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

[DTro]

Fishersofmen, this is a known transducer issue, at least from what I read elsewhere by a HB Pro Staff

The problems certain units had last year with the Gain and seeing jigs in deep water was not a problem with the unit but the transducer. I did all sorts of testing to figure out what was wrong with certain units and why some needed to have the Gain set so high. As it turns out the units were working fine but the transducers were not mounted level. Essentially certain units had transducers that were pointing slightly at an angle towards the bottom, which we all know does not work with sonar.

That transducer issue was addressed last year at the end of the season. I was fortuate enough to not get any of the ducers that had the issue but I did some testing on some transducers that did and you needed your gain set at 25 all the time.

As I said, that issue has been fixed and the new units come with an additional 25 levels of Gain. If someone still needs their Gain on 25 out of 25 or 50 out of 50, they have a bad transducer still. I have been through these trasducer issues with Vexilar, MarCum and Humminbird, lets just say that little transducer is an important part of your sonar-take care of it!

[rmb]

After going back through all the posts and rereading them one question comes to mind. Did H-Bird fix the sensitivity issue/maybe a bit of quality control between teh 2008 and the 2009 Ice 55's. I know they changed the gain scale but what other changes have they made? I would find it helpfull to know from the guys that have or are having issues how many of them are using the 2008 model and how many are using the 2009 model. a quick post with which year you are using and what problems you are having would be great. I would guess that H-bird would be taking these issues very seriously considering how great their customer service is on their open water equipment. I have a new 2009 Ice 55 on the way and i am seriously considering returning it for an lx 5 without even taking it out of the box.

[triton189]

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.

CJH, thanks for pointing that out. I'm thinking now that is going to be the major difference between this units duel beam coverage and the competitions. I have not heard of any complaints from either Vex or Marcum owners on a loss of sensitivity when switching from one mode to another. Everyone knows that there are definite fishing conditions that will call out for wide angle coverage in deep water, and to sacrifice the ability to fish small jigs in that condition is unacceptable to me. Thanks again for bringing that to my attention.

[CJH]

I think the difference is overplayed, to be honest. I fish next to an LX5 all the time, and we don't see any difference in sensitivity fishing shallow or deep.

I was simply trying to point out that with all machines you will most likely have better results with a narrow beam in deep water. For Example, in 30ft of water in wide mode, you are talking over 10 ft of radius. The bigger the radius, the weaker the return. It will only get worse the deeper you fish.

[Borch]

It is possible that some may have a bad ducer. The default setting on the new HB-55 is 26 out of 50. If you find yourself pushing towards 50 to see you jig then something it not right and I'd give Hummingbird a call.

So far mine has worked as it should. But I haven't used any tiny panfish jigs yet in deep water.

[triton189]

After going back through all the posts and rereading them one question comes to mind. Did H-Bird fix the sensitivity issue/maybe a bit of quality control between teh 2008 and the 2009 Ice 55's. I know they changed the gain scale but what other changes have they made? I would find it helpfull to know from the guys that have or are having issues how many of them are using the 2008 model and how many are using the 2009 model. a quick post with which year you are using and what problems you are having would be great. I would guess that H-bird would be taking these issues very seriously considering how great their customer service is on their open water equipment. I have a new 2009 Ice 55 on the way and i am seriously considering returning it for an lx 5 without even taking it out of the box.

My Ice-55 is a 2009 model I think? I have the gain that is adjustable to 50, but I'm not 100% sure that makes it an 09?

Here are my concerns:

* Needed to crank the gain up very high (30-35'ish) to pick up a good size walleye jigging spoon on wide angle while fishing Little Bay De Noc last week in about 20-24 fow. Totally lost the jig when I switched over to narrow beam, but figured that it was because the current was taking the spoon outside the cone angle. Didn’t really give it a lot of thought until I got back on the forum and starting hearing about the issues with the sensitivity (or lack thereof) in the wide angle mode in waters deeper than 20 feet.

* I also had the digital depth reading roll back every once in awhile for no apparent reason. Did not seem to affect the reading on the outer dial, just the digital reading. Not sure if this is an issue, but it sure gets your attention when it happens.

On a positive note:

I really like the looks of it and the way it plays with my LX-3. Absolutely no interference issues regardless of gain settings or beam selection. 6 color readout is very easy to look at, and the unit was whisper quiet when it was operating. Zoom mode works great, easy to set, and really enhanced the fishability of the zoomed in area. I liked the fact that when I turned up the gain it had no washout effect on the bottom like I have with my LX-3.

[fishersofmen]

Mine is a new unit and the gain goes up to 50. As I said before I didn't put the extra cord on the transducer line and when I have it in the water I can see that it is perfectly level.

I went out again today and was in 17FOW. The whole time I fished I had the gain set at 28 to see my jig at 15FOW. I used both the wide and narrow beam using the wide beam most of the time as that showed things best on the screen. I also tried the zoom but didn't like using it as it made things larger but also somewhat blurry at the same time. If I have to use my gain setting this high in 17FOW I can only imagine the issues I would have if I was fishing in 30FOW or more. I used an fl-8 for over 10 years and the colors are much more clear and detailed even on that unit. Although the screen is very large on the Bird the color and detail just seems sloppy to me. At this point I will probably just sell it and by a lx-5 or fl-20. I'm not saying this unit doesn't work well for some folks, I just don't think its the right unit for me.

[Surface Tension]

I used the ICE-55 on the BWCAW Lake Trout Opener.

Fished in 55-45' of water on a fairly steep break.

Used both narrow and wide beam. Narrow didn't eliminate that much of the dead zone which is often the case with any sounder, I've used MarCums and Vexilars btw. So I opted to use the wide beam for the reason I wanted a heads up on Lakers coming in ASAP. IMO that is more reason to use the wide angle then to reduce the dead zone. Did not have any problem marking a pimple or a jigging rap with the gain set at 20 from 0-50. The ICE-55 easily marked the suspended Ciscos along with my lures. I was also able to turn the gain down to get ride of the ciscos but still mark my lure. That is nice a nice option to be able to do.

One thing that was sort of strange is bottom read as soft which very well could have been centuries of sediment on top of rock but being on a steep break seems not so likely. Mind you I'm used to reading a vex and MarCum and I'm still getting used to and trusting what the bird is telling me. A need for defined target separation wasn't there and another reason I did not use the narrow beam much. I did use the zoom and I like the ease of operation there. I did seem like I had to overlap the bottom to get that coverage. I'll need more testing but default zoom seems to start a couple feet off bottom, from there you'll have to cover bottom up which as a result you lose a little zoom of the water column.

Something else you'll notice about the bird is it stands tall. They leave you plenty of room to get the ducer tucked away and to wrap up ducer cable.

Again the large display is a winner along with digital depth.

I did watch that readout hoping a slight change of depth readout would one up me as a heads up on bottom hugging fish. More testing to be done there.

I wish I could have tested for myself how the ICE-55 preforms marking smaller profile lures in deep water but because of wind chills at -35 I was more concerned keeping the hands warm. Oh yeah I should mention, the BWCAW is no motorized area and the walk in was 2 miles + to this spot. No shelter or heat, just a folding chair and back to the wind. I guess I could merge a quick blip about the performance of the new SNOSUIT onto this post. This stuff is the real deal. No way I could have sat for 5 hours in those windchills without it on. You need to hold a suit in your hands then slip them on, you'll know your protected.

You won't want to walk in the BWCAW with the bibs on and you'll be venting the jacket for sure but once you get there and hunker down with back to wind, well its great stuff.

Back to the ICE-55, got a hot gill and crappie in the area and can't wait to see what the Bird tells me. More to come on that.

[Ed Carlson]

I field tested all 3, and a "Little Bird" whispered in my ear, be happy you have Vexilar FL-20's, with "True Duel Beam".

[KG243]

I don't understand how there can be a diffrence if they are both 9/19 degree??? that seems to be two diffrent degrees to me which would equal to diffrent sized cones I am not a techno geek so maybe i don't understand! As for my Ice 55 I am very pleased.

[Fredd]

What are the dual beam settings on the 55?? Seems to me that you want the greatest coverage that you can get to see the most that you can at a given depth (if the beam is 20 degrees you are probably seeing roughly a diameter a third of the depth you are fishing.... so roughly six feet in 18 feet of water). Why would you want to cut your view?? I thought the narrower settings were just for the deeper water columns like more than 100 feet?? Maybe like others have reported, that they are having some bad ducers. I know that Marcum had this issue with some of their earlier products.

[bigbad401]

I field tested all 3, and a "Little Bird" whispered in my ear, be happy you have Vexilar FL-20's, with "True Duel Beam".

HUH??????

[CJH]

Issues with Vex and Marcum encountering problems with their wide beams/setup:

http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/ubb...ep_water#UNREAD

http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/ubb...troubles#UNREAD

"Seems to me that you want the greatest coverage that you can get to see the most that you can at a given depth (if the beam is 20 degrees you are probably seeing roughly a diameter a third of the depth you are fishing.... so roughly six feet in 18 feet of water). Why would you want to cut your view?? I thought the narrower settings were just for the deeper water columns like more than 100 feet??"

Two good examples of why in some circumstances using the narrow beam is better. As I mentioned in a previous post, doesn't matter which brand you have, certain situations dictate using the narrow cone. None of the units/brands allow you to always use the wide cone and have perfect returns, its just not possible yet.

[triton189]

Spent a couple hours out on the lake today with my Ice-55 and still have a few questions:

*Could not get a reading on the center of the LCD dial while shooting thru the ice. I would get the depth scale on the LCD ring and can see the bottom on the outer ring. I can even see the fish that are on the bottom, but no matter how long I let it sit I will not get a reading on the center of the dial. I had a lot of water on top of the ice from where my heater melted it, so I'm sure that is not the issue.

*Fished 16fow and needed 22 on the gain to see a good sized panfish jig when I had it in wide angle. When I changed it over to narrow beam I would lose the jig and would need to turn up the gain to well past 35 just to see it again. I was expecting it to have better sensativity in narrow beam, so I'm thinking I have a bad transducer?

I contacted Humminbied support last week and their response was that their units have adjustable gain, and that's what the adjustabbility is for????? I know these are good units, I think I just got one with a bad transducer. Now the problum is getting Humminbird to agree with me! The store I bought it from is more than willing to take it back and give me credit towards any other unit they sell, so if Humminbird makes it too hard on me, I will be using one of their competitors units shortly.

[Scott K]

I guess I dont see what the issue of having to turn the gain up to 35. You still have 15 more to go. As long as you still have some gain remaining, there shouldnt be an issue. I was fishing in 27 feet last night, on narrow beam, I had it adjusted between 28-32, to pick up my tiny jig. When I switched it to wide, I had to trun it down into the lower 20's. I wasnt ever concerned that I will run out of gain to see my 1/4" jig 27 feet down.

[fishersofmen]

Same issue with me triton, except rather than trying to figure it out with Bird I'm moving on to a different unit. Again it sounds like there are many who are happy with the performance they are getting I just decided to move in a different direction. It wasn't just the amount of gain I needed to see my jig, it was a combination of that and the amount of detail and clarity I was getting on the screen.

I am glad Humminbird is making these because if nothing else it will push the other maufacturers to better their products. The large flat screen and the digital aspect of the Bird is outstanding. Very nice soft case for it as well. Just my opinion.

[bigbad401]

I have a Bird 35 so I don't have a number to see what my gain is at. With that, I was out yesterday in about 16 FOW and I did a lot of playing around with the gain on both wide and narrow beam. On wide beam I had the gain set to about 1/3 to see my small pan fish jig, and I also saw a small slit-shot about 2 inches up on the line. On narrow beam I only had to have the gain set a little to see the same jig. I normally fish in 25-30 FOW and set the unit in narrow beam only, though.

[triton189]

4wanderingeye, happy to hear that you ok with the unit performing like that, but I'm pretty sure that it's not right? Everyone else is reporting that they have more sensativity (need to turn down the gain) when they go from wide beam to narrow beam, and I'm needing to turn mine up 10 just to see my jig. I'm thinking that is not the way it should work.

Does anyone use theirs to shoot thru the ice to get the initial lake depth prior to drilling your holes? If so, have you ever been able to read the digital depth in the middle of the LCD read out?

I really do like everrything about this unit except the lack of sensativity, so I'm hopeful that I can get Humminbird to send me a pelacement transducer and that takes care of the sensativity issues.

[Surface Tension]

If the ice is smooth then yes you can shoot though just like any good flasher can. I use a little water to make better contact between ice and ducer.

You will most likely have to turn the gain up to read bottom.

[fishersofmen]

Yep mine is the same from wide to narrow, have to turn the gain up as well.

[Surface Tension]

ICE-55 is true dual frequency.

240 kHz 19 degree

455 kHz / 9 degree

[simple1]

Hello All,

I got a Ice-35 and today was the first day I had a chance to try it out. I thought it did ok today, but I am still not convinced this is the machine for me. I fished in 18FOW and the gain was turned up to about 20-25 to see my jigs, one larger and one tiny, but since this goes to 50, I dont see any issues here. The one issue it seemed to have was my jigs would dissapear and I had to reset the gain until I locate the jigs again and bring the gain back down to 25, while still watching my jigs. Then again in about an hour, the jigs would start fading out. This just seemed weird. But like I said that was the only issue, and would hate to return this unit. I like that it is on a diff frequency than vex or Marcum and I will be able to use it with friends.

Anyway,

Good fishing.

[butch343]

I recently got the ICE 55 and I've been out fishing a couple of times, and overall I'm pretty satisfied. The only issue I've had so far is a lot of "clutter" in the last few feet of the water column. For example, the other night I was fishing in 36 FOW, and in the bottom 4 feet I was marking fish, but I was also getting a lot of small signal returns. I had the the transducer on the wide beam so we could pick up jigs from both holes we were fishing in, and the gain was set on 32. I'm not sure if the small signals were a result of the gain being turned up a little high, which we did so we could pick up the jig in the hole that the transducer was not in. Has anyone else had any issues like this?

[Scott K]

If you were fishing in that deep of water, I would think the narrow beam would have picked up the other holes fairly well. In 36 feet of water, on wide beam, you are looking at a large area under your house.

I will very rarly use wide beam in anything over 15 foot. Just because, I want to know what is under my hole, and not 20 feet off to the side of my hole.

[bigbad401]

I second that, as the other day I was out with my ICE35 at 28FOW and I have it set to narrow beam. I saw both my jigs just fine with that setting. I never use wide beam at that depths.