Topic: 997 for ice fishing?

[Boomcarpet]

Just getting back in to ice fishing after a long hiatus. (+20 yrs) Will my 997 work with the X1 9 20 puck? i realize I won't get SI, but after checking prices on flashers I figure why not use the 997 from the front of the boat? What power cord should I use? I don't want to take anything off the boat so I'll need power and a ducer. I'd like to use the GPS, but will have to hold off till the money tree grows another batch. Thanks in advance for any recomendations!

[Humminbird_Greg]

Yes you can use the 997 for ice fishing.  The XI-9-20 transducer will work as a standard DualBeam transducer so make sure and set the Transducer Select menu to the DualBeam setting.

You will need to purchase a PC-11 Power cable.

You may also need a second connector collector (part # 540165-2) to hold the connectors to the 997 unit.

[sonar2000]

Boomc....you may want to consider a small cheap 12 volt battery to have the 997 on its own power source. Make sure all connections are tight and water proof.
Chuck

[Boomcarpet]

Thanks for the info guys. I was discussing my 997 conversion with one of my fishing buddies and he said he would lend me his 798ci Si for the winter as he doesn't icefish. (nice guy, huh?) So I bought a PTCU pack and a X1-9-29 transducer and received it this a.m. Next question; When setting up the transducer settings on the unit at home, the only options are: Compact Sidescan, Quad Beam and Universal Sonar 2. No "dual beam" selection is available. What am I doing wrong? What a great forum this is. I wish I would have found it when I bought my other units.

[reddog]

Cant help you with the setting for the 798, but I can tell you one thing.... youre gonna love ice fishing with that rig.

Set your max depth to 100,


Set the RTS window to narrow.

Ice fish in the 2dsonar graph, not the flasher mode.

Good luck.

You will probably want to turn off most of the views, other than the ones you think you will be using, its just faster to toggle thru, if you decide to go to the flasher or the split 2d screen..

[raricker]

Hi,
Use the Universal Sonar 2 setting as your sonar type. That's what I use when I have my 797c setup for ice fishing. Tone down your back light level (as much as you can get away with) and you will get a lot more running time off your battery. You will have a lot of fun!

Take care,
Roger

[Boomcarpet]

Took it put this a.m. Saaweeet! We were only in 10-12 ftw, but she worked fine. Didn't interfere much with the guy sittin next to me in a 2 man shack.( He was using an old Lowarnce that he jury rigged with the standard puck) I need to figure out how to zoom this one though. I'd like to just show just the bottom 4ft. Had to coax the crappies off the bottom today. Still can't figure out why you'd by a flasher...

Thanks for all the help/suggestions and have a great New Year!
Jeff

[reddog]

To begin with in the setup menu, select advanced in the user mode, then  in the sonar menu, select the 200/83 beam select.

With the Switchfire menu, when youre out on the ice, toggle back and forth between clear and max to decide which you like better, (which shows you your jig/bait better and the fish coming into the RTS window. (RTS window is exceptionally important when using  the graph for ice fishing!  The  fish will show up there first!  Again,  toggle between 83 and 200 khz to figure out what shows you the most and best picture.

In the views menu, you will want Chart view,(assuming youre using the gps, if not, then hide this view)Sonar View, Sonar zoom view and Split sonar view, Circular Flasher view all visible, everything else you will use as hidden.

In the split sonar view, you will have both the 83 and 200 khz frequencies shown on the screen. Figure out which one shows you the most current information.  I'm pretty sure the sonar  view is a combination of both freq, but one or the other will give you the most information. 

Select your sonar colors to the color of your choice.  For ice fishing in a shelter, I chose the black background from the startup menu.  The white background gets hard on the eyes of its dark in there.

[reddog]

Another thing to try is when you are in  your sonar zoom view, push menu once, and you should have window that pops up with

Sensitivity

Lower Range

Chart speed  (fast) and then

Bottom Lock.

try the bottom lock    You may like that!