Should a person up grade to a new flasher?

[CaptainMusky]

Yes then I would think they serious and in need of some help. Show us documented proof of this. Btw the world is ending on 12/21/2012 so none of this will matter for long. Lol

[Down Deep]

I think I would wait until the FL 20 goes down or at least ages for a few more years then look to upgrade. My Marcum shorted out a couple of weeks ago and I sent it in for repair. In the meantime I've been using my old FL-8 and it's been finding fish just like the Marcum that was the latest and greatest two years ago.

[Boar]

Lol, soryy 800. no proof just expeience, take it any way ya want, I'll put it on the technical thread on the LOW forum,LOL!

[hamms-scooter]

I think you mean 400 boar. Vex runs 400watts

[CaptainMusky]

Lol, soryy 800. no proof just expeience, take it any way ya want, I'll put it on the technical thread on the LOW forum,LOL!

LOL

As a side note, yes I do realize how fish "find" their prey, especially on a lake with stained water using their lateral line.

BUT, I have extensive experience with a Marcum next to an FL8 and while the guy using the marcum (me) was catching fish 10 to 1, the guys with the FL8's caught little.

I would like to think its just my fishing prowess, but I certainly know my flasher didnt HAMPER my ability to catch fish. So I think your situation was merely coincidental.

For the record, I am not saying my marcum allowed me to catch more fish than the fl8. But I do think some of the features enhance my abilities to see what is going on over that unit and just make the overall fishing experience better. More fish? Maybe, but that would be very hard to prove.

[TyGuy02]

I have the ancient Marcum VX-1 (I think it is) and my step-father and I went to LOW last week. He finally listened to me ranting that he needed a flasher. He got a FL-22. I spent the day "working" through his since mine wouldn't work near his...but I guess I didn't get the hype. The zoom is nice, but I have it in mine too. Mine just doesn't have the 6 & 12 foot zoom options. Yes it would be nice to change the cone angle, but from all the reading I've done on the subject, there seems to be a lot of issues with the FL-22 transducer.

By no means do I want to start another Marcum v Vex v bird debate! But I guess I've just spent so many hours looking at mine that I know EVERYTHING that I'm looking at. I'll keep my old flasher and find another excuse to spend the money on something else.

[fisherman-andy]

What some of you guys are missing here is what features and purpose a more advanced flasher serves you. Yes you still have to catch the fish but it can help you put more fish or even bigger ones on the ice.

Fishing structure, weeds, humps, dropoffs, shallows, some flashers will do a better job then others. Now iv'e said this before, one of the reasons I chose Marcum/Humminbird is the ability to detect fish sizes and schools. Being able to tell if your just over a school of bait fish, school of small perches, or seeing that large blotch cruising threw them smaller schooling perch will help you increase your chances of catching that big one.

[Hawg]

I've been told Vexalars run on real time and units like the LX7 are computor enhanced. Ok electronics wizards-any truth to that? Those LX7's just look a little too slick willy, are they?

[going4it]

I have a showdown that shows my jig soon as I move it up and drop it down so I would say that is a false statement.

[Hawg]

That's probably not what it would do, I don't think. I think it would make weaker signals appear larger and brighter but I'm not sure. I saw the post about the old Zercom unit. I know the guy very well that invented that unit and he's one of the people who say there are enhanced units out there.

[FrontenacPike]

DTro very well said

If you do it for that reason, then you probably will think that you need to justify your purchase and next think you know, you will find yourself embattled here in the middle of flasher wars arguing over the angle of your transducers beam and how many Watts your unit puts out.

OMG somebody noticed the elephant in the room...LOL!!!!

[fishwater]

I've been told Vexalars run on real time and units like the LX7 are computor enhanced. Ok electronics wizards-any truth to that? Those LX7's just look a little too slick willy, are they?

There's a lot of meat to this. The lx7, Hbird flashers and other graphs all have more digital signal processing in play. One part that bugs me about the lx7 is when I drop my bait in the shadow of the bottom on a decent break, I get black edge effect around my bait under the lower gain settings. It makes bait tracking easy peazy, but lends itself to a possible slick willy ribbon.

[fishwater]

OMG somebody noticed the elephant in the room...LOL!!!!

We all know that if anything truly groundbreaking finally comes out that'd make the argument into a should, it'll be from the folks in Alabama. That said, we deserve it to ourselves to understand how these things work, so talking about angles and power has merit. I know it's numbing, but so is hearing simple misconceptions. We all stare at these things long enough, we deserve to know what is what.

[CaptainMusky]

One part that bugs me about the lx7 is when I drop my bait in the shadow of the bottom on a decent break, I get black edge effect around my bait under the lower gain settings. It makes bait tracking easy peazy, but lends itself to a possible slick willy ribbon.

What you are referring to seems to me the "dead zone" that is created when one side of the beam bounces of a shallower section of the break telling the unit thats bottom. Happens if you set up over a big boulder too. I dont think this is avoidable at all, but maybe lessened if you have a narrower transducer beam. I notice it all the time when setting up on steep breaks. Usually its no more than a "dead zone" of a foot or so, but noticeable.

I mean you touch the bait on the bottom and lift if a foot before it shows up on the screen. Is that what you are talking about?

[Hardwater_Fan]

I thought the bottom zoom on the 18 was bomb, untill I had it side by side with the 8se, on left was the 8 an I could see my jig an a fish on the bottom, on the right was the 18 on the bottom 6 ft zoom mode an I saw my jig an fish on the bottom, just slightly more seperation cause of the power. Wow huh?

I had the marcum lx3 next my buddys 8 slt, were were in 20 ft of water, both trying to entice a fish on the bottom to bite, sat there for 15 mn teasing it, I decided to turn off my lx3. the fish rose up an hit hios jig the instant I just turned off the unit. Too much power. Fish can feel that sonar in their lateral line. Long live the 8

I've noticed this happen to me in a similar situation and my buddies still give me grief about it. I have a Bird45. There were 4 or 5 of us fishing all within about 25 yards of each other. One guy was just hammering the perch. I had just bought my flasher and wasn't marking anything so he told me to try his hole. As soon as I dropped my flasher in the hole, the constant markings stopped. I shrugged it off as a mere coincidence.

I have since caught plenty of fish, but it always seems like there are times when I shut the flasher off and I get more bites. I honestly think that fish can somehow sense the signal. Maybe sometimes they don't care and will bite anyway???

No clue how to prove it, but this is what I have experienced.

[fishwater]

. Is that what you are talking about?

Cptnmusky - I'm talking about when my bait is within the dead zone. I noticed this first in a spot that drops from 14-28' in about 5', so a had a good 2' of shadow below the marked bottom on the sonar. While my bait was in this zone, my mark has distinct and persistent black edges. When the bait is removed the deadzone is solid hard return.

[CaptainMusky]

Interesting. I get nothing in the dead zone. At least you can see something in there.

[Boar]

I can agree that is was very coencidental, very much could be. And Ive got no proof that in my instance that it was a matter of to much power, (really, 400, Huh) but Im guesse i could have been more clear on my point is that sonar can an dose effect fish, not all the time an not under most conditions, the condition we were fishing under was a high pressure system, so the fish was already in a negative mood, add the power of sonar from two units then turn one off especially the one with more power. Some say u shouldnt run a generator, then some say as long as the sound is constant an not intermitant an irregular, well your sonar would be a constant. Lots of great things on these new units to make fishing more fun, I just like to live with in my means, it bothgers me that I had to spend 400 bucks on the h2o an chip just depth an structure an not even use the unit for its full potential. I feel no need to upgrade. but if a guy cant spend his money on his hobbies wat fun is it to have a hobbie, fun discussion. Sorry if ive goten of the main objective of the thread. Boar

[Esox_Magnum]

So how do we jig up fish from under our boats with 2-3 units each pushing 8000+ watts??? There is no delay in the LX-7 or any of the LX series flashers, also when bait shows it's on the bottom on the screen it is and as soon as you move it up slightly it's also marked....

[muchowja]

Can you really tell the size of a fish on your flasher? I don't believe so but I may be wrong. Little perch and big walleyes all look the same to me.

[Esox_Magnum]

Yes you can tell the size on some units but not all...

[BehindtheHead]

you can NOT tell the size of a fish on any flasher. you CAN make a guess on how big it is by the signal strength.

a 50" musky could be on the outside of your cone angle showing up as a single green line. a 2" perch could be directly under your transducer and show up as a single green line.

Yes you can tell the size on some units but not all...

all ice units work on the same principal. sound wave out, sound wave in. the sound wave in strength determines the size of the line on the sonar.

[Esox_Magnum]

Belive what you want, I see it fist hand and know it will show the difference....When in a school o perch or crappies you can pick out the bigger in the school or tell if it's a bunch of 4" perch rather than a couple 10"...We see the difference since we run top end units form 2 different brands side by side....We also have the ability to sight fish so know what is really down there and helps understand what our units are showing....

[muchowja]

Behindthehead, thats the understanding that I had too.

[PFUNK]

I think you can definitely tell size differences between fish with a sonar... at least with the Bird 385 I can. BUT, you never know where they are in the sonar cone.... so like has been said there is some guess work involved. But I do know that a 28 inch walleye and an 8 inch perch definitely look different if they are both staring at your lure. That's the problem though... you never know if they are right at the bait or 4 feet off to the side. But when that mark suddenly gets very thick and dark red... I know it isn't a little perch anymore... cuz they never give me that kind of return.