797C SI for ice fishing

[stumper]

Got my 797c SI rigged up today. I made a T type bracket for the ducer that folds up. I am going to pick up a cheap rod bag to store it in. Hopefully it will work like they say through ice. It wont give a reading sitting still ,so I have to slowly rotate it to get the side imaging to read.

Mounted it to the carrier with Ram mounts so that I can transfer it to the quad when not on here.

[eyebjim]

I have been wanting to do that with mine but I don't want to pull the ducer and gps puck off the boat or pay $200 each for new ones. Did you just pull the ducer and gps off the boat?

[stumper]

I bought it just for ice fishing, but I do plan on putting it on a boat next summer. I wish I cold get a ducer and GPS puck with shorter cables,but they roll up nice.

[eyebjim]

Wow your wallet is more freindly than mine. I had a tough time getting it to part with enough for a FL20 for winter.

[stumper]

I look at my ice fishing gear as my "Bass Boat" . I don't really summer fishand Im on the ice around 100 days a yr, so my budget goes to my ice fishing.It helps that I work where I get a little discount on this type of stuff.

[fishinJohn]

I hope you give a report once you have some time on the ice with this unit. I always thought it would be nice for finding the general area fish are quickly but I have heard they take some fine tuning to get the best results even in a boat. There have been many times when looking for a less crowded spot where I have felt like there wasn't a fish for hundreds of yards.

[stumper]

Will do!!!

[katoguy]

Yes, please report back. It isn't made for spinning. Some guys have tried them on trolling motors... with the spinning (steering) the pic is overlapped on the inside turn and has gaps on the outside turn. I also don't know if the LCD is designed for cold. It may have a delay issues.

Or it may give you good information. Let us know. I had one it on my Champion and now I have one on my Skeeter.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I'm not so sure how the SI will work from an ice hole... I have 2 SI units on my Bass Boat.. And love the technology for summer use.. I just dont see how it will work in the winter.. You would have to hold it pretty level, and then spin it at a pretty consistant speed I would think for it to even work in the slightest.. I havent been able to mark fish all that much with it in the summer, but it sure does locate spots well.. I used it a ton to get ready for ice season.

[Shack]

You will love it during ice time for the graph and GPS, but not for the side imaging.

This is an image of the SI when my boat was standing/anchored:

I have a quick spin image on my home computer, but even mounted on the transom, a quick spin screws up the SI. You have to be moving forward at a slow pace and take wide turns for the SI to do its thing. Which IMO is great, but it is not going to work for ya during the ice time. If you spin the ducer in your ice hole, it will just twist the line shown in the image above.

The sonar option will be working great and you can always select the flasher mode:

Good luck and I think it will work out for ya, but not the SI.

Cool setup though

[JimBuck]

Shack, I'm curious. How does your side imaging work on stained waters like the Minnesota? I apologize for hijacking the thread in advance.

[Shack]

IMO, they work great. My advice is to research and read before you head out with it and play around on local lakes first to get a feel. Once you get them dialed in for working best on your boat, they are pretty cool. They still do not make the fish bite .

I would have never found these pilings off to the left with just sonar and this was on pool 2 Plus, I was moving over 10mph when I snapped this image.

[eyebjim]

Actually I think it may work better than you think. I have had my boat sitting stationary and you see the lines like in you image going straight back. If you then see a line move diagonally from upper right or left toward the center bottom it is not bottom of the lake but a fish return. I have seen it on mine but it is difficult to see with the boat bobbing. It may be easier on ice. It is not going to show you a picture but it will give a indication of movement.

[Shack]

You may be right eyebjim.

Later in the summer after getting a hand full of times out on the river with my Humm. SI, I just learned to just switch on the full screen sonar while anchored and never really watched the lines of SI.

I know for a fact though if you twist that ducer quick/tight (like in an ice hole), it will twist what ever you are seeing on the screen. When stationary, that would mean twisted lined.

Some people have the notion that Side Imaging is like a camera, but it is not. That’s why stained water makes no difference on its image output. The only situation on the river that could cause issues is fast moving spring time current that is carrying a ton of leaves and debris. I still had pretty good luck filtering that out last spring.

[eyebjim]

Yeah I don't think spinning it in the hole will look too good but if you spin if slowly it may look OK. I was more talking about just leaving it in the hole with no spinning and watching the sraight lines to see if anything comes in across them.

[Shack]

Oh, Jim I read ya loud and clear I was just throwing my extra $0.02 in

I will be looking forward to stumper's reports though!