Humminbird ICE-55/385 ci Combo

In between all the deer hunting I have been doing I have been working hard getting familiar with the new Humminbird ICE-55/385ci Combo unit.  While I am very familiar with the ICE-55 portion, the 385ci unit is proving to be a very a welcome addition that creates the ultimate ice package for all anglers.  Here are a few things in my initial testing that I really like.

Last night I used the 385ci in my truck suction mounted to my windshield, powered with the 12v cigarette lighter adapter that came with the package to navigate to the lake.  Yes, I know my way to the lake but I was checking out the road data on my LakeMaster chip and testing the map rewrite speed.  For those of you still using a handheld, the map rewrite rate on the 385ci is unbelievably faster than any handheld I have ever used, even with a data intensive chip.  If you are looking for a unit that can run a GPS mapping chip very fast in cold conditions, this is it!

When I arrived at the lake I pulled the unit off the suction mount with the push of a button and simply clicked it onto the mount on the ICE-55 and was off to the ice.   Once again I used my LakeMaster chip in the 385ci combo to find the 5ft weedline contour on the lake as the kids and I were going to chase some early ice bluegill.  When I arrived I drilled two holes for the kids and put the ICE-55/385ci combo in between them and dropped down a transducer for each of them.  Yes, this package includes two ice ducers, one for each unit and you can use them at the same time.  My kids absolutely loved having their own ice unit even though it was in the same package.  The nice part is both transducers run on different frequencies so you get zero interference between the two units.

While dad spent the evening bouncing from hole-to-hole with an ICE-55 the kids spent the entire evening fishing in the same spot with their units.  Cole ran the 385ci in ice mode while Jadyn used the ICE-55 she is familiar with.  Both kids caught plenty of bluegill and had a great time and dad got to do his thing on the ice.  Although I did have steal the 385ci from Cole for a minute as he assured me there was a bluegill down there "that will not bite"  Well, he was right, dad could not get it to bite either.  Cole snapped a few photos of me fishing which I got a laugh at.  I hope I don't always look that intense while I am fishing.  Anyway, I thought I would share my thoughts so far on the Humminbird ICE-55/385ci combo unit.  So far I am REALLY liking the addition of the 385ci!

I am really looking forward to putting the handlebar mount on the sled yet.  Using the same GPS in my vehicle, then my sled then to the ICE unit is really where you see the true benefits to this package.  I will continue to give updates on the ICE-55/385ci package as I have them.  Lots more testing to do yet.