How to set your gain on your flasher???

[KG243]

What is the proper way to set your gain on your flasher? Is it by setting it up so that your jig comes up as the weakest color? Also when you are in deeper water do you want it to read a solid band near the bottom or should it be flikering in and out? I am relitivley new to flashers and want to make sure I am using it right.

Also I want to find out how to read what type of bottom I am on any clues?

PS I own a Marcum LX7. Thanks!

[BradHawthorne]

If you have the LX-7 you should be using gain and "target adjust" to dial in your presentation. Using the only gain will work just fine but by using them both in conjunction with each other you will be able to keep an accurate bottom signal stable without flushing it out or "growing it" with to much gain.

I set it by, lowing the lure/jig down to were I'm fishing it, usually the bottom 1-3 ft and then raising the gain just so I can just see the jig as 1-3 fine lines, solid lines, not flickering and then use the "target adjust" to bring the target or lure/jig to the size I like. Usually about 3/16-1/4 inch on the screen, but that is personal preference, you can make it as big or as little as you prefer.

Hope that helps! and good luck fishing.

[work sucks]

I have always set mine to have as small of a line for my lure as possible, that will give you the best focus on the bottom as well. I have always used an fl8, but i just bought the HB ice55 with a variable zoom, so the bottom will be even more easily defined.

[PerchJerker]

I like to barely see my lure on the screen. I drop my lure to the depth I'm fishing and I turn my gain down as low as I can and where I can just barely see my bait. Sometimes I get only a faint flicker for my bait, or need to twitch my bait to get it to read. That's okay too, especially if I'm fishing close to the bottom (you need a constant return if you're fishing for suspended fish though). Regardless, I want my bait to be barely visible on the display and not much more.

If you turn your gain too high, you will get too much feedback and will lose target identfication (basically it will highlight everything and be too jumbled and blobby to be useful).

Different lures are picked up differently by your sonar. Baits with wide, flat tops give a great sonar return. Bait with thin, curved tops don't give much of a return. You can be tweaking your gain whenver you change baits or change water depths.

When dialed in with my LX-5 or LX-7, I can usually tell if my wax worm is still on the hook, or if the minnow head is still on my jigging spoon.

Since you're just starting out, you will probably want to have your gain set just a bit higher, and bump up your target adjust setting to make your bait look a bit bigger on the screen ..... whatever is comfortable to use and looks right to you. As you gain more experience and confidence you will probably dial back the gain and the target adjust a bit.

Hope that helps, and good luck!

[leech~~]

What is the proper way to set your gain on your flasher? Is it by setting it up so that your jig comes up as the weakest color? Also when you are in deeper water do you want it to read a solid band near the bottom or should it be flikering in and out? I am relitivley new to flashers and want to make sure I am using it right.

Also I want to find out how to read what type of bottom I am on any clues?

PS I own a Marcum LX7. Thanks!

You seemed to have it working pretty well last year to pull up a few lakers out of pretty deep water! Hope you get it figured out and we see you up there again this winter!

[bobbymalone]

i keep mine somewhere around flicker and not visible on my jig. Then i don't confuse tackle with a fish.

The highest I'll turn it up is so the jig is a solid constant line of the weakest signal.

vex fl-18se

[d beyer]

Not to highjack this topic but what is ping setting on LX-7 actually do and where do most of you have it set. I just got mine and unfortunately do not have fishable ice here yet.

[tsande00]

I keep mine tuned so that my lure shows as a solid line of the weakest signal color, in my case with Marcum, yellow.

[fishwater]

I usually try and set the gain so the lure shows as a minimum also. That said, I've found it beneficial to bump it up hotter at times too. The primary example is when fishing basin crappie in plankton clouds. Using the graph feature I found a hotter signal to be easier to read between the too numerous small returns and follow bait and active fish to get strikes.

Regarding ping. From my understanding, the shallower the lower the setting. If you're under 10', ping at 1 is best. If you're deeper, say over 80', a ping at 4 might be best.

[dan z]

I set it to the lure.

Sometimes I set it a little strong in cloudy water.

If you are in shallow water and use the lp setting you'll have to set it even higher, the only time I use lp is in weeds.

[KG243]

Thank you everyone for the feedback.

Leech ya it worked, but I really want to get walleye fishing down and want to make sure my gain is set right so I can read the bottom. Yes I should be up there again this year hopefuly we can get some bigger ones!

[leech~~]

Thank you everyone for the feedback.

Leech ya it worked, but I really want to get walleye fishing down and want to make sure my gain is set right so I can read the bottom. Yes I should be up there again this year hopefuly we can get some bigger ones!

Ya, lets hope! Of course, there is always that lake up by Ely that may put out a nice one once in a while! Got a sled yet?

[KG243]

No sled just student loan debt without a better job yet!

[leech~~]

No sled just student loan debt without a better job yet!

Well hope you get done with that soon and can start to chase some bad guys! PM me this winter when your going some time to GS and maybe I can give you a drag out with the sled if you don't have the 4 wheeler to use!

[Esox_Magnum]

I set it to the lure.

Sometimes I set it a little strong in cloudy water.

If you are in shallow water and use the lp setting you'll have to set it even higher, the only time I use lp is in weeds.

Luckily the LX-7 doesnt have a lp mode, it doesnt need it...