MarCum LX-3 Test Report

[CNY Tim]

I caught 7 keeper crappies 10 - 13.5" and kept a dozen nice gills and 3 big perch. Caught alot of small perch today. 5" any where we walked on the lake with 4" of snow on top. We fished 8' to 16' best depth was 15'. Crappie were riding at about 10' along with the nicer gills. You had to keep it off the bottom on that lake or you'll get nailed with dink perch. Not a great trip as far as bluegill action but it was great to use my MarCum and we can fish close with Vexilars and no problems 1 I.R. off, 1 on I.R and one on I.R. plus one no problems. I had the zoom on 10' when I was fishin 15' and it was awesome. Funny seeing your jig and fish on both sides of the screen. Gotta train my eyes a little more to stay on the left side. What the zoom feature allowed me to do was keep the bait away from the smaller fish and the decent gills and crappies when they popped on the zoom I thought they were bass or pike, awesome machine. I am glad it's compatable with Vexilars that was a big issue.

[CNY Tim]

Caught 23 nice perch yesterday on a local lake here fishing 4-7' of water. My son used the Vexilar FL-18 and I used my MarCum LX-3, both units performed well. Shack a buddy of mine is fishing with an LX-3 and he's having problems. One color on the display like a light orange and that's it. I swapped out my transducer on to his machine and nothing changed and also swapped out the battery and still no change. I think it's in the power head... Shacks gonna finish the season with it and send it in to be fixed. Just thought I would let you guys know.

[Guest]

Be sure to check with Scott Steil for any updates and info on the Marcum.

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[CNY Tim]

Shack - had a problem with his power head on his LX-3. Damaged during delivery as one of the gimbal mount nylon bolts was sheared. We knew it was the head because Sunday when we were fishing he tried my transducer and battery and it was the same to no avail. The unit was fishable but only displayed a burn't orange color. Shack contacted MarCum
and they immediately shipped him out a new powerhead and new gimbal hardware. He called them Monday and had the powerhead Friday and was back in business. Now that's customer service!

[rod bender]

CNY Tim, when I received my LX-3 in the mail from Reeds all four of the bolts that hold the main unit to the base were sheered off. I called Marcum and I had 4 new ones in a few days but I'm currious about your color problem. Did you not see any red at all?? Also, does your unit flicker quite a bit? It seems that my lines are constantly blinking on me, more so than my old vex?

[CNY Tim]

rod bender - Shacks unit with the gain turned to ten never saw any red or yellow just burn't orange. I would keep a close eye on yours. If my LX-3 came with 4 of those nylon bolts sheared I would be very upset that I just either bought a dropped/ customer returned unit or some lunk head dropped it during shipping. Why take a chance.... See if you can get the same deal as shack did.
My unit does not flicker at all, however in the zoom 80 ft. setting it does flicker slightly no more than my FL-18.
Good luck...

[Guest]

Tim
How long of a cord does your LX-3 have on the ducer?I was fishing where there was 42 in of ice and a foot of snow pack on top and couldnt get the ducer low enuff to clear up surface clutter.If i shoveled the snow away to get the ducer down close to the bottom of the hole i could clear uf the clutter .Have you had this troubleor is my cord just short?
Marv

[cwmn]

I have the same color problem with my Zercom Colorpoint, red doesn't show, sometimes it does work but most times it doesn't. I wonder if this is a in-bread problem. Isn't the Marcum base on the same technology as the Colorpoint?

[CNY Tim]

user_name - My cord is approximately 52" in length. I did not disconnect it and measure it but from the stop to the end of the transducer it was 42" and I figured I had 10" of cord left from the stop to the power head.
I have had the trouble a couple of times with the the double echo surface clutter but it hasn't been a problem. The way the ice is here this year a nice 7' cord would have been more than enough. I will address it in an email., maybe they can put this on the table with the transducer options at there next board meeting.
cwmn- I had a Colorpoint as well in fact two of them and my only problem I had was with my first unit with UFO type interference. I had that unit about a year and requested a replacement and they delivered. Never had a problem with interference with the 2nd one and was always able to see all 3 colors on both units. Some times I would not get red as a bottom reference because of the type bottom especially soft bottoms. I guess you could turn your gain up to get that red bottom tone in that situation but it would probably broaden your jig and give you more of a cluttery display. Whatever problems they had with the colorpoint have been corrected resoundedly with the LX-3, it's been a great unit thus far. I sold my 2yr. old colorpoint for $235 bucks on HSOList and turned that money over towards a new FL-18 for my son. I love both units.

[CNY Tim]

I tested similar conditions on the ice Thursday and Saturday. Thursday I was fishing 38' of water with my FL-18 and all day I could not get rid of interference and neither could my friends on there 18's, we were close, within 30' of each other on a school of perch but no adjustment would completely eliminate the interference, the best you could do was minimize it.
Saturday we did the same thing but this time I brought the LX-3 and I had interference but I tapped the I.R. button once and it was gone. I should have asked Dark Cloud and his Dad if they were having interference problems. It did not matter they still caught more perch than I had as I had 22 perch Saturday and they had 27-30 ea...
Now I will always bring the MarCum when we are fishing tight. We had over a 100 guys on that spot Saturday it was a circus.

[BUSHWAC]

Tim- chasing lakers on Saturday I was fishing a steep break in 45ft. had about 18"of dead zone that was tought to tune into. Kunzeye was using his 9deg vex and had about 12". so not to bad, but still waiting for the deep water transducer for next year. moved over to an 80ft flat off the deep water basin and didn't have an inch of dead zone. seen every laker that went by and they were hugging the bottom tight. the zoom was very effective that morning. also dropped a crappie jig down to 84ft and could see that thing plain as day. just thought I would let you know I have given it a pretty hard work out this year and so far thing has operated flawless. I will be giving it a good workout up north chasings lakers with all those Shanty Gang vex users soon. so I will let you know how it holds up, at least against the harrassment!!

[CNY Tim]

BUSHWAC - I believed they finished there staff meetings as far as new business. I sent them an email if I hear anything I will post here. Yeah, you have a blast fishing with those shanty guys but I believe the MarCum is good but not good enough to avoid the vexilar harassment. Have a fun filled safe trip.

[Mykal]

CNYTim, I had a problem with my LX-3 this past Saturday night. It suddently started to make a high pitched whining noise and my display would get fuzzy.(I know now that it is a brush problem that affected only a few units.) What makes this worse is that I have my first trip planned to LOW this coming Friday. So I'm thinking I'm screwed. Well on Monday (yesterday)I make an impossible request to Marcum to get a new powerhead sent to me before this Friday. With your help and contact, I am getting a PERSONAL DELIVERY of a new powerhead tomorrow in Rogers by one of the head engineers!! I would have never made such a request of Marcum to do so, but Marcum came through when I needed them the most. They understand how important it is to me. I just wanted to share with you how impressed I am with this company and the people who stand behind it. They have earned a customer for life!

[CNY Tim]

Mykal - So glad everything worked out for your trip. Will just have to stay on him about the narrower ducer
Customer loyalty brings repeat business and provides a level of comfort to the customer.
MarCum has met that challenge and then some...
Good luck on your fishing trip Mike.

Thanks again Paul!

[Mr. Pike1]

CNY Tim, great to hear you were able to assist Mykal in getting in touch with the right people at Marcum to meet his needs. It ia great to see a local compamy step up to the plate and delivery true customer service..

Kudus to Marcum and CNY Tim.

*I have the Vex FL-18 and can only hope if a time sensitive issue arises that I recieve the same type of indiviual service.

[CNY Tim]

Thank you for the kind words Mr. Pike. We all spend a lot of dinero on these hopped up flashers and quality customer care and prompt service are essential. MarCum is up to the task and this unit is remarkable! I'll be fishing 3 out of the next 4 days but will check in with fish reports. Take care...

[CNY Tim]

We hit em good day today Rob and I had 56 nice perch between 11 - 12 .5" and Rob caught a nice 21" walleye. Fished 36' off a pressure crack

[Dano2]

Still love my Marcum, it has performed flawlessly this whole winter.

Anyway, does Marcum make a transducer or some kind of bracket that you can mount the ducer to your bow mount trolling moter?

Dont have the trolling moter yet, haven't been able to afford one until now,
FINALLY

thanks

[CNY Tim]

Dano 2 - MarCum is monitoring this site according to the email I got from Paul so he will read your request. Everything is in the works and the LX-3 is working great.

Tyler and I hammered the perch today we caught 59 slobs in the same spot we caught em the other day. Early in the morning we were marking fish 6' off the bottom in 37' of water and they were coming up to 9' off to hit our spoons. My son had to take his zoom off his 18 cause they were coming out of his zoom range but not mine. We hit em on buckshot rattle spoons, forage minnows and hali's. Got my van stuck in the mud but my friend Dark Cloud and his Dad saved the day. Got sunburned on my face pretty good but well worth it. Ice is melting a little there was an 1" of water on top...

[CNY Tim]

Suffice it to say it will probably be my last ice fishing report for the season but a good one it was . Rob and I caught 69 perch today. The shoreline was going away about 4-6' where we got on between North Bay and Jewel. The top is 3-5" of slush puppy ice...
The MarCum performed wonderfully again. I enjoyed reporting to you all season on this unit and enjoyed the friendships and feed back sessions... It's been fun... I'll check in from time to time. Take care and stay on top.
I have 36 jumbo perch to fillet. Those of you that still have ice, I'm jealous... Be safe!

[Guest]

CNY Tim, You seem to know alot about the Marcum unit. Do you work for them or sponsored by them? It seems like your looking for something in return from them?

[CNY Tim]

Cropeye - No and No. Just a happy owner of an LX-3 that is all.

[CNY Tim]

Just checking in...
Ordered some jigs, sweatshirt, etc. from this site yesterday. Also sent my FL-18 in for the version 2 upgrade as well. My buddy's Dad had the same problem with his FL-18 on the same lake with his zoom jumping up for no reason, he's gonna send his in too. Should be all set for next season. CNY Bruce and Gidzit just ordered there MarCum LX-3's for next ice season.
Getting ready for the walleye opener here...

[Dano2]

Still nothing on the transducers.
I see at the site though, that they are coming out with one of them viewing type deels like vex has that keeps the sun off the display.

Its getting too close for comfort now.
I need to find out what options I have for a transducer for my LX3, or i guess its time to find a used FL-8 or 18.

I want to hook it up to my trolling moter,
I cant see it being to hard to come up with something soon.

Anyone else hear anything from Marcum latley?

[CNY Tim]

Dano 2 - Geez I am sorry, I forgot to ask him, doh! I will have an answer shortly.

[iffwalleyes]

Dano
I see on their web page they show a puck style transducer this is the best kind to put on the trolling motor. The also have a high speed one as well that most guys would mount of the transom of the boat. There are brackets out there that will allow you to mount one of these to your trolling motor though. They just show pictures I am not sure if you can order them or if it is a future item deal.

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Grip it and Rip it

IFFWalleyes
I Fish For Walleyes