Humminbird Ice Flashers?

[bassinjigs4pigs]

I bought a ICE 55 and love it. The large screen and digital display is great! Battery life was great. I fished for 5 hours and still had 80% charge. It picks up your lure well in deep water. It sounded like some people had trouble in shallower water but I haven't fished real shallow with it. The multiple color pallets are great and adjustable zoom is sweet! I was real nervous paying the $$ for this but I haven't been disappointed yet!

[lovebigbluegills]

I have always been a die-hard Vexilar fan until Saturday. I still am, they are a great flasher, but they just don't get along real well with some of the other flashers out there (Marcum in particular).

After reading some of the reviews on here, I bought an Ice-45, as that was the only Humminbird I could find around the area. I fished next to my buddy and his LX-5 on Saturday--when we turned them on, there wasn't the slightest bit of interference!!! I couldn't believe it.

The battery life seems to be more than adequate (at around noon or so it was at 95%, and I didn't think to check it when I packed up).

The zoom feature takes a little getting used to, but after fishing with it for a couple days I must say that I prefer that over the split-screen zoom that Vexilar and Marcum use.

This is the first "flat screen" flasher I've had (no little "tunnel" to stare into all day), and I've got to say that it's much easier on the eyes, and I don't have to tilt my head every once in a while to get out of the "Vexilar trance."

The digital display and auto-range are nice features.

Now I can sell one of my FL-8's, and keep my eyes open for an Ice-55 and let my wife have the 45.

I am incredibly impressed with the Humminbird flashers.

[landscaper]

ice 55--for $420(i think)

good deal? or wait till ice fishing show to deal on them?

[jwmiller33]

i think 420 is a good deal on a 55 but you never know what you could get next year at the ice show... it might be harder to get a GREAT deal on bird's next year because i predict the demand for them going thru the roof after this ice season. this year, they were kind of "new to the market" you could say... basically what i'm saying is that the retailers at the ice show might be a little more apprehensive to shave more off of msrp if there is a lot larger demand... maybe that 420 is looking a little better this year... is msrp still 500 on the ice55s?

[Scott K]

$420 is a good deal, I dont think you will find a better deal at the ice show.

[landscaper]

jwmiller33

yes they are $500 orginal. (now $420)

thats the thing i am trying to figure out is will the dealers at the show drop $80 off the MSRP?

[jwmiller33]

ya then 420 is a great price!! it will be tough to beat that at the ice show next year... like i said, i see the demand for ALL of the flashers from Humminbird going thru the roof next ice season. this year was kind of a 'trial run' for the first year of humminbirds... i have been hearing a lot of great things from other bird owners.. people were kind of skeptical at first, especially long time vexilar/marcum faithfuls. the common response from vexilar guys is "ive had my vex for X number of years and it has never failed me". but now people are beginning to realize these line of flashers are the real deal and humminbird is now a big player in the ice flasher market. they are durable, innovative, and reasonably priced. the majority of bird owners love the new flasher

[CJH]

This is the second year for the HB's. Got my Ice55 last year on sale for $450.

Trouble free, great performance, couldn't be happier!!

[MaskedMallard]

I bought my Ice - 55 in mid December & had to return it, in mid January. I know I trumped it up before, & don't get me wrong, I loved the features.

Issues I had, were after afew hours of use, it would reset on its own. I had a hard time picking up my bait / weights. Even with everything maxed out. Switched my bait to a Vex hole & no problem. So, hopefully the bugs get worked out.

Price - $399.00 The Big "C" in Rogers MN had a special with their Credit Card. Purchase $500.00 or more & recieve $100.00 off.

[landscaper]

yes hopefully the bugs are worked out of them

[ozzie]

my buddy who does not fish alot but has every flasher liked his bird until this padt weekend when it started acting up on him.....forget what the problem was but he wasn't happy!!

[TopWalker]

I picked up the ice 55 in late January after many years with the FL18.

Overall I have been very happy with the unit. Like the huge flat screen, 6 color display, and battery usage.

The only issue I have had is with the Digital Depth on the LCD, it seems to restart itself every half hour or so. For instance if I'm fishing in 18 ft, the display will jumpo to 50 ft and work it's way back to 18 (all within a second or two). Still eventually gets back to the right depth, but makes we wonder if its losing bottom for a second or having some other issue. Any other users having this issue?

Thanks,

[CJH]

When you are in a set stop, you could be using the depth scale instead of auto. If you leave it in auto, it can jump around from time to time if you are in one spot.

[TopWalker]

CJH,

I have always used the 55 in auto mode, are you saying this issue would be resolved if I manually set the depth scale?

Thanks a bunch for your help.

[CJH]

That's what I do. I leave it in auto for checking depth/hole hopping. Once I sit on a spot for a while I turn the knob to the appropriate depth. Not sure if you are supposed to or not, but that's what I do.

[harvey lee]

I always fish with mine in the auto depth mode. Yes the digital depth reading can jump around but it has never really bothered me enough to switch to another mode.

[Scott K]

If I leave it in Auto mode, mine will blink like that as well, I just figured it was rechecking depth. If you put it in manual depth reading it doesnt do that. I figured it to be a normal function of the unit.

[TopWalker]

Thanks for the feedback guys. The digital depth jumping doesn't really bother me, just wanted to see if others have seen the same thing with their units. All things considered, very happy with the new Bird.

[Borch]

I have really grown found of this unit. In fact this past weekend I didn't get to fish with it as much as I normally would as my wife really likes it as well. Especially with the Hummingbird colors.

[landscaper]

good reviews guys...i will be picking up an ice 55 either this weekend or monday!

thanks

[KG243]

I have a Ice 55 i picked up march of 09 and I am starting to notice as I was fishing in 70 FOW I had to turn my gain all the way up to see my jigin rap also it does not seem to be locking on the bottom as the depth readout was changing constantly from 70.5 to 71.5. Am I doing somethign wrong? the most frustrating thing is I am going up for a guided laker trip on March 3rd on Burntside. I think I will call HB on Monday, but if anyone has any ideas that would be great to hear from ya!

[fisherman-andy]

I was up in Brainerd over weekend on Gull and North Long.

Tested out my VX1, LX3tc, and my new Hummingbird Ice 55 for the first time. The VX1 seemed to have some interference issues with other VX1. As my group party has several, we were not able to sit together and tune it out for some reason? Even on low gains we had interference.

The LX3tc was easily able to tune out interference from both the VX1's. And the Hummingbird had little or no interference at all.

We spent most the day fishing in 20-40 fow. All three flashers picked up fish well. The Auto depth on the Ice 55 became very convenient when jumping holes. The zoom column was very nice too.

On Wide beam the Ice 55 shows green bar indicators everytime in 1-5 ft? Is this normal? When swapping over to the narrow beam it does not have the same problem. I figure this would be just algae vegetation or some sort of near surface interference. But it pretty much showed that everywhere I drop the transducer on with the wide beam. Add to that the support line with float that held the transducer was also annoying. Having to adjust it frequently.

The larger color signal indicator bars were more difficult to get use too and using the 3rd color pallete help minimize this. I found this annoying at times compared the the fine line indicators on the LX3tc.

I was able to catch fish well with all three flashers. But with the lX3tc I was able to anticipate the target separation and moment of strike much better when on zoom mode.

We ended up fishing shallow 10ft or less water eventually and this is where the Marcum really outshined my bird. The bird had difficulty reading in shallow water even on narrow band. Dropping the water cam down and there was alot of perch schooling. It was difficult to distinguish the separation between fish on screen with the ice 55. Zoom also became pretty useless here for the bird.

My LX3tc clearly on zoom was able to define the schools of perch on screen and had no problems at 5-10ft. The fine line indicators were crisp, clear VS. the blotchy indicators on my bird. This made me second guess myself if I should've purchased an LX5 instead of an Ice 55. It was clear to me that I prefer the fine detail & target separation of the Marcum.

Im going to give the Ice 55 some more time to see if I can get used to it. Maybe test and use an LX5 and Ice 55 side by side in different water depths and readouts next time.

[jwmiller33]

i dont even bother using the support cable on my bird.

[CJH]

I have a Ice 55 i picked up march of 09 and I am starting to notice as I was fishing in 70 FOW I had to turn my gain all the way up to see my jigin rap also it does not seem to be locking on the bottom as the depth readout was changing constantly from 70.5 to 71.5. Am I doing somethign wrong? I think I will call HB on Monday, but if anyone has any ideas that would be great to hear from ya!

Sounds like a soft bottom. Not sure there is anything "wrong" per se. Call HB and see what they say.

[Kodiak]

Love my 55, came from a lx3tc,,,dont regret it.