Humminbird Ice 55 Review- Best Ice Flasher on the Market?

humminbird ice 55 review cover photo

Hard water brings images of scaly white residue, clanking pipes, and takes too much soap, but that’s not the hard water we’re about to explore in this Humminbird Ice 55 review. This review is about seasonal hard water, the type of hard water you don’t experience south of the Mason Dixon line and never think about in Texas or Arizona.

This hard water is seasonal and relegated to the northern latitudes.

Ice fishing is wildly popular in states like North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and growing in popularity in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.

In the case of Minnesota, ice fishing is arguably more popular than more temperate fishing on open water during the warmer months.

The growing popularity of spending long days and nights out on the ice has led to many new sporting inventions. The heavy ice sheds popular on frozen northern water since the 1920s are gradually being replaced by lighter aluminum ice huts, pop-up style nylon shelters, and even semi-permanent. Additionally, “ice mansions” are towed into place with ATVs, anchored to the ice, and left in place for months at a time.

With generators, kitchens, satellite TV, and wireless broadband connections, many ice fishing fanatics move out on the ice and stay there all winter. Some even “work from home” using their broadband connections while watching tip-ups set inside the hut.

It is a different world than the frozen past when a five-gallon bucket to sit on was considered a luxury.

Fish finders have a growing presence on the ice with each passing year.

Humminbird Ice 55 Reviewed

The challenge of ice fishing is to locate schools of perch, walleye, trout, or beds where individual ling-cod, Northern pike, or muskie hunt.  If you’re new to a lake, that can mean drilling a lot of holes, fishing a while, then packing up, moving a few hundred yards or farther, then repeating the process with more holes until you get a strike. That often means long days and nights with no reward.

Packing firewood on your sled for fires set on the ice was a little frosting on the cake, it kept you warm, fried a little bacon and eggs, and at night the glow attracted fish. Those eggshells often came in handy when trying to spot fish by sight through the holes in the ice.

Eggshells dropped to the bottom of water from 10 to 20 feet (6.1 m) deep provide a stark contrast to the green/gray vegetation, placing any passing fish in high relief.

Finding fish that way is difficult, with a fish finder designed for the arduous, challenging conditions out on the ice, it gets a lot easier.

The Humminbird Ice 55 Flashes Onto the Ice

The first thing to note is that the Humminbird Ice 55 is not a standard fish finder, but a flasher.  The difference is important in ice fishing.

When you fish open water, a fish finder can view via down imaging, side imaging, or a combination of both. These images are taken as you pass over submerged areas in a boat. They provide data on bottom contour, structure, fish locations, and even plant life. Those are all great things to know when fishing open water.

Ice fishing is different, you’re set in one location. Your field of view is entirely vertical. You have a slight conical line of sight as the depth increase, but you can’t move.

A flasher offers real-time sonar images of the area directly underneath you. Seeing what you just passed over and watching the contours change, or remain the same, isn’t important. What is critical is spotting fish instantly as they pass beneath you. A flasher provides instant information on fish in the area.

Spotting those fish as they cruise by allows you to adjust bait depth, change lures, or just begin jigging more forcefully.

The Humminbird Ice 55 is designed for stationary, ice fishing use. It is the first flasher on the market built exclusively for ice fishing.

The display on a flasher is vastly different from standard fish finders.  Fish finders have an LCD display that can range greatly in pixel concentration and screen size. A flasher has fiber optic imaging lit by light-emitting diodes, (LED) The display isn’t nearly as advanced as you’ll find on even the most basic fish finders, but it is very effective.

The LED display on the flasher is designed to provide only three images, the bottom of the water underneath you, the location of your lure or bait, and any fish swimming in the area, that’s it.

The LED uses a six-color, flat display to provide those three images. A backlit display on the Humminbird Ice 55 makes viewing easier in the often glaring light conditions found on the ice on sunny, cloudless days.

Since the display is simple, the power requirements are less as well. This allows the Humminbird Ice 55 to last a long time on the ice without losing battery power.

The Humminbird Ice 55 Specifications

Rated to -20 degrees Fahrenheit (ca. -7 °C), the Humminbird Ice 55 works well in very cold conditions. The legendary chilling winters of the Great Lakes region may drop below the -20 level on the open ice, but in those conditions, very few anglers work in the open, instead of seeking the shelter of ice huts or tents.

Sonar

Dual-beam sonar offers a wide and narrow beam. The wide beam covers that conical area beneath the ice and can cover set lines and tip-ups within a few dozen feet if you arrange your holes in a circular pattern. The narrow beam brings in more detailed data on fish moving into the area. Both are useful in finding and attracting fish once they arrive.

The sonar works at 240 and 455 kHz using Humminbird’s XI 9 19 dual beam transducers.

Adjustable Features

You can set a target line to specific depths in the water column, and a purple line will move across the LCD display. This feature is referred to as the automatic depth scale. Fish moving in will be seen against that set line. Once you’ve set all your ice-holes with bait at 12 feet (3.66 m) you will notice the fish move in at 18 feet (5.49 m). You know you’ll need to lower your bait, or at least lower some while keeping other lines at different depths.

A dynamic zoom feature allows you to rotate the flasher dial to change the target line and area of the water column you’ve zoomed into. Zooming in provides greater detail, but it reduces the viewing area.

Adjustability with the automatic depth scale and gain provide simple options that can improve your chances of catching fish. The auto range adjustment lets you set the sensitivity of the flasher to meet the conditions, you’re working in the water. The digital depth display works with an auto-range feature that zooms the display from standard mode to double, four-time, and 10-time depth, extending the maximum range of the Humminbird Ice 55 flasher to an impressive 200 feet (60.96 m).

Power and Portability

The Humminbird Ice 55 comes with a five amp battery and recharges in a few hours on a standard 120-volt outlet.

Perhaps the best feature of the Humminbird Ice 55 aside from its ability to locate fish is size. The Humminbird Ice 55 fits easily inside the ice fisherman’s standard luggage, a five-gallon bucket. It’s small and easy to carry on a sled or in a backpack as well.

Interface

Many novice ice anglers look for a touch screen interface with their flasher or other fish finders. That’s not always a good idea. The ice is a challenging environment on its best days, in the worst conditions, it is harsh, wet, cold, and windy, often all at the same time.

A touch screen is great when conditions are perfect, it’s not much good when ice is freezing to the LCD display as snow, sleet or freezing rain pours down from above.  Add to that, you’ll need to take off your gloves when it’s 20 below zero. That fancy touch screen doesn’t seem so fancy in those conditions.

The Humminbird Ice 55 is designed to work in those wet, frozen conditions. Its push-button interface works no matter how cold or wet it gets, and those buttons press in just as easily from a gloved finger as they do from an open hand.

Alternatives for the Humminbird Ice 55

  1. Humminbird ICE Helix 7 G3N All Season

    Humminbird “All Season” fish finders check all of the boxes for both the ice and open water. This unit is loaded with all of the technology of a modern fish finder while tailored towards fishing on the ice which is why we think this is the best ice fishing fish finder.



    Shop on Amazon Shop on Bluewater
  2. MarCum M3L - Lithium Equipped Flasher System
    $364.49

    The “M” series from Marcum is the flagship series and has features that are ahead of the curve for ice fishing. The battery strength of the M Series is impressive as it known to last all day without needing a charge.

    Shop on Amazon
    03/20/2024 12:16 pm GMT
  3. Vexilar's GP1812 FL18 Genz Pack 12Deg Ice-Ducer Combo
    $498.71

    There are many reasons why Vexilar is the most popular Ice Flasher manufacturer. They make user friendly and dependable ice flashers that are reasonably priced. The FL-18 is by far the most advanced of the Vexilar lineup while still bringing along the durability and performance of older models.

    Shop on Amazon
    03/22/2024 03:30 pm GMT

Conclusion

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Ice fishing is a great sport, it is a different style of fishing, but it is angling nonetheless. When you’re buying or building your own tip-ups, selecting those funky short ice fishing rods and simple reels designed to work in frozen conditions, you’ll want to consider those same parameters if you’re looking for a fish finder.

Many basic fish finders work on the ice as well as they do on open water. However, these devices utilize standard down imaging sonar displayed on a standard LCD display. Which is not the best way to view the depths under the ice in the brightness of a January afternoon or the deep darkness of a moonless December night.

The Humminbird Ice 55 is the first of its kind, a flasher designed specifically for ice fishing. The dual beam transducer and conical sonar beams provide great information to depths of 200 feet (60.96 m). The device is cold-resistant, water-resistant, and easy to carry.

It comes with all the features that are only usefully offered in much more expensive devices. If you’re looking for an ice fishing unit that gets the job done, the no-frills, durable Humminbird Ice 55 does the job.

For more guidance on choosing your next ice flasher, check out our complete guide on The Best Ice Fishing Fish Finders and Flashers.

Additionally, we have you covered for Best Ice Fishing Rods and Best Line for Ice Fishing.

Randy Tucker

Randy Tucker

I am a fishing enthusiast and writer from Wyoming. I travel all over the world to experience different types of fishing and often write about it for different publications. I mostly fish for walleye, perch, catfish, crappie, trout, bass, and ling. The outdoors has been an important part of my life since childhood, and I am fortunate to make a living while enjoying what I love.

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