Vex ?

[upnorth]

I made the jump this year and bought the FL8(yeah, I know I should bought the FL18, but...).

The problem is in Walleye fishing I have only seen one or two of the probably 30 fish I have caught before they hit. I tried turning down the gain until the jigging spoon shows up as a thin green line and still didn't see the fish I hooked yesteday before he hit.

I did get into a school of Tulibees on Vermilion this year and they showed just fine. I was cool to watch them come up to the jig and you could tell when the bite was gonna come. But the Walleyes I have been into just have not showed up.

Any of you Vex pros have any suggestions? Or are they just too tight to the bottom?

[roadkingclasic56]

Sometimes when the fish come in from the side fast they don't have a chance to show up on the flasher. When they are moving fast they may show as a very thin line but may actually be a nice fish. If you aren't paying attention the thin line will come barreling in and smash the bait before you see it come. Aggressive fish!! The ones you see on the flasher are the ones that may come in slow and be a little reluctant to bite so they hang around in the cone until they bite. This has been my experience. I have a Zercom color point and the colors are slightly different but they work the same as your vexilar. Lots of fun.

[hawgTime]

Hey upnorth

You guessed it. Most of the time the walleyes do hug the bottom pretty tight which makes it a little tricky to see them, but with experience you will easily be able to identify those bottom huggers. When a walleye swims into your cone, often all you see is the bottom red line flickering (I always say, "the bottom's bubbling") or you will see a slight shift in the depth, it will become ever-so slightly shallower. If you're not looking at the screen when this happens, it is easy to miss. This is one of the instances when the Fl-18 has an advantage over the Fl-8, because the AZ (zoom feature) seperates the fish from the bottom making it much easier to see. The only advice I can give you is to just stick with it and with more experience you shouldn't have any trouble identifying the walleyes on your vex.

hawgTime

[upnorth]

Thanks for all the replies. This site is the best

Scott

[Guest]

even my 18 has the "bubbling bottom" at times. Often times these are weeds and such but sometimes I wonder why the bottom does what it does, and hence the reason for an underwater camera, which I don't have. But boy would it be nice to see the reasons why the vex oftens flickers on the bottom even on an 18.

[Guest]

Well, just my input... But I do have a FL-8... I love it! I think that the FL-18 is a little over rated... But that is just my opinion... I feel that if you want to catch fish it really doesn't matter what you use.. but the FL-8 fits my needs very well!

hsolist

[mistermom]

Last night on Calhoun I was watching the "living bottom" for 2 hrs on my fl-8. Couldn't get them to bite and couldn't get them to come off the bottom.

mm

[BLACKJACK]

BIGGUMS, I also get that 'bubbling bttom' affect with my FL18. Sometimes a school of crappies will come in and the AZ will start identifying the bottom at 2 feet. Need to get mine in for the software update, myabe that will fix the problem, but right now I don't want to be without it.

[Guest]

I got a new FL-18 on Friday and fished with it all weekend. Often times there was still the living bottom on the FL-18 and it WAS fish, at least some of the time. Many times on Winni would the bottom on the zoom be moving, but you couldn't see it moving on the other side (full range) and I would jig and see a fish come up off the bottom and hit. These perch were literaly in the mud though, some that came up were muddy and one guy with us was puttin his minnow on the bottom and catching fish. I have used an FL-8 for a while and the FL-18 was a huge advantage in some situations. Fishing crappies in 14ft, very little advantage. But if you're fishing walleye or perch in 30-40ft, huge advantage. But an FL-8 is way better than an FL-0!

One more thing, it will depend on what transducer you are using. You'll see more fish coming in if you are using the dual transducer on the 19deg mode.

Stick em!