Hand-held Depthfinders???

[berke99]

I have a Vex Fl18 for fishing. I was wondering how good the hand held depthfinders work. Do you still need to have water on the ice to get a reading? Can you see fish on the bottom or in the water column on them? Are they worth the money? Thanks for any input!

[icecold]

I have a polar vision handheld and really like it, had it for 2 seasons so far, use it in winter and in summer, shows depth and fish Icon, has auto shut off lighted screen, in summer can use real cheap batteries, but in winter should use a good batterys, I bring a water bottle with r.v. antifreeze mixited with water and pour a little shot on ice to get good connection,works real good

[CrappieJohn]

Marcum makes a dandy hand-held. Up to moderate ice thickness it will show fish cleanly and you could probably use it as you would a full sized unit, but you'd certainly not enjoy the other advantages found in the larger machine.

[Bob Horn]

I have the LX-i and I like it. I shot through 2ft+ of ice last year. It`s another tool that can help in our quest of putting fish on ice.

[CrappieJohn]

These are great for searching when you don't want to have to unpack a sled or open a folded shack. The lx-i is the one I saw in use and really found it to be the cat's meow.

The polar is similar.