last winter someone asked this question. I want to know what electronic device works best?
The answers that have been given the multiple times this question has come up are still applicable. Quality units of both work well and it comes down to a matter of preference. I use both (flashers up to about 60’ of depth and fish finder for deeper water) and enjoy using both.
+1 to kenofnsl’s comments.
My opinion:
If I had to buy one for only ice fishing, I would choose a good quality flasher. If I wanted one that was going to work for both, probably a fish finder.
- 1 to Kentofnsl… couldn`t of said it better..Fishon
I’ll take a fish finder. Every time. Every situation.
My assumption is that when you say “fish finder” you are referring to an LCD sonar. Both Flashers and LCD’s are fish finders. The flasher is more difficult to interpret, but in a static situation like ice fishing, a good flasher will give you a better idea of what is happening down the hole.
If you are on the move, in a tube, toon, or boat, LCD’s are far more accurate and give you a better picture of what is going on as you move, as you are getting a visual picture of the bottom and structure.
The new side scanners give you even more detail than the current LCD’s, but I doubt they would be that good in a static situation.
The reason that you see more flashers on the market now is that they are better in the static placement for ice fishing !!
The flasher is more difficult to interpret…
A matter of opinion, but I would vote the exact opposite.
For icefishing…hands down a flasher is best in 90% of situations. The speed of the display is amazing. I used a nice humminbird LCD finder for years, but you honestly can not beat a flasher…especially for panfishing. The Flasher’s ability to separate stacked fish when fishing for suspended bluegill or crappie is amazing the difference. I always thought “big deal” when guys talked about separation of stacked fish, until i used a flasher for suspended crappie and my catch rate roughly doubled over using an LCD. You can pinpoint a single fish in a stacked column and watch the reaction of a fish and then move up or down to the next fish and try different tactic. I’ve used my FL12 down to 200 ft at the gorge and often around 150 at bear lake and love it for both. There is perks to using a nice LCD, but if I had to pick one for exclusively ice fishing i’d take a flasher hands down any day.
Also, the ability to have super fine tunability on your sensitivity is nice with a flasher, and the ability to block interference can be huge when you’re fishing a crowded area, or even if you just have one finder around that interferes with you. One more feature i’d point out but is available in both flasher and LCD is a dual beam transducer or cone. It can make a pretty big difference depending on the species, the slope of the bottom, and depth of water you’re fishing to have a choice on how wide your cone is can be very beneficial.
I have had both over the years. I think if you are a novice ice fisherman - I would recommend the fish finder. I think they are a little funner, they display past history (the past 30-40 seconds) & they have an alarm when a fish swims underneath.
If you are a experienced ice fisherman - then I would recommend upgrading to the flasher. I like the fact that I can erase (?)/discriminate the interference from other fishermen and their fish finders (this is a big plus), the display is real time, I can zoom in on any zone in the column and you can get finer detail. The cons - can’t fall asleep and catch fish. No alarm.
My 2 cents!
I like the flasher for ice fishing. My buddy let me try his flasher out last year at UL and it was cool to see the jig moving up and down and then watch a fish come up to get it. Pretty dang good peice of tech if you ask me.
I havnt used a flasher so cant comment on that. I use lowrance c67 and love it . it has a live bar on the side that you can see your jig and the fish coming up to it just as the flasher. After ice off it can go on your boat.
I bought my first flasher in 1978. My first LCD graph in 1989 or 1990. I wouldn’t go back to old technology. Even the *“Legendary” MarCum * brand has started making LCD graphs that can display “flasher” information.
Haven’t used a regular fish finder only in the boat. For ice fishing we jumped right to the flasher when we started our ice fishing roughly 6 years ago Vex-12s to be exact now Humminbird Ice 55s…we’ll stick with the flasher see no reason for a regular fish finder. Flashers are very easy to use they may look complicated but TRUST ME if I can work it anyone can. We feel like we’re cheating when ice fishing…but boy they sure are worth the extra coinage by us as we ice fish a whole lot. 
I usually ice fish with my father. He uses a Marcum LX-5 flasher and I use a Humminbird 345c fishfinder.We have found that my fish finder is best when searching for fish. We drill a lot of holes and search for good numbers before sitting down. The fishfinder keeps them on the screen to give a better picture of the amount of fish. It also has a digital flasher screen.
The Marcum flasher excels when you have your line down the hole. It has better target separation (0.75" vs 2.5"") which I think is when using the 8 degree cone, for watching the fish mouth your hook. It has better zooming features as well (more specific to your location imo).
We use the fish finder far more of the time to find the fish and he ends up doing a little better than me in hooking a specific fish once we are sitting. However, I am not very handicapped. I can still see the exact depth where they are, see the difference between my swivel and hook, and can raise it to catch fish. His just does it a little better. His would also be better for deeper depths for Lakers. His dual beams are 8 and 20 degree and mine are 20 and 60. I don’t see much with my 60 (supposed to pick up more shallow fish or fish further away from the unit but pretty useless imo). His 8 degree isn’t much good for general use. It is better for bottom feeding fish or deep lakes to put the cone right on top of the lure. So the 20 degree cone is the most used on both units. Just to fill you in, a 20 degree cone sees only 7 ft across at 20 ft. (2depthTan (1/2 cone degree). An easy rule for the 20 degree cone is to take the depth and divide by 3. The 60 degree cone at 10 ft can see almost 12 ft across (almost a 1 to 1 ratio), but the 20 degree at 10 ft only sees less than 2ft across. However, the 60 degree loses signal strength fast so it is useless at deeper depths. The 8 degree will see 14 ft across at 100 ft. but only 3 ft across at 20ft. Whereas the 20degree will see 35 ft across and the signal is not as good. So it depends on the depth you mainly target. His flasher unit isn’t practical to use during the rest of the year. With my fishfinder, I simply swap out transducers and use mine on my pontoon during the ice-free months.
If you have all the money in the world, then buy both types. If you only can afford only one, I would get the fish finder, hands down. And if I was fishing alone and could only bring one, I would bring the fishfinder, without question. I wouldn’t haul 2 around anyway if I could. The only instance where I would choose the flasher over the fish finder would be when targeting lakers (due to depth) and I knew right where to sit down to fish for them. But then the unit would only be good for ice fishing whereas I get to use my fishfinder all year round. No contest.
Marcum flashers: http://www.rapala.com/…onar,default,sc.html
Humminbird finders: http://store.humminbird.com/ (the 345 is in the ice fishing section)