that number.

[CJH]

Over 20 feet or so you really should be putting any flasher on narrow beam. The spread, even in narrow beam obviously gets pretty big the deeper you fish.

[KG243]

ICE 55-

I'VE HAD THE SAME PROBLEM WITH MARKING MY JIGS AT DEEPER DEPHTS TOO. I had to turn the gain up pretty high to see my jig(bait), but the signal kept going in and out the screen. THIS WAS THE MAIN REAON I RETURNED MY ICE 55 AND PURCHASE A MARCUM LX-5.

I do like ICE 55 large screen feature, but 3 colors are confusing enough for me on a flasher screen. To have 6 colors on the ICE 55, boy I think I'll need a degree for that!!!!!

Maybe your eyes are going bad since you have to type in caps so much?! Just giving ya a hard time! I could care less what flasher you buy they all work the same.

[Maverick]

Wow!! Knobs falling off, zoom doesn't work out that well, jig disappears. None of these issues is as important as what happened to me two weeks ago. My buddy fishes an FL18, I'm using my ICE55. We are fishing in 16 feet of water. I caught 4 walleye, 6 pike and a white fish. He caught 1 dinker walleye and 1 little pike.

Final analysis: ICE55 out fishes FL18 4 to 1 on walleye and a whopping 6 to 1 on pike. His FL18 didn't even catch a white fish at all.

After my scientific analysis of the two units I would suggest that everyone dump there vex's and marcums so that they will be sure to catch more fish.

Oh yeah, in an effort towards full disclosure, I should point out that I caught one of my walleye while using my old FL8 since My ICE55 took a dump and wouldn't work. But, I'm just saying.

[CJH]

My nobs have never fallen off and I think the design of the adjustable zoom allowing you to move it by simply turning the nob is the best design/functionality out there.

[fishersofmen]

On my new Ice-55 the zoom is in 5 foot incraments, which seems better than 10. Maybe its something they changed don't know. I love how you just turn the dial to place it where you want though. I will be taking it out today for the first time. The large flat screen on this thing is just sick!!

[fishersofmen]

Correction after taking it out on the ice zoom is in 10 foot incraments. In simulator mode it works in 5 foot incraments? I'm a little nervous after the first use, as some of the other posts have said I had a hard time picking up my jig. Was fishing in only 20 FOW. On the fl-8 I sold to my buddy his jig would show up slightly red with the gain on 1. On my ice-55 I had to turn it up to 40 and then pick up a bunch of other lines! I realize the vex only goes to 10 and the bird to 50 but there is a major difference there. It didn't make much of a difference which beam I used, and I didn't put the extra cord on the transducer cable. The transducer was perfectly level. The whole time I fished I had the gain on 30 just to make my jig green. After the first outing I am a little concerned, will try it a couple more times before I decide to keep it or not.

Love the large digital flat screen, but if I can't get good clarity and separation it will have to go.

[Down2Earth]

Thank you for being honest.

[WollMan]

I just got the 45. good unit. dont need the gain turned up too high to see my jig. still trying to figure out the zoom. one thing that i do not think is working properly is on the LCD screen. the depth scale that goes around the flasher circle is supposed to be on a 20 ft scale. on mine it's on a 10 ft scale and does not change if i change the range. i am assuming there is something wrong here and am thinking about exchanging it for a different 45. other than that it has been great.

[Down2Earth]

Are you fishing deeper then 25ft when you say you have no trouble seeing the jig?

[bigbad401]

I fish between 25 and 30 FOW and I don't have a problem. I do use the narrow beam and then zoom.

[Maverick]

I was fishing in 23 feet and I could see my ice bait clear as a bell on 5 or 6 on the narrow beam and 8 or 9 on the wide beam. I don't use the extra cord or the float. I drop the transducer over the edge of the hole and make sure it is under the ice. I also make sure there is no ice build up on the bottom of the transducer.

After experiencing my ICE55 going whacko and reading some of the other posts here, it seems clear that some of the units are defective or have developed defects along the way. That is too bad since the unit has some nice features. Luckily there is a 2 year warranty and so far it seems that HB has been good about repairing or replacing. I won't be giving away my FL8 anytime soon. It's a nice back up if I need to send the HB in every winter. I have a brand new unit now, so I will see how it goes this weekend.

[fishersofmen]

Maverick I didn't put the extra cord on either, and had the transducer completely below the ice with no buildup on the bottom. I was using a good sized ratso with 2 euro larva on it and couldn't even read it at 20ft until the gain was up to 17. Had to bring it close to 30 to get a good read. My buddies fl-8 was set at 1. I think you are right about some of the units being defective. I will be back out tomorrow on a different lake to see if anything changes. I was really hoping this thing would work good just because I like the large digital flat screen so much..........

[triton189]

I have a new Ice-55 that I'm using this year and am having the same sensitivity issues that are being reported. I'm having a real hard time with the statements about using the narrow beam in water depths of 20 feet or greater. That's the water depths I fish in all the time, and I did not pay all this money for a single beam unit. I will be contacting Humminbird today and requesting a replacement transducer as per recommendations.

Here's a question; for those of you that use your Ice-55/45 to shoot thru the ice, can you get a depth reading in the center of the LCD readout, or do you only see the depth on the outer dial? This was the main thing that tipped me over the edge to purchase the Hummindird over the other two, and so far I cannot get it to work.

[CJH]

Straight out of the HB manual:

"Selecting 240 kHz will provide a wider beam with more coverage but less detail, while selecting 455 kHz will provide a narrower beam with more resolution."

So obviously, the deeper the water you fish, the more the beam is spread out giving you a weaker return.