Tis the Season

Hopefully everyone had a great Christmas and is looking forward to the new year.  For me Christmas brought a  lot of travel and a lot more snow.  All this snow is making travel on the lakes somewhat tough here in Central Minnesota but this is also the time I start heading  North where the lakes are in much better shape.  Over the next two weeks I will be on Lake of the Woods, Mille Lacs, Winnie, Leech and Cut Foot Sioux, so look for updated reports and photos over the next few weeks.

Despite the tough ice conditions around here I have still been getting out some, mainly to do some equipment testing and photo work.  I am still putting in quite a bit of time with the Humminbird 385ci, basically testing its merits as a viable option on the ice.  I am sold on the fact that the Humminbird 385ci is a great GPS unit and works well in the car, on my sled and on the ice but now I am testing the 385ci to see just how well it works as an ice sonar unit.

For those not familiar with this unit, just read back I have written plenty about it on my blog.  The 385ci has some very cool features that allow you to use it in "ice mode" which basically converts the standard sonar return to a "flasher" type return.  I have been comparing standard ice flashers side-by-side with the 385ci and found that you can really fine tune the return to get exactly the same return you get on the ICE-55 mounted on the other side of this Combo unit.

Not only do you get the same looking return you also get features like the Target Line, Zoom, 3 color Palettes and different back lighting options (white, blue or black).  In addition, you have the Switchfire options "clear mode" and "Max Mode" which allow you to change your sensitivity levels to meet just about any condition you will find on the ice.  There is no doubt these additional features that many of us are familiar with on our Humminbird open water units are going to make the 385ci a strong unit on the ice.  So far I have been extremely impressed with the unit.  While my intension's were to use this unit only as a GPS, I now find myself using the "ice mode" more often and continue to be impressed with all the features in the unit.

You can see in the pictures here.  The first is a typical return you will get when you turn the "ice mode" on. You will notice the typical flasher type return with some noise return noted a the top.  You can also see my bait and a big bluegill lurking below waiting to see what is on the other side of the ice sheet.  The second photo you can see I made a simple adjustment by reducing the surface clutter and then also increased my sensitivity 1 level.  The great part about using the 385ci on the ice is the fact that you can fine tune your settings just like we do in the summer with our open water units.  In the last photo you can see my jig still hanging their at 8 ft and the fish are gone.  However, if you look close you can see a few of the ones that went home with me!!

My testing on this unit has only begun.  I have a pretty ambitious ice schedule this winter which will give me plenty of time to continue to test this unit in various conditions.  So far I have been impressed with the unit, even in the extreme cold weather we have had this year. If you are in the market for an ice unit, I suggest you take a look at the "package" value you get in the ICE-55/385ci combo, you will not be disappointed!