Impressed with Humminbird 385ci

[PFUNK]

Just thought I would make a quick post to express how happy I am with a new Humminbird product of mine. Purchased a Humminbird 385ci after the season last year when it was marked down in price and was finally able to use it on some ice. The unit also performed very well on the open water this summer, and this is where so much of its value lies. The first thing I came to appreciate was the silent operation of the unit. Having only using mechanical flashers in the past, it was nice to have a silent fish house. The thing that I loved most, which I did not expect to, was the grapher. I thought I would use the flasher simulator but that was not the case at all. I used the graph 99% of the weekend. Took a little toying to get the settings perfect, but once I got it all figured out it was an absolute joy to use. I used it in the same house as a Vexilar Fl-12 and did not experience any interference at all until I powered off my unit and turned it back on. After that I was getting interference and I tried adjusting the noise rejection but it didn't solve the problem. Had my buddy turn off his vexilar and turn it back on and that did the trick. We were fishing in about 17 of water and it had no issues detecting any of my tackle. As for the switchfire settings, I preferred to use Max mode with smaller jigs and clear mode with larger spoons and jigs. I felt like the 83 khz (wide cone) was useless as it had very little definition and made my bait look huge on the screen (maybe it will be better in real shallow water). When using max mode, my sensitivity was usually set around 5-7 and in clear mode 9-12 (both go up to 20). It was able to detect separation between my bait and the bottom when my bait was within 1 inch of bottom. What I found to be such a treat compared to a flasher was the ability to tell how many fish were actually there when a school came in. I have not used MarCum's fine line units, but I could easily tell how many fish were down there with the grapher (up to about 4 fish... after that it kinda all ran together). It was great at showing fish size as well, as long as you didn't have the sensitivity way too high. Then all the fish looked like monsters. I ran the unit with the background colored black and it really made everything stand out and I preferred that over the usual white background. I fished the mornings with it, charger battery for an hour over lunch, then kept fishing till about 10 PM. By then, the battery was about 2/3 full so I though battery life was good. I can't think of everything else that I really liked, but overall I was impressed and very pleased with the purchase. Money very well spent considering you get a nice hard/soft water unit with GPS. The small screen size did not bother me at all, but I am still young with good eyes. I didn't like the one issue I had with interference, but it was easily fixed. I did not like the simulated flasher much at all, simply because it did so much of that... flashing. The bait and fish were big wide blobs which I did not care for compared to the graph. I just wanted to write a review to express how easy it is to use a graph compared to a lot of what I have heard in the past. I was originally skeptical of it because I absolutely love flashers and the way in which they improve fishing. It is hard to think that anything could be better than that... but it can. It may not be for everyone, but I know a lot of people would end up loving it. I have ZERO desire to go back to a mechanical flasher any time soon.

I have been reading a lot about MarCum's new LX7 lately and how revolutionary it is, but after this weekend I am failing to see how several of its features are "groundbreaking technology". The humminbird had ZERO lag, which is something that MarCum seems to be saying other units have. They claim the LX7 is faster than our eyes and brain, which is awesome, but that doesn't mean other units aren't fast. Like I said, no lag at all so don't let that scare you. I haven't fished in extreme cold with it, but I am confident it won't lag there either. The Humminbird, like the LX7, can zoom to any portion of the water column (must be at least a 10 foot section). I preferred to set mine to cover from 3 feet to 18 feet in 16.8 ft of water. It has a real time window (like a showdown) to the right side of the graph, just like the LX7 has the vertical flasher next to the circular. The sonar footprint is neat, but really not necessary in my mind. You can use a simple math equation to figure the coverage of your cone. I am not bashing the LX7 here at all, so please dont get that impression. Just wanted to get the word out that there are some other great units out there, like the Humminbird 385, that can give you wonderful performance. It is a feature packed device for a much lower cost... for those of us who need to save our pennies. I am gonna try to get some screenshots uploaded too if I can figure it out.

Good luck out there!

[PFUNK]

Here is a fish coming up to check out my bait, which is set at 11.5 feet with my splitshot just under 10.5 feet. There is a second fish just entering the cone of the ducer at 14 feet.

Right here is right about when the hook was being set.

Here is the fish being reeled up. The second fish near the bottom is now in the center of the cone and giving a great return. You can see I just pulled my transducer out of the hole too as indicated by the disruption of the bottom and no signal in the real time window on the right

Here is the fish that produced that sonar return.

[amateurfishing]

thats awesome & thx for the info, i am wondering if you would post exactly what screen modes you were in for real time (and screen size) & graph. Im sure i could do exact same thing with my 597 ci hd

[PFUNK]

I used the unit in the sonar view for nearly the entire time. The pictures I posted are in Sonar View. I had the real time sonar (RTS) window set to "Narrow". You can find this under the sonar tab. I tried adjusting this to "Wide", but then everything in the RTS window shows up white and you lose the color (only in RTS window, not the whole graph). I don't know what the point of this is, but I preferred color in the RTS window so I switched it back to narrow. The screen size of this unit is 3.5" diagonal. You could definitely do the exact same thing with a 597 ci. I would imagine it would look very nice with the HD screen and the extra size on the screen. I think units like these are underestimated and under appreciated in the ice fishing world. That is fine with me though. Keep the prices on these low while MarCum sells something very similar for a lot more money (though the huge screen is nice). Don't know if I answered your question correctly so let me know if you need more info.

[SpecialK]

Did you buy the ice transducer for it or you using your normal boat transducer?

[PFUNK]

The unit was bought as the Humminbird ICE 385ci so it came with all of the ice fishing stuff (portable case, battery and charger, and ice transducer). I then bought the boat transducer, power cord, and boat mount to make it ready for open water. I bought all of those off E Bay because they were cheaper than H'Bird's HSOforum. I think it is cheaper to go this route instead of buying the package that comes ready for the boat and then purchasing all the accessories for ice fishing.

[SpecialK]

The unit was bought as the Humminbird ICE 385ci so it came with all of the ice fishing stuff (portable case, battery and charger, and ice transducer). I then bought the boat transducer, power cord, and boat mount to make it ready for open water. I bought all of those off E Bay because they were cheaper than H'Bird's HSOforum. I think it is cheaper to go this route instead of buying the package that comes ready for the boat and then purchasing all the accessories for ice fishing.

Thanks, I have a 728 B&W unit and was thinking about buying the ice ducer and softpack to convert it to use as a flasher so this thread is really informative. Not sure if I should just go look at the ice 385 unit though.

[PFUNK]

I definitely really like having the color, but the new units like the 728 have very good gray scales. It all comes down to personal preference there. Would you rather have the large screen of the 728 or the color of the 385ci? Gotta ask yourself those questions, but in all reality either one is going to work great. All these electronics help you put more fish on the ice. We are really getting nit picky when we complain about stuff like "oh this only has 2.5" target separation.... what a piece of junk!" But really, do you need to know if the fish's mouth is a half inch away versus 2 inches? Its staring at your bait in any case.... you know that. I think it all just comes down to personal preference really. Can't listen to "the crowd" all the time and assume what everyone is crazy about at the moment is the best thing out there. There are SO MANY good units out there, and all you have to do is learn the ins and outs to YOUR unit and you will do just fine.

[amateurfishing]

I definitely really like having the color, but the new units like the 728 have very good gray scales. It all comes down to personal preference there. Would you rather have the large screen of the 728 or the color of the 385ci? Gotta ask yourself those questions, but in all reality either one is going to work great. All these electronics help you put more fish on the ice. We are really getting nit picky when we complain about stuff like "oh this only has 2.5" target separation.... what a piece of junk!" But really, do you need to know if the fish's mouth is a half inch away versus 2 inches? Its staring at your bait in any case.... you know that. I think it all just comes down to personal preference really. Can't listen to "the crowd" all the time and assume what everyone is crazy about at the moment is the best thing out there. There are SO MANY good units out there, and all you have to do is learn the ins and outs to YOUR unit and you will do just fine.

i could not agree with you more

[amateurfishing]

not sure of price on 385 but i got 597 ci hd on sale @ big c in Rogers in late fall@ over 25% off. a few told me no reason to spend that much $ cause not much difference between 397 & 597 but for only $50 more i believe i got a much better deal (boat package)and purchased ice package (ducer & carry pack) thru amazon...much better price than HB site. the wide screen is very nice, but even better is i went to ice fishing show & HB booth showed me to make sonar & backscreen black as specialK has done & is 10 times easier to see colors & changes on a black screen. check around, maybe the 597's r still on sale at c's

[nubote]

Can you remember how to go blackscreen? I'm looking in the manual, but can't find it.

[PFUNK]

Yep... Just press the power button once but don't hold it down. This will allow you to change background color and brightness.

[nubote]

OK, got it now, thanks.

[JeffB]

I love the 385ci for the simple reason it acts as a good sonar, is very portable, and most of all has internal gps with lakemaster. When scouting for fish all I need is electic auger, sled, 385ci and rod. One push of a button and you switch from lakemaster map to your flasher. It takes the same lakemaster(or navionics) card as my humminbird 898 and I can share fishing spots with the 898. I thought about getting the lx-7 but couldn't get past the want of having built in gps with sharing gps info and lakemaster chip with my boat unit. For me it was a perfect fit and not a bad price. I agree with Pfunk's review of the machines sonar performance, but what really gets me excited is toggling back and forth to the gps. In flasher mode I would say its nicer to look at than my fl-8 not quite as nice to look at as my Ice 45. I have also found that it reads through the ice better than my mechanical flashers for scouting.

[Knoc]

I love my 385ci. But I still really need to sit down and read the manual. I know Im only using a small percentage of its potential.

[PFUNK]

Funny you should mention shooting through the ice for depths Jeff, because I just signed in to add that to my review. Just got off the ice an although the fishing wasn't all that hot, I found out the 385 does a wonderful job of reading depth through this nice clear ice we have. I agree that having the GPS is a really neat feature. Though I have to admit, when zooming in and out on the lake maps the unit is not the fastest at loading the charts. I have a handheld lowrance h2o and still find myself using that a lot just because it is a little quicker. However, I do find the GPS to be a must have feature of my 385 for fishing open water. The ability to duplicate trolling passes and through marks on the map whenever you land a fish is very nice. I am sure the lx-7 by MarCum is a GREAT unit (though I think it will take a few updates to get it perfect), but I could not bring myself to spend that much money when you can get the 385ci with GPS for nearly half of what an lx-7 costs. I would also like to give the Lowrance x67 or their new elite 5 ice fishing sonars a try.

There are a ton of features on the 385ci, so going through the manual definitely helps you understand what you are working with. I think I have read through mine twice now, and it made me a lot more comfortable with what I'm doing. This doesn't mean it is hard to operate, it's just hard to remember how to get to ALL the things it can do.