I had one once. TBH with it beside my HB ice 35 the difference was pretty insignificant. I / we get caught up on Target separation, but in all reality knowing if there’s 2 fish or 1 fish isn’t worth hundreds of bucks. If you watch the bottom, and the fish is practically crawling on bottom, you will see it there, since the bottom will rise. You don’t have to actually see a separate bar to know there’s a fish there.
I have a Garmin ultra with Livescope which was around $5000, so I’m not too cheap to buy gear when it’s useful. I used Livescope last winter, and while it was quite the rig to have on ice, being able to see what was 50 ft in any direction was awesome. Yet with that said, I didn’t have much success in spotting fish 50-75 ft away and then moving there to target them. I only went out a couple times mins you.
IMHO, the cheapest sonar does what the best flasher does, for what and where we fish. I have a 15 year old HB that has a flasher mode. There’s no way a guy would miss out on fish by using it vs an LX-7. I think people get caught up on having a nice red bag on the ice and looking like they’re a serious fisherman. I was guilty, so no shaming.
Save your money and get a cheap flasher, or better yet, grab a cheap boat sonar, bolt the ducer to a broom handle and spend the money on gas for more trips. Ask yourself how useful is “target separation” really? If a sonar tells you there’s a fish below, and roughly how close it is to your lure, than flasher / sonar mission accomplished.
Save up and get Livescope. Now that will change everything.
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Theres a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.
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