Lowrance Ice Machine - Best Practices for the ice

[Chode2235]

Hey folks,

I just picked up a Lowrance ice machine for use on the ice this winter. Reading through many posts here on the forum I realized that there are a lot of tweaks and advanced settings some of you more advanced and experienced ice machine users are using to get the best results.

I know the unit will work great with pretty much out of the box settings, and what is explained in the ice addendum, but nothing beats real practical experience.

So tell me what settings you are using that have helped you the most on the ice. Or some advice for a ice machine rookie like myself.

Also, does anyone have any sonar sessions that they have saved of ice readings? I would like to get a feel for how those read.

Thanks in advance for your insights.

[Nelson380]

Here's how I have mine set up.

Sensitivity: Turn the auto off. I start somewhere around 85% and adjust it to just above the point where my jig disappears.

Chart Speed: 100% (if you're using graph mode). You can adjust the color to your preference. Bring up the first menu, scroll down to colorline, enter, then adjust the setting to your liking.

Ice Machine Mode: X

Flasher Options: a) Split View will allow you to zoom in on the bottom with one side of the frame, and see the whole column with the other. b)Ice View

Ping Speed: 100%

Sonar Features: a) Surface Clarity: High Noise Rejection: Low (unless you're fishing near other flashers and are picking up interference, then High) c)Sonar Chart Mode: Ice View d) Fish ID: off

Edit: If you want to get a feel of the controls before you head out onto the ice, you can download the emulator onto your computer from the Lowrance HSOforum and play around with the features and settings.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Here's what I use. Federline deserves the credit.

Ping speed = high

Scroll speed = high

Noise rejection = high

surface clarity = high

Auto-sensitivity = off

Auto depth range = off

The ping speed and scroll speed both on high activates additional filtering; the noise rejection and surface clarity activates two more filtering routines; and turning the auto-stuff off seems to further stabilize things, as well as give you fine-grain manual control on the display.

[Chode2235]

Great, thanks for the advice. I will try it out on the emulator tonight.

Anyone have any ice sonar recordings? It is tough to see how the unit will work when the default chart is moving so fast over those humps and dropping from 20 to 60 ft.

[Todd_J]

I agree with Nelson and Ralph on their settings for the most part. I don't set the Noise Rejection on 'high' as a default, only when I'm fishing near someone with a Vex do i need to raise this filtering. It seems like I fiddle with the sensitivity quite often. Generally I start at about 85 and raise/lower until I can just barely see my jig. I almost exclusively use the split-screen graph, unless I'm in shallow water (15 feet or less) or am targeting something suspended.

Edit: There is not a way to get a recorded view what it would be like through the ice. It is far less exciting than the simulation on the machine. Flat bottom, jig makes a black line and fluctuates as you move it. When fish enter the cone, they start out as black lines at said depth and change color based on size and proximity to the cones center. Fish on the bottom will cause the bottom color to change and, eventually, a hump will form as they rise up off the bottom. Man, after describing this I'm all hot to get out there.

Good luck mate.

[redbandit]

One other note on turning the auto-depth off. Try to get the depth range close to the acual depth. This will give you better separation.

[Chode2235]

Thanks everyone. I am very anxious to get out on the ice and use it. Any day now..

I downloaded the sonar viewer online, and thought for sure that there must be a way to save and share sonar chart readings.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. This is why I love this forum.

[Chode2235]

Thanks again everyone. I got out this past weekend, and was fishing right next to my buddy's MarCum. I was able to get rid of most of the interference with the above steps.

Although I wasn't able to get rid of it completely, it was easy to dismiss in the graph view.

One additional question. On occasion I would see a solid line that would originate from where my lure was and would gradually go at about a 30 degree angle all the way to the top of the ice. Any ideas on what that was, or what was causing it?

[Todd_J]

I get that a lot too. I believe it is a bubble, ice fragment, or debris coming off of the lure or the bottom of the lake. Lakes are always burpin' and fartin'. If you drop, say, a minnow head or a smushed waxie down the hole, you see the same thing, but in reverse.

How close were you fishing to the MarCum? Interference on his end?

Finally, how did you like using the Lowrance?

[Ralph Wiggum]

Yes, I see those, too. Bubbles, I think.

[Chode2235]

Yes! I lost my minnow head and watched it float down to the bottom, I couldn't believe it.

I was about 10-15 from the marcum, he had interference worse than me. He kept pushing that IR button, and we eventually got it figured out.

I love the Lowrance. It is a great flasher and graph. Not sure which one I like better, but they are both extremely helpful and useful. You just have so much flexibility with the ice machine that you can pretty much do whatever you want with it. The split screen zoom is wonderful, and so much easier to master than on a traditional flasher.

The colors are bright, it is easy to see, and a lot of fun to use. I have the 334, and if I had one complaint it would be that there are too many buttons on it. It isn't quite as simple as a mechanical flasher where you just turn the knob, but the flexibility, features, and quality of the unit more than make up for that.

It has really made ice fishing a whole lot of fun. Not that it wasn't before.

[federline]

Kudos to everyone who helped out. Its satisfying to know these x67c settings transfer to the 334c so well. Lowrance really needs these settings in the Ice Machine FAQ's. And harmony between Lowrance and Marcum is a wonderful thing to hear about.

[Chad Halvorson]

One real cool thing about that x67 that I like is being able to zoom in on any section of water. Today I was in 26' of water, but I was zoomed in on 10'-16'.After the few days out I got the machine figured out, I like having all the options it has. Ive beat the heck out of mine for 4 years. I finally had to replace the transducer this year (my fault).

[PierBridge]

TTT......

Proud new owner of a Lowrance 522 IGPS "internal ant".

Now do I pay the $150 for the kit or buy an Ice-Ducer and make my own stand and carrying case....

How's the battery life it can't be very good can it?

[Sandmannd]

Battery life is decent, turn the GPS off when you get to your spot. I didn't think I'd like it as much as I do but it's a great machine. On the river in 36 FOW I liked it better than my LX5 for seeing my lure and reading the graph. They are pretty sweet for sure. I would spend the money and get the kit from Pearch Jerker. Save your time for building to go fishing.

[JimBuck]

Hey guys, while were on the topic. I have a 522i and LOVE it. But I have one question. I can see my lure until about 10-12ft. then it seems to vanish from my graph. What's the deal? I have sensitivity turned up all the way and I can't figure it out. Thanks and hooray for ice machines mode!

[Jeff C]

Guys:

I have a new to me X67 and have read the manual, downloaded the emulator etc.

I have fished this graph a few times now, and it works great when my buddies Marcum is not on.

When he turns his on, my digital depth will run from 32 feet (That is the actual depth), to 422 feet and anywhere in between. What is more annoying, is that when I see the graph doing this, the chart slows to a near crawl, when the readings get over 80 feet or so. It still shows my bait and water column at the correct depth, but the digital reading goes haywire.

I have messed with ping speed, surface clarity, noise rejection, sensitivity etc.

Any tips to get this annoying event to stop?

I absolutel love this graph when the Marcum is off!

[Sandmannd]

Have him turn his marcum to the 9 degree cone. That might reduce the interference a bit.

[redbandit]

Guys:

I have fished this graph a few times now, and it works great when my buddies Marcum is not on.

When he turns his on, my digital depth will run from 32 feet (That is the actual depth), to 422 feet and anywhere in between. What is more annoying, is that when I see the graph doing this, the chart slows to a near crawl, when the readings get over 80 feet or so. It still shows my bait and water column at the correct depth, but the digital reading goes haywire.

I have messed with ping speed, surface clarity, noise rejection, sensitivity etc.

Any tips to get this annoying event to stop?

Another option is turning your machine on and off until the interfearance is tollerable. The reason you get interfearence is because most of the locators run on the same frequency. When this is the case your locator will pick up the ping from another locator and will confuse the machines. Turning the x67 on and off may syncronize the pings reducing interfearance.

I talked to a Lowrance rep a while back and he said that they might work on a locator that could change frequencies (years down the road). It would be nice if it was sooner than later.

[Neighbor_guy]

I can tune out a marcum fairly easy as long as we tune both to work together. I have had issues with Vex'es.

I found that the depth bouncing around is annoying, but I switch to flasher mode and ignore the digital depth. Then get to fishing.

[riverwader]

I just bought a ice kit for my 520c. Wow after using buddies vexlars a few times I was hooked. Last night I went out on the maiden trip and did alot of playing around, unfortunatly I didnt bring out the list of all the tips here. I started using it in flasher mode like I got used to with the vex, then switched to the graph. Wow.. it is so fun watching the fish move up to your lure on the graph. The one issue I did have that the advice here might help with is I was fishing in 23' of water and had the digital depth on with the depth range set to 30'. The digital depth would read around 2' then bounce to 14' when fish would come through. Has anyone else had this issue and which of the settings is the fix. I played with the sensitivity and couldnt figure it out, but when I would pull the transducer out of the water the digital depth would read 23'. Thanks for all the tips everyone has posted this has been some great information.

[PierBridge]

Bump!