Last year I took my Lowrance HDS 12 Gen2 Touch out on Lake Erie for ice fishing...
My buddy made fun of me and was getting pictures because he said that I was nuts and nobody that ice fishes would take a $3,500 fish finder out on the ice...

I never did understand why that was such a crazy idea. My life is worth a lot more than the fish finder. If I'm not confident that I'm not going through the ice, I wouldn't be out there!

We where in a Polaris Ranger 6x6, so I had plenty of space for an extra deep cycle marine battery.

However, I was extremely disappointed in the performance. I even set it in "Flasher" mode and did everything I could to get the refresh rate and everything as fast as I could get it. It was WAY too slow. I ended up borrowing my buddies extra flasher, a Vexilar 8 (low cost and cheap), and for seeing my bait in regards to the fish it was head and shoulders above the Lowrance.

I put the Lowrance away and this year I bought a couple of $300-400 flashers online and will be using them.

I have done some additional reading and research to see if maybe there was a setting I was missing, or some way to use it better for ice fishing, but all the forums and research told me that it wasn't going to be any better.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a complete waste, and I would use it in a heartbeat rather than go without anything. But if I have to chose between a $250 Used Vexilar or my so called "top of the line" Lowrance, I'll take the Vexilar.

I could "see" my bait, but when a fish came in, and I moved my bait in response to the fish the lag time on the screen was probably .5 seconds to almost a full second. With the Vexilar and units designed to be flashers for ice fishing it is so close to "realtime" that you can't notice the lag in the movement in the water vs. the screen.

I like seeing my bait move when it is actually moving, and I like seeing the fish in real time too...