Best Flashers For Ice Fishing
Anyone who’s spent a lot of time catching fish through the ice is aware of the special challenges of ice fishing as well as the great fun that it provides.
Instead of spending countless days, weeks, and months indoors waiting for the spring thaw, ice fishing gives you a chance to head out on the ice, put some holes through it, and catch tasty panfish, walleye, and other popular species.
Fish caught through the ice tend to be leaner as they burn off fat reserves while in the cold water. They also tend to taste better than their summer counterparts. The fish you are targeting need to see your lure, bait, or ice fly before it can hit it.
When the ice and a potentially deep layer of snow cover the lake, there is virtually no light getting through. That’s where the best flashers for ice fishing prove their value.
An ice fishing flasher makes it a lot easier to locate baitfish and the predatory fish that feed upon them.
They work similarly to a fish finder by using sonar to scan the water column beneath your ice fishing hole. The flasher can detect fish, your lure, and weeds or other objects beneath the ice.
History and Evolution of Ice Fishing Flashers
Ice fishing has been around for as long as lakes have been freezing over. Safe ice makes it possible to fish in places that you can’t without a boat and access to the water during warmer months. It also usually means less fishing pressure, which increases your odds of catching more fish.
Finding the fish, though, has been a big challenge by drilling a hole in the ice, finding the bottom, and then fishing at different depths and locations until you find the fish or a school of them find you.
The current ice fishing flashers make it a lot easier to find fish and target them at the correct depth to increase your chances of success.
The sonar technology used is the same that the U.S. Navy helped develop during World War II to locate enemy U-boats and sink them.
Once a secret technology, sonar has been widely used for many years and improved to the point that it can help you find the fish you want to catch and
Top Flashers for Ice Fishing in 2023
The best flashers for ice fishing could cost anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars. If money’s no object, you could buy a very advanced model that all but catches fish for you.
Most ice anglers will do fine with a more simplified version that locates fish and structure and tells you their depth.
Garmin LiveScope Plus Ice Bundle Li
The LiveScope Bundle shows you clear images with exceptional sonar clarity and target separation with advanced transducer sensitivity.
You can scan the surrounding waters to scout for schools of fish and use a forward mode that tells you where you should open another hole in the ice.
The system will show you your lure, jig, or bait and how fish are reacting to it. A portable carrying case keeps it all together in one convenient and light package with a lithium-ion battery providing the power.
You get your choice of 5- 7- or 9-inch displays and an option for preloaded charts and maps of more than 10,000 lakes.
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Garmin EchoMap UHD 93sv
The EchoMap UHD is a combination fish finder and chartplotter that includes the LakeVu G3 inland maps for more than 18,000 lakes that you can read clearly on its 9-inch touchscreen display.
A key assist helps you hone in on the data that you want to see or adjust the flasher to target specific areas and locate particular fish. Vivid-scanning sonar gives you color palettes so you can interpret the data and know exactly what is beneath you in the water in real time.
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Garmin EchoMap UHD2 53cv
The EchoMap UHD2 53cv is very similar to the UHD 93sv but with a 5-inch screen and a lighter package. You get the same sonar sensitivity and a clear display with high contrast and scanning capability to locate fish. A GT20-TM transducer deploys the ClearVu sonar with high-contract color palettes showing what is beneath the ice.
The system has the same chartplotter and inland mapping technology as the 93sv. You get it in a smaller and more portable package.
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Vexilar FL-8SE ‘Genz Pack’
The Vexilar FL-8SE is packaged and portable while mounted in the Dave Genz Blue Box with an FL-8SE flasher and round viewing screen. The 19-degree built-in Ice-Ducer transducer and flasher give you six depth ranges from 20 to 120 feet.
The three-color sonar flasher shows green for weak targets, orange for medium targets, and red for strong targets.
The flasher and its base easily fit a 5-gallon bucket with a 12-volt battery that is easy to access in a semi-enclosed compartment. The flasher comes with an instructional video, a two-year warranty for the system, and a one-year warranty for the battery.
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MarCum LX-7Li
The MarCum LX-7Li flasher has a sonar display that shows you a water column vertical, a vertical zoom, and a flasher dial on the widescreen graph display. The 8-inch LCD screen offers four color palettes from which to choose for the readout. An on-screen dashboard shows depth, gain, range, and battery voltage.
You also can see the interference rejection of competing flasher signals and adjust the target data. The sonar footprint shows the area of bottom coverage and whatever depth you choose with either 8- or 20-degree transducer cone angles.
Humminbird Ice Helix 7 CHIRP G4
The Ice Helix 7 uses a dual-spectrum CHIRP sonar with interference rejection and gives you six settings that stop other sonar signals from creating screen clutter to deliver clear views in sonar and flasher modes.
High-resolution returns show individual fish, bait, and any structure on the flasher and 2D sonar with up to three-fourths of an inch of target separation. An adjustable sonar zoom of 2X on the flasher screen and 16X on the 2D sonar view that lets you focus on fish at any depth up to 120 feet.
The system includes built-in GPS tracking to mark and find fishing spots. You also get a built-in basemap and charts of more than 10,000 lakes with 1-foot contour maps to help you locate fish. An SD card reader lets you save screenshots, sonar recordings, and waypoints.
The system has a highly detailed 7-inch LCD screen with adjustable brightness and includes a jig charge mode that makes glow-in-the-dark jigs and spoons glow brightly in the icy waters.
Key Features to Consider When Choosing a Flasher
Features like target separation help you determine whether a fish, your lure, or an underwater structure is present. To do this, you just have to lower a transducer to just below the ice so that the hole won’t interfere with the sonar flasher.
It also helps to have interference rejection that negates the effects of other flashers or fish finders that other ice anglers might use nearby.
An easily viewed display is important to see what the flasher is doing and to tell you the real-time situation below the ice. Adjustability helps you fine-tune the signal and target separation so you can see fish, your lure, or any weeds or other items in the water.
Several flashers also give you mapping capabilities and GPS tracking that help you find the most productive fishing areas. You can also mark waypoints with several models so you can locate your favorite fishing holes on different bodies of water.
Mechanical vs. Digital Flashers
Sonar systems are either mechanical or digital, but they do the same thing. A mechanical system makes it easier to adjust the system and settings to focus on a particular area of the water column, identify specific types of objects, or get a general reading of what’s below the ice.
The best mechanical systems give you up to three-fourths of an inch of target separation, plenty of peak-to-peak power, and the ability to switch your cone angles to get the most useful real-time readings.
A digital flasher offers multiple display options, such as a vertical water column, vertical zoom, and a horizontal LCD, which makes it easier to see what the transducer is finding. Many systems show you all three readouts on the same display at the same time.
Digital units can give you a target separation of as little as half an inch so you can get much better details about when fish are beneath your hole and the depth to catch them.
Link: Ice Fishing Tips and Techniques Anchor Text: Expert Ice Fishing Tips
- Link: Understanding Sonar Technology Anchor Text: Comprehensive Guide on Sonar Technology
- Link: National Ice Fishing Association Anchor Text: National Ice Fishing Association for Events and Resources
This outline, along with the keywords and external links, should provide a solid foundation for creating a comprehensive and informative article on the best flashers for ice fishing.
