Play Nice Together!!

After reading my piece on Embrace Technology you finally went out and bought that flasher/sonar that you have always wanted, but have been intimidated by.  Lets assume with my advice you decided to invest in a great piece of technology and bought the new Humminbird ICE 55.  Nice work!!

You spent 10 minutes getting the unit assembled and another 3 minutes skimming the manual and you are ready to go.  Tomorrow you are going to hit the ice running and chase down those active fish that are always on the move.  But hey, you are armed with a great piece of technology that can make it all possible.  No longer are you confined to the bucket letting the fish come to you, you are going after them.

As the big day arrives you decide to give a couple ice fishing buddies a call.  Your buddy Greg brings his MarCum, Gary brings his Vexilar and together you hit the ice in search of a fresh meal of fish.  As you drill your first set of holes and set-up to fish, there they are.  Your Humminbird ICE 55 lights up like a Christmas tree as you drop your transducer down the hole.  You just hit the proverbial ice fishing jackpot!  As you ease your jig down the hole you watch on your Humminbird as the first fish comes racing off the bottom to meet your jig 8ft up.  Wow, that is cool!  You set the hook and within 5 seconds have a nice mid-day crappie laying on the ice.  You are thinking in your head, this technology is AMAZING, why didn't I listen to Scott Steil earlier (shameless plug).

With much anticipation, you holler to Greg and Gary to come on over as you just found some really active crappies.  Without hesitation they grab their flashers and set-up next to you.  WHOA, what just happened?  You can't see bottom anymore and your flasher dial is spinning in circles.  This really sucks and Gary and Greg agree, what the heck is going on?

You are experiencing interference at is best right now.  Anyone who has ever ice fished before can relate to this.  The good news is, with a few tips we can get this scenario resolved so our flashers play nice together.  Try the steps below and you will have very little interference with todays modern flashers.

First, if you have a dual beam transducer, use the narrow beam on any unit that has it.  On the Humminbird, you hit the BEAM button once and you will see the narrow beam displayed on the LCD screen.  By doing this you limit the angle of the signal you are sending out and will help eliminate the problem with signals overlapping under water.

Second, adjust your gain so that you are using the minimal amount needed to still see your jig.  On the Humminbird you hit GAIN one time and then turn the top knob and the gain will adjust and will be displayed on the center LCD.  Using to much gain will result in your unit picking up excess signal from other units and will give you more interference on your unit.

Third, lower your transducer farther into the hole.  The deeper your transducer is, the less angle you will have at the bottom of the lake where the problem of signal crossing is happening.  I prefer to have my transducer just below the bottom of the ice, as you will get a lot less reflection off the hole.

Forth, use the Interference Rejection or Noise feature on your flasher.  Often times you can do this as a first step and don't have to do anything mentioned above.  But, as part of my routine, I do all of the above first before I use my Interference Rejection feature.  On the Humminbird hit the NOISE button once and then use the top knob to change the noise level.  By doing this you are basically changing the signal put out by the transducer so it won't match the signal put out by another unit.  Ok, that is an oversimplification of the feature but that is basically what it does.

Now that you have taken all or some of the above steps you are back to icing crappies.  All your flashers are playing nice together again and you can look forward to a fresh meal of crappies.  Remember, most problems you experience with a flasher/sonar are a problem for others also no matter what brand they are running.  Don't be affraid to ask or email if you are having other sonar related issues, as we are here to help.