I love fishing, I love feeling that tell tale twitch in the line that means you have a fish tugging on your presentation.
I HATE the cold. And here in Nebraska, it's 3 dergees outside. I'd been ice fishing once before in my life, and that about this time last year with a couple of friends from the NEFGA forum, Chad and Fish Recycler.
About 3 weeks ago, as I longed for open water, and the thoughts of big bluegill chasing a fly I tied, I couldn't take it anymore, and called up the Fish Recycler. "Teeg, you headed out ice fishing any time soon? I'm jonesing to catch a fish." I tell him. He says he's headed out over the weekend, and would be glad to "guide" me. We only fished for about 2 hours. Teeg showed me how to read a vex, and we got to watch a few gills take the jigs on a FishTV. One gill even came up, inspected the jig, and did a perfect gill flare as he sucked the jig in.
It was game over for me. my desire to catch fish won out over my dislike of the cold. I went out just after Christmas and purchased a Mora hand auger, a Dave Genz ice rod combo, and a Lowrance X67c flasher/fishfinder. I chose this model because of it's versatility. I can use both the graph mode, and the flasher mode for ice fishing, and during the open water months, I can even mount this unit on my float tube (I think I can anyway, gotta get some pvc construction going first).
I took a few pics tonight to show both modes on this unit. With the ping set to the highest level, it's real time too.
Graph mode. Unfortunately, this picture was taken after the fish decided they didn't like this spot anymore. You can see my ice fly as the line at about 4'.
Flasher mode, picture taken shortly after I set up. I drilled 3 holes before this one without marking any fish. I was stoked when I dropped the transducer down this hole and it lit up like a Christmas tree.
I did get some interference the other day from Teeg's Vexilar when he was fishing the same shack as me, but it was minimal. This unit is very light compared to a Vex, and it's versatility, and lower price are really what sold me on the unit.
Have a good one,
Alex