locator for both boat and ice

who uses the same electronics on the ice in the winter and in the boat?  what unit do you have and how does it work for you.  I need a locator/gps for the boat and a unit for ice fishing..should I buy one unit for both purposes or buy a less expensive open water unit and a unit for ice?

I'm thinking of taking my elite 5 off the boat and buying the lowrance ice pack.   Just wondering if those who have bought this ice pack find it hard to setup?   Also is the unit hard to setup for ice vs open water. 

 I think it would be nice to have a gps with navionics for finding new spots and the graph style chart for fishing seems nice compared to the round humminbird I'm used to.

I use my H-bird with a navionics chip on the ice and I can snap the same unit onto the bracket in my boat. I think any unit can be used for both if you buy or make a battery box and devise a way to hold the transducer in the water. Here are some pics of my old eagle finder I set up for that unit.

Lowrance hook 4. Love it! Just take it off the yak in the fall and put it in the ice pack.

Not sure if they still make it but I got a Lowrance elite 4x. Good little machine for modest price.  I cant see why anyone spends hundreds of $$ on anything else.   I use it for ice fishing only but comes with 2 ducers one for ice and one for open water.

Kind of gotta kepe your buget in play as well.  Do you have the $$ to buy both a summer and winter unit, then that is the route I would go.

I use my Marcum LX7 all year long. It doesn’t have GPS but that’s not a big deal. I have a smartphone and use the Navionics Boating app. I have a stand alone GPS unit on my boat (it’s older) that still works just fine but I’ll still pull out my phone and use it as another GPS tool. 

I guess you need to ask yourself if you really need a combo GPS/sonar unit if you already have the capabilities to have GPS. Another question to ask is will you ever want to link your sonar/GPS to a trolling motor. Humminbird goes with Minn Kota, Lowrance goes with Motorguide. I have a pair of humminbird helix units that I haven’t installed yet but I’ll be networking them together with the intention of updating my Minn Kota Terrova to an ILink set up within a few months. 

If you are set on looking for a combo sonar/GPS unit for all season use all major companies have ones that will work. It just boils down to the trolling motor question of linking your GPS into that motor or not. Last winter the ‘bird Helix ice units had pretty solid reviews but keep in mind that the ice package came with an ice transducer and you had to purchase the open water transducer separate. I rigged up a way to use my ice transducer on my Marcum before getting the high speed transducer. When those helix units go on my boat I’ll still be using that Marcum.