ICE FISHING with GARMIN STRIKER 4 & REVIEW! Episode 34 

Thanks for the kind words.

Thank you for the kind words. I hope you enjoy the Striker and find ALL of the fish!

Awesome, I hope you love it and get all the fishes!

Thanks for joining us!

Awesome, glad it helped and thanks for commenting.

amplitude scope is a handy tool.

Thank you for watching.

Thank you, let us know how it works out for you.

Thanks for watching! and yes that would make it a super duper complete kit!

It was definitely a great day on the ice! Unfortunately with this 4 inch screen you can NOT run half and half. As far as running it for a long time on the water, you may inquire for a lithium battery. It really boosts your time out there! Thanks for watching!

Not a bad idea, may have to try that. Thanks for watching.

much wider than a scupper hole but the cord will pass through. Should work fine though. Thanks for watching!

Chirp is mostly about target seperation (showing two fish as two fish instead of one big fish) and it's contribution on a 4" screen in shallow water is debatable. It doesn't work better or worse on a flasher screen or in open water while moving or stationary. The unit works perfectly well as an ice sonar but there are many options for use on ice.

@@sevenfishyoutube thanks for the info! That is what I saw other people saying as well. Thanks for the video and the feedback. Good luck this year!

Thank you, that's very kind.

It'll work well for you.

Right, but Z is afraid of alligators

Awesome, what are you fishing for in China?

Seven Fish Hi, Culter alburnus the most time, with corn as bait or sharmp. Sometimes carp.

I've not seen that species but did google it. Minnow family like carp but preditory. Interesting, I'm guessing edible but bony?

The transducer is a separate part that was purchased for ice fishing. The specific price and part # are covered in several comments and their replies on this very video. Thank you for watching and participating.

Thanks for watching!

Often times you can drill three holes next to each other and put the transducer in the middle. That way, two people can fish using the same screen. However, the cone is only so wide, so if you are in too shallow of water (maybe 6 to 10 ft) this won’t work. It does work in deeper depths because the cone is wider. You can also change the angle of the cone on your Garmin to help you see more. The more narrow it is, the harder it will be to see other people’s jigs. However, sometimes you would want a narrow cone in deeper water to really narrow in on just your jig for precision. If this doesn’t make sense, I’ll make a video to describe it and use pictures to help visualize!

@@sevenfishyoutube thank you! much appreciated! I will I look for the video when available

Helpful.

Which 90's unit are you rocking?

Thank you for joining us.

Bluegill through the ice are very good. We usually keep them 8"- 9", letting the big ones go because the larger ones (especially the males) will keep the little ones off of the spawning beds and help the size profile of the pond.

I own an 18. So I have put in quite a few hours with each brand. I would say the flasher is just as good as the vex. Not necessarily better because no one can beat Vexilar in their own game haha! But if you want gps or mapping you can’t go wrong with a flasher on the garmin or even a bird!

It runs off of a 12v battery. It can be a 7AH (amp hour) or 8AH or 9AH. The bigger the number the longer it will run. It runs less than 1 amp per hour so technically an 8 will run just over 8 hours. I've ran mine on my kayak all day no worries and also on the ice all day!

There is not a clear view transducer for this unit that is for ice fishing. Clear view isn't effective for ice fishing due to the shape of the cone. The transducer used here is a traditional sonar unit and it works well.

Yes you can!

Yes, it certainly is.Thank you for the question.

Thank you for subscribing. We'll keep working to deserve them.

I don't have data nor a place to check it for the ice ducer. I think the unit says 500' with the standard transducer. WAY more than we need here in freshwater either way.

I have used the same one (the model that comes in the bag) for lake trout and Cisco. Picks up fish well at 100 feet.

@@hookedonguns5941 Thank you for the info!

That is the Iceducer.

@@sevenfishyoutube do you need the ice transducer for the kayak?

@@jakeydoo121 It can be used when you are stationary but there are ways to mount the standard transducer that work well. There is an older video on our channel that shows this application with the original transducer. Thanks for watching.

Kind of a theme in these comments... You can use the boat mount transducer, but there are fewer cone angle selections and you need to mount it to something because a skimmer style transducer will not hang correctly from the cable. The cone of sound will angle off under the ice and your fish and lure will not be shown. The ice transducer is made to hang level and be easily adjustable for ice thickness so it is less fuss, but an additional expense. Thank you for watching and commenting! tight lines.

Rich Krueger Here’s your definite answer... no temp. The standard transducer yes, not on the ice ducer!

Not a big turning point for me because the water is cold either way, but on the standard transducer it is very nice for fishing in the spring and finding the warmest water, usually on the northern most parts of a lake!!

Thanks for the answer! Funny they didn't include capability on it..but like you say, water is cold under the ice anyway and probably doesn't matter as much as other times of the year..thanks again

@@lyinglowmovingslow yeah, 32 degrees if you need to know, but... it would help if you use the iceducer in open water

The ice transducer is symmetrical and hangs level under a float to give you a vertical cone under ice. The standard transducer is made to mount to a transom which may vary from vertical and the mount adjusts to compensate for this. Since it is not symmetrical it will not hang level from the cord and must be mounted to something to produce a vertical cone.

@@sevenfishyoutube so ice fishing with this is doable?

@@moedog5087 if you mean can you do it with the regular transducer, yes it can be done but you need to mount the 'ducer to something that will hold it level and be adjustable up and down as well. You want the transducer near the bottom of the ice hole, so if you are on 6 inches of ice or 36 it needs to be at the bottom of the hole (ice).

@@sevenfishyoutube okay. Someone else posted about mounting it to a broom stick with a float on the top. Might work pretty well

Look on Boatersland or Amazon Garmin GT8HW-IF Ice Transducer. It's not cheap but It's less than another unit just for ice! Tight lines!

The original what... transducer? It is much less convenient and therefore not how I choose to run it. The Ice-ducer is worth the investment in my opinion.

The glue idea did not work, so we re-rigged it via nut & bolt and covered the inside of the bottle to protect the ducer!

We appreciate you stopping by! Tight lines!!

Definitely running the ice transducer. Thank you for watching.

Seven Fish no problem. Thanks. New subscriber

Seven Fish does the A scope work without the ice ducer?

@@sawyer_3759 Honestly not sure, but Amplitude scope commonly does on open water units. I'll have to fire it up to check for sure.

Seven Fish alright. Thanks a lot! Really appreciate it. I’m going to get one but want to know if that works. Thanks

I don't have enough information to answer for certain but if you were in shallow water with a narrow beam or if the 'ducer was in an adjacent hole you may have not been in the cone. also if you had bottom and nothing else it may have been too low of a sensitivity (or "gain") setting. If ice permits we may try to get some instructional "setting your finder" stuff on video, in the coming weeks.

@@sevenfishyoutube thanks for the reply i ended up fixing the issue by attaching a piece that keeps the transducer facing down instead of off to the side

@@thgmar yeah, so it was not in the cone, that makes sense. Your depth was not too accurate then too. Good luck fishing and tight lines.

What angle do you have yours at? I'm using the open water one in a ice hole and I am not getting a read on my lure. Hopefully you can help.

@@reliks14 Z runs his at 18 but varies it for conditions. The summer transducer doesn't have 18 but the 200 kh should work fine the key is getting the transducer to sit correctly.

The suction cup transducer doesn't hang in a way that sends the cone straight down under the hole... your lure isn't likely inside the cone so it doesn't show up. look at the comment from thgmar112 1122 prior to yours which explains it somewhat. If you can mount it level it should work fine. The cone exits the transducer at a right angle from the largest flat surface.

@@sevenfishyoutube thank you for your quick response

@@reliks14 thank you for the sub, we put videos up every friday.

Decided to go with the transducer you recommend. I need accuracy in a hole. Thanks for posted the model needed.

sometimes the menu on the unit has the transducer turned off, be sure to check that. make sure the ducer is level and below the ice and turn up your gain, low, medium, high, are the choices. you can also turn up interference to remove surface clutter under the ice, that’s what I did on mine yesterday. zoom feature is nice and you can manually move the zoom window up and down in the entire water column. dark mode is nice in a shanty, hit the power button and change it there.

It is 100% reliable on the ice and on open water. I was originally skeptical as well but Garmin has been pumping out some great stuff and really getting into the game of fish locators! For the price point, you won't find another sonar unit with GPS built in, which is what sold me on it! Check out my video where I rig this on my kayak to see more! Ask away if you have any more questions! We are here to help man! Tight lines and thanks so much for watching!!!

I got mine at a Scheels store. I'm not sure what part of the country you are from but they have an online presence as well.

That one did come with my Ice ducer. I have used pipe insulation foam before but any closed cell foam would float.

That is a Jason Mitchell "meat stick" from Clam

You get an open water transducer right out of the box with standard mount to attach to a vessel of your choice! The open water transducer works great, it tells you water temp and reads very fast and accurate sonar under your boat. You can technically ice fish with the standard transducer but in this video I am using the Ice Transducer (GT8HW-IF), it costs just over $100 and you can buy it online. Try boatersland.com, looks like it might be on sale there!

@mac423 Yup I use the standard ducer mounted to about 12" of broom stick with a float on top of that. Sits straight, works great.

The summer transducer will work however the cone angle will differ and the angle will not adjust in the same way as shown in the video, also the ability to make the high speed transducer sit correctly in the hole requires some fabrication. It must sit level as on the boat and it must be hight adjustable so as to be near the bottom of the hole. in thick ice this requires a rigid device that is long and cumbersome to transport. The hanging float system of an ice transducer is well worth the extra money and it provides superior performance as well.

Which ice ducer do you recommend? Any idea of where I can get the best deal on one?

Nathan Karnash Garmin GT8HW-IF Ice Transducer is the correct ducer you want! I’d look on Boatersland or Amazon. It comes with the float and it’s ready to catch fish outa the box!! Tight lines!

@@sevenfishyoutube I'll look thanks

Good eye!

I’d look on Boatersland or Amazon. It comes with the float and it’s ready to catch fish outa the box!! Tight lines!

Garmin GT8HW-IF Ice Transducer is the correct ducer you want!

Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it!

@@sevenfishyoutube can u use the regular transducer it comes with what is the difference

@@simonhenhoeffer8934 There is an answer in a few responses to these comments, but in short an ice transducer will hang vertically from it's cable and the float mechanism allows it to easily be adjusted for ice thickness.

For sure, at this price point! did you se how I rigged it to use on my kayak? (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-06GNQj1dWTM.html)

the parentheses ruined the link, try this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-06GNQj1dWTM.html

@@sevenfishyoutube Great Thanks. So I need to buy the striker 4, battery and ice ducer?

@@sb2261 That would be a great start! Thank you for watching.

Thanks for the info

Bass Huntin It depends on the lake I’m on and how deep I’m fishing! I usually run my cone angle on my transducer at 18 degrees when fishing for gils and crappie. If I’m fishing for catfish under the ice that hold close to the bottom, I will switch to my graph (sonar) to really watch the bottom for big blobs on the chart. Thanks for tuning in and tight lines my friend!

Thanks that’s a big help

It is a sealed lead acid (SLA) battery from Universal Power Group that is 12 volt and 9 amp hours (ah). you can use any 12 volt battery but these are handy. There are lithium batteries available that are lighter but more costly.

It sounds like you know what you are doing with the electrical stuff but I'm not sure I'd advise just anyone to run 10 AA Batteries in series as at 1.5 volts each you could get theoretically 15 volts which the unit doesn't necessarily want to run on. For your testing the simulator won't be pinging the transducer or the GPS antenna so real world life might drop a little. Great tips though and thank you for watching and joining us in the comments, tight lines!

@@sevenfishyoutube Input voltage is 10~20V... I am planning on testing with my DeWalt 20V 5aH Lithium battery too from my drill :) Also,,, NiMH batteries are nominal voltage of 1.2v, I have tried multiple chargers I have and 1.4v is peak.

DeWALT 20V MAX battery worked perfectly. I set the low voltage alarm to be at 17v as this 5Ah pack contains 10x18650 batteries running 5 batteries in series to reach the voltage than two of those in parallel to get 5Ah capacity.

@@xxgg did the 20 volt battery read 20 volts or sub 17v?

@@sevenfishyoutube My DeWalt 20V Max battery was only partially charged. When I plugged into the Striker 4, voltage was shown at 18.14v (which is the correct voltage at current charge). 17v is the voltage alarm I have set on Striker 4 because that is the near cut off voltage of this pack. (I have never measured fully charged dewalt 20v but I am guessing it will be around 20.5v. Could be dead on 20V if DeWalt charge each cell upto 4v only, I am charging up to measure that for you now, will update later) Each 18650 cell is 3.7v. Fully charged is 4.2v but I believe DeWalt charger only charge upto 4.1v for longevity of the lithium battery. Cut off voltage is about 3V but it is not recommended. With all my other types of lithium batteries, I personally never go below 3.4V per cell. (I haven't measured at what voltage my DeWALT drill cuts off at). Same goes with your smartphones, not the best idea to always recharge to 100%, 85% is about a good voltage for health of the battery. Not, I am sure what kind of circuitry is built-in to the DeWalt battery as in if there is a low discharge protection or not but since option is available in Striker 4 to alarm you at specific voltage, I would recommend that. Now, having experienced with how AA NiMH batteries performed, switching over the lithium battery alone will greatly increase run-time of the unit plus being it a 5Ah capacity should atleast double the run time on top of it. Multi-purpose use of my existing batteries is a Win-Win case. Plus the weight savings!! (Oh, not sure if this makes much difference in real world but... I doubled layered some reflectix to make a sort of "lunch bag' for my battery(s). Since cold weather can/will drain battery a bit faster. Cheers.

As far as settings go, I generally don't switch much up! Plug in the Garmin GT8HW-IF Ice Transducer and then power your unit on. You will want to go into settings and change and change your transducer type to: GT8HW. This will allow it to work smoothly with your unit. After that, I generally keep my cone at 18 degrees. You can adjust it from 16 to 24. If I was fishing deeper water (20ish ft) I may increase my cone angle so I can see farther to my left and right, or if I wanted to watch two people's holes at once! Other than that, keep range and frequency at their default. If you are experiencing clutter you can turn your gain from auto high to med. or low, or customize it to any percent you need! Thanks for watching. Hope this helps!!!!!

Thanks helped a lot

$120

@@sevenfishyoutube is it worth it whats the difference vs the normal tranducer that comes with it?

@@fgmateusz9652 simple answer... yes

mounting a openwater ducer correctly for differing thicknesses of ice and landing fish (same hole) is just a pain. no easy elegant solution. couple that with the cone angle adjust on the ice ducer and it's worth it.

Thank you very much

Dropped by, great energy.

Thank you for the support, We just got off of the ice. Check instagram for proof

Just a standard lead-acid battery 12v charger! It has alligator clips on it and I clamp it on overnight and it’s ready to go in a few hours!