Hummingbird 788CI on the ice

[ESOXHUNTER123]

I was curious if anyone has used their 788Ci or comparable unit on the ice. I know it has a flasher option but I have never used it. It would be really nice to have the GPS and flasher in one unit. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[TooTallTom]

Hi ESOXHUNTER123,

You are right, there is a flasher display on your (and my) unit. But as an LCD display, it will slow down when it gets cold enough. If you're fishing open-air or in a portable, this could be a problem.

But I agree, having the GPS/ mapping capability will be awesome. I built a cigarette lighter plug in to power mine in my truck. So far as I know, Humminbird doesn't make something like that.

Tom.

[fishwater]

The newer graphs are fine in the cold.

[Norm1980]

I use my humminbird 345c in summer and winter (not as nice as your unit but kinda the same thing). I got a portable case for it, which allows it to run off the same style battery as velixars etc.. You can buy an ice ducer for a reasonable price also, I have not had any problems with using mine outside in winter although ive not had it out in -0 temps.

[TooTallTom]

That's great to hear about the new LCDs, guys. I might have to think harder about buying an ice 'ducer then. I just got my unit this past summer, so I'm pretty excited to use it this winter, and that was when I thought I'd just leave it in the truck!

[Boker001]

I have the 787 and tried using my boat ducer last winter on the ice and it works but it was hard to get the angle right and was bulky. Didn't have any issues with the screen though. I just ordered the 9-20 ice ducer and can't wait to try it. Unfortunately my unit is external GPS.

[ESOXHUNTER123]

Thanks guys. How does the sensitivity compare to say a Marcum or Vex? Can you see your bait on the graph? Do you guys use the flasher mode? I'm considering buying the ice-ducer but I want to make sure the money is going to be well spent.

[fishwater]

I like to use the normal 2d sonar mode with graphs on the ice. The cool thing with the humminbird is that you can run the dual beam plus mode, wide and narrow side x side.. If your not fishing next to a marcum, it's probably money well spent. I'm assuming the noise rejection will be problematic the first year out. I'm going to test it out this weekend.

[MN Mike]

I run my 798 in the fish house last winter and it will be going back again this year. First I bought a spare quick mount, power cord and a Ice Ducer, mounted all of that on the counter.

You can see everything you can with any of the other flashers, I was able to run my Humminbird 798 and the LX5 Marcum in the same house but it took some tweaking to get the Humminbird cleaned up.

Here are a few snapshots, the line you see just off the bottom is the jig, mostly a leadhead rock n roll or a fire ant type of jig. The heavier lines coming from the bottom of the lake are fish, some were walleye, some were perch and even a pike or 2 in there. It's fun to see how the fish react to your jig and it tells ya if you need to be changin something.

In the lower pictures you can see I'm running the RTS window that give you Real Time data, then everything beyond that is just history but it's info that is worth something.

On the 3rd capture, thats a catch, others were just being finicky, in the lower pics, the fish are whats making the lazy swings thru the screen, my jig is still the upper line off of the bottom.

Mike

[MuskieJunkie]

Thanks MN MIke, that's exactley the info I've been looking for. Is it always shades of green and black like that or can you adjust it? I've been using Lowrance for years (x67c and 332c) but am now making the switch to all Humminbird.

Anyone else that has been using them care to weigh in? My main concern is interference, something that has been a problem with lowrance.

[MN Mike]

You can pick from many different color palletes it does not have to be the green, even the flasher dial has diffrent colors to choose from.

I think if your fishing next to a Marcum, Vex or others that are running on the same frequency, you'll have interference issues that you will have to iron out, I know the 798 give you some options to filter out the interference but I am not sure on the 788, all I know is that if I give it a little time and do a few tweaks, I can fish 6 feet from a Marcum without too much trouble.

Mike

[remington 300]

hey tom,i too bought one this past spring and was really wanting to use its gps w/hotmaps this winter in my truck, so i bought another swivlemount and power cord from humminbird and you can get a cigarette adapter from radio shack so you can just plug it in to your power source without using a flasher battery,less hassle,

anyway im pumped to try it this winter, and may look into getting the high speed transducer, anyone know how much those cost?

goodluck to all,

mike.

[TooTallTom]

Norm1980, do you know if that kit for your 385 series will fit a 788? It seems like it might be kind of handy when it's time to actually out of the truck. What all did that come with? Was it basically "just at head unit and batteries" or did you have to buy the 'ducer seperately?

Boker, I thought about taking the 'ducer off my boat, but I figured it would be kind of a pain. It's nice to have that confirmation.

MN Mike, I have been drooling over the SI-capable units since I started looking at them. I think I read that you can get the SI to work just by rotating the 'ducer. Is that correct? 'Cause it'd be pretty sweet to drop that down a hole, and take a snapshot of the lake...

Remington 300, I think we had the same idea ;-) I just recycled the cigarette lighter adapter from an old cell phone or something. I really don't even remember what it's from.

[Nick Kuhn]

It would be a pretty tough image to interpret if you did that with the SI ducer. It would be far better to just punch a half dozen holes and use a camera. Or to run the boat over that area in open water with the SI, and use snapshots on any structure you like.

[MuskieJunkie]

Norm1980, do you know if that kit for your 385 series will fit a 788? It seems like it might be kind of handy when it's time to actually out of the truck.

I talked to the Humminbird rep at the ice show and you need 4 things:

Ice Ducer

Power Cord

Swival bracket

Battery pack (a case to hold it)

It is my understanding the 385 series kit will work with the 700s but they do not sell the just the kit (like lowrance does). They sell the case and battery as one part # but you have to then order the power cord, ice ducer, and bracket seperate.

In fact I should order those right now while I'm thinking about it so I don't have to use my Lowrance this weekend.

[MuskieJunkie]

Here's all the part #s for anyone else

XI 9 20 - Ice Ducer - $85

MS M - Mounting Bracket - $35

PC 10 - Power Cord - $16

PTC U - Carrying case and battery - $100

[TooTallTom]

Nick, do you think it would be more difficult to interpret than an image from a linear pass in the summer? I think you'd have to guesstimate the direction based on where you had the 'ducer pointed, which would also be tough. I was just curious if you could get a good read for locating schools of fish using that method.

Brian, thanks for posting those part numbers. I don't think I'm going to jump into getting it fully rigged for this year, but it never hurts to have plans/ options.

[Nick Kuhn]

It would be very difficult to interpret. First, you would have to rotate the transducer at a very slow, yet steady rate. Second, your brain would have to be able to fold a rectangular image into a paper-fan type image, as the inside of the image would represent only about 1 foot of arc length from top to bottom, whereas the outside of the rectangle would be some 200 feet of arc length from top to bottom.

[TooTallTom]

Nick, Do you know if anyone has ever gotten seasick on hard water? ;-)

[Boker001]

I got my XI 9-20 ducer for $68 online. Just do a search and it should pop up.

[MN Mike]

MN Mike, I have been drooling over the SI-capable units since I started looking at them. I think I read that you can get the SI to work just by rotating the 'ducer. Is that correct? 'Cause it'd be pretty sweet to drop that down a hole, and take a snapshot of the lake...

I've heard of people doing that but I can't see it working that way, when I have the SI going in the boat in the summer time, when I turn, the picture is quite skewed, besides, my SI ducer would be a pain in the butt to pull out for ice fishing, I'll stick with the ice ducer instead.

I have to imagine someone is working on something for some type of SI or some type of a larger field of view with the SI units but I can't imagine it would be with the ducers we have now, it's going to be something different if it exists. Once that sonar data goes digital, all they have to do is write software to interpet it and it should work, DI was no different, that data was there, they just had to write the software to give us the view.

Until then, I'll use the SI in the boat to find honey holes like this in the summer to come back to in the winter, we caught many 18" plus walleye this summer on this spot and it was a sandbar that came from no where out in the mud on Lake of the Woods.

Mike

[MN Mike]

On a side note, when you guys look at these pics on the forms here, at least my pics look grainy ( to me ) and it will really depend on your resolution settings on your computer on how they look on your screen.

On the Humminbird screen they are MUCH clearer.

Mike

[PurpleFloyd]

We tried the side imaging out on the ice last week and it didn't work just rotating the ducer. Otherwise it makes a pretty nice ice fishing locator as fa as i am concerned.

[Nick Kuhn]

On a side note, when you guys look at these pics on the forms here, at least my pics look grainy ( to me ) and it will really depend on your resolution settings on your computer on how they look on your screen.

On the Humminbird screen they are MUCH clearer.

Mike

That's true for my pics too. I think it just has to do with the much higher pixel density on the unit.

[rooten]

Essox- I took my 788ci out on the ice last year, and I now have no use for "ice" flashers at all. I just used a battery pack for a trail camera, stuck in a dry box from walmart. I bolted the gimball to the lid, and just used the transducer off my boat, mounted to a bent piece of aluminum so I could fish high current, and keep an eye on my bait. 30 ft deep near the lighthouse in chequamagon bay, the current blows jigs out of the sonar cone. Im gonna get the ice ducer this year, but I doubt the cone is wide enough. Sure is handy to have the navonics maps on the ice. I mark waypoints in the summer, and just drive the wheeler there in the winter. I'll try putting up a pic of my setup.