Every year is different. Last year we were there before Christmas for early ice. This year we’re going to be in that area around the third week of January. Not sure if we’ll make it to Black Duck. I’m going to be on Winnibigoshish mostly. It all depends on when the group I go with there can go. I usually do it fairly early as I like to get to the glacial lakes in the Dakotas for the mid winter. I usually close out my big fish chasing trips on Cascade in Idaho in March. Then it’s lakes that I can drive to, fish, and drive home in a weekend.
Met with Erik Kraemer from Kraemer Custom Rods. He is out of West Bend WI, so I wanted to give the local guy a look. After meeting with him and being able to handle the blanks and discuss exactly what I wanted, I added a 36in that should be killer for perch and walleye. Can't wait to get out and use it.
If I like it as much as I think I'm going to I may start having to replace all of my ice rods. I like to support local small businesses and if it can be a fishing small business, even better.
K33, you will dig the Akua series. I stumbled onto them a few years ago at the St. Paul ice show and I got to know a few guys that do field testing for some of their products. I had a chance to use them on Black Duck in Minnesota last year for Bluegill and Crappie, and they worked really well.
I'm a little biased towards Kenders jigs, but these new Akua jig series look pretty awesome. Will be picking some up at the st paul show.
I think we talked about using crimps on the thread for when you use high test flourocarbon. After checking out many offshore fishing sites where they use far more heavy flourocarbon, I decided to use loop knots. They have a lower fail rate than anything else is what I found.
To me the only major advantage I see over my LX-7 is the horizontal option to locate fish. (I use it in graph mode, puts a flasher to shame) I don't see myself sitting using the horizontal 'ducer to locate fish, pick it all up and run to that area and set up to vertical fish and after the school moves set up and search again.
I see it as a locating tool. Get into an area you know typically holds fish and search them out with the horizontal locator, move to them and fish with your normal vertical unit leaving the Panoptics set up in place. Once the fish move go back to the Panoptics that is still set up and relocate the fish and start over.
I'm usually never in a single hole more the 5-10 minutes especially if the fish move around. If I make several drops with no bites I move, even if there are fish, I'm looking for the more aggressive fish in the next hole. I may come back to the hole, but never camp in one.
Kvan, first off I don't hate them. That being said my biggest issues with it are that if you want to maximize the potential of the Panoptix you need extra gear for the side view.
My second issue is the response of it when used as a traditional flasher. It just seems to be a tick slower then the mechanical flasher.
The third is the price, I can get a FLX-28 a K-drill and a Hub shack for the 1700.00 I have seen it advertised for.
As I said before, I am a fan of it for certain applications. If my Vexilars ever die which I doubt. I would give this new tech a look. But I don't think my Vexilars are dying anytime soon. I still loan out my 20+ year old 8 to friends. I would still be using my 20 if not for a smoking deal on a 28 when a certain sporting goods store was closing.
Well now I'm curious, FishHound and AWichman - what is it about the panoptix that you wouldn't use it as a replacement for a flasher? Because of the size or functionality too? I only watched a few youtube videos where guys used them and they seemed to work well as a sonar while fishing. I guess they were used in a shack in the videos though, not run and gun fishing.
The Panoptix does come with a standard ice ducer for traditional use. My buddy uses his for finding structure or drop offs quickly, if he sees fish that’s a bonus. It does save a lot of time drilling and searching on an unmapped body of water. Your right though it is more gear to bring. At the rate it is going we will all need at least a 4 wheeler to move everything.
I rewatched the Lowrance video and it does seem to be more along those lines. I’ll be interested to see what the price point will be if and when they make an ice version. I do like that more companies are going in that direction but it’ll probably be like Vexilar and Marcum where the price just goes up every year.
Either way it’s an exciting time to be an ice fisherman. We have it way better now then when I was a kid learning back in the mid 80s with my dad.
seems a few years behind Humminbird on the technology
I don't think Humminbird has anything close to Garmin Panoptics or what Lowrance will be introducing.
The $1300 is just for the ice pack, with the 7" unit it's $1799 most places. Hopefully some competition from Lowrance brings the price down.
The preliminary talk from people that spend much more time looking into things than I do sound like it can do everything that the panoptix can...I wouldn't have any idea though.
He's a link from a different website with some more details. HDS live
Actually, $1000 for the 7" version isn't a terrible price for the technology...
It doesn't even exist yet, they are hoping it is available by the spring of 2019. Not much talk about an ice package/ducer yet because they haven't completed the boat models.
I was on the fence about getting Panoptics for this winter, may have to wait and see what Lowarance can get done by next fall.
I wouldn't use Panoptics to fish with, to much crap to drag around from hole to hole. It would simply be a horizontal fish finding device and then its another whole unit to carry along.
