Instead of choosing a flasher, I decided to pick a regular fish finder that I could utilize while ice fishing as well as during the spring and summer, when I would join in on fishing expeditions along with my friends. The model that I ended up choosing is the FishHunter Pro, which I have found to be one of the fastest and most capable portable models available on the market today. Part of the reason that I decided selecting this model over any others is that I can use my mobile devices, which in this case, consist of my iPhone 5s.

I’ll start out by detailing both the advantages and disadvantages of this option. One of the first factors that I had to analyze was the maximum depth I could use to get the readings. Soon enough, I realized that the FishHunter Pro has a depth of up to 150 feet, which is significantly lower when compared to flashers, which usually offer readings up to 200 feet. Even so, this doesn’t seem to be a drawback as I practice ice fishing for fun. The neat thing about this affordable fish finder for ice fishing is that it comes with a complementary flasher app designed for ice fishing, which practically lets me use the transducer just as I would when using such a sonar. In order to activate this mode, I have to perform some changes to the settings. I usually click the sonar icon located at the bottom of the app screen, then select the ice fishing option. I need to mention that this box needs to be unticked once you’re done with your ice fishing session, otherwise you’ll be confused the next time when angling on the shore, in spring. Once I select the option, I open the sonar screen and am able to look at the results of my ice fishing scans.

There are two types of displays – raw data mode or flasher view. Since I have used flashers before, I usually select the flasher view as I’m more than capable to discern what’s being displayed on the screen of the iPhone. Once I’m in this mode, I can see the depth of the water and the lure I’m using as tiny blue lines to the right of the circle. Each time a fish moves from the bottom toward my lure, I can see it by just glancing at the display of my smartphone. Sometimes, I want to look both at the flasher and the raw data mode side by side, which is why I make sure to go back to the settings, keep the ice fishing mode activated, but also select the landscape function, as well.

I know some people wonder if using mobile phones while out ice fishing is the right thing to do, as they can be affected by cold temperatures, but I’ve noticed that the model I own doesn’t malfunction under these circumstances. I was able to catch a lot of fish thanks to the FishHunter Pro, so I couldn’t recommend it more. It’s well worth every penny, and it cost me less than two hundred dollars.