flashers that work together

[hooked79]

i am wondering if anyone knows what flashers work well with other flashers in the same fish house

i got a hummingbird ice 35 and my brother in law has a ice 35 also and we fish together alot but our flashers dont seem to work well together

i also have a lowrance elite 5 that i use and i put it on flasher mode and it works fine with a ice 35 as dose the ice 35 so i am wondering if i were to get another flasher what would work good with my ice and elite 5 i would like to buy one for my dad for his b-day but he fishes with me all the time i was thinking maybe a vex or a marcum? i was gonna get him a hummingbird since he likes the big screen but they seem to not wanna work together very well

thanxs

[J_D]

Last weekend we fished a 35 with a fl18 and a fl8, the 35 was lit up like a christmas tree. Still able to pick out the fish but there was alot of interference.

[Grainbelt]

My wife uses the Humminbird 35 and I have my old Marcun vx-1. Hers shows no interference and I have to hit the IR button till I just get flickers on the screen from the 35.

[magic_minnow]

my showdown has never had issues with any other flasher. My buddies run a FL-20, bird 55 and a LX-5. Showdown FTW

[harvey lee]

I have fished with my Bird 35 and 55 together with my LX5 and they worked fine. I typically set my Bird's first and then use the IR button on my LX5 to clean that all up.

I will set them on narrow beam and that also helps.

Maybe a small amount of interference but I can fish with a little bit.

Most times, just takes a bit of adjusting to get them to play together well enough.

[fishadb]

My buddy and I both had fl12s the other night and with the rejection on they seemed to work fine.

[vexi]

I can fish a fl20 and a bird 55 right next to each other with no interference.

[CrewJones]

my LX-5 doesn't like fishing with my old FL-8

[Fred_Bear]

Vexilars work very well with each other as long as an FL-8 is not involved.

[DRH1175]

I hear this question so much. I have also heard Marcums blow out Vexilars etc... Buy the flasher of your choice and don't be worried about interference. I have a LX-5 and I fish all the time with other Marcums and vexilars with very little to none on the interference front. Here is how. Turn on both flashers. Do you have any interference? If so on flasher #1 hit IR button once. Is there still interference? If so hit it a second time. Is there still interference? If so hit a third time. Is there still interference? If so than on Flasher #2 hit IR button once. by this time you should be Interference free. To understand IR better. What IR does is change pulse speed or rythm so to speak. Getting both flashers on a different rythm is what IR does to run interference free. Also as mentioned above running on narrow beam does help because it is a much more condensed signal. I hope this helps.

[DaSwede]

my showdown has never had issues with any other flasher. My buddies run a FL-20, bird 55 and a LX-5. Showdown FTW

That's funny because my Showdown doesn't show much interference from other flashers, but when I'm fishing next to older Vex's, they light up like downtown New York. I get some nasty looks, but I'm ok with it.

[Ryan_S]

Because both of your Ice 35 finders are operating at the same frequencies, they will pick up the return from the other and cause interference. Being a dual beam transducer, the wide beam operates at 240 kHz and the narrow beam at 455 kHz. If you set one of them to use only the narrow beam and the other to the wide, the interference should go away.

Another option, if you want to stick with Humminbird products, is to use the 385 ci or one of the others that operates at 200 / 83 kHz. That is the model I have and my buddy uses the Ice 55 and we have never had cross interference issues.

The last suggestion that I would give is to go to the HB HSOforum and make sure that you both have the latest software updates.

[BLACKJACK]

A little bit of patience helps too. Hit the IR a couple of times to get rid of the majority of the interference, get your lines in the water, crack a beer, before you know it the interference is gone. I run a Marcum LX5 beside a Vexilar FL-18 and they do fine together.

[CJH]

Last weekend we fished a 35 with a fl18 and a fl8, the 35 was lit up like a christmas tree. Still able to pick out the fish but there was alot of interference.

Then it was something else. The Humminbirds work on a different frequency than Vex/Marcum.

[247outdoors]

A little bit of patience helps too. Hit the IR a couple of times to get rid of the majority of the interference, get your lines in the water, crack a beer, before you know it the interference is gone. I run a Marcum LX5 beside a Vexilar FL-18 and they do fine together.

+1 Blackjack

All depends on the IR settings, when you have lots of interferences, adjust the IR on one unit only and you should be fine. My group runs LX-7, LX-5, HB-55, Vex-20, we have no problem. It takes time to get use to it, I learn it the hard way.

[tsande00]

I fished a newer FL8 and an LX3tc out of the same hole the other night just to experiment.

Neither flasher experienced any interference. One flasher was hands down better then the other but we don't need to turn this into a rooster measuring contest...especially with two small roosters.

[hamms-scooter]

Wonder why fl-8 messes with the rest? My lx5 and dads fl-18 work fine with some adjusting. Showdown won't have issues 8000 watts...

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

I have never not been able to tune out interference with my LX5.

We've run as many as 4 flashers from all 3 brands in my fish house and been able to tune out interference so everyone was happy and able to see their jigs.

Generally speaking, the Vexilars are most affected by Marcums. It seemed like Hummingbird was affected by both.

Last weekend at the Extravaganza, I fished with zero interference, and the Vexilars in my group were unusable.

[Fred_Bear]

Yeah Marcums really mess with Vexilars, there's no doubt about that. If you fish often with people who have vex's then I would recommend getting a vex.

So much of the interference has to do with depth and bottom composition. I have friends who always tell me how their Marcum doesn't mess with Vexilars at all but they are fishing 20-30 fow on soft flat bottom. Bring that up to Trout water where it's 50+ fow and rocky slopes, that Marcum will light everything in a 100 foot radius up like a Christmas tree.

[Esox_Magnum]

My friends fish with their Vex's next to my LX's all the time without issues only ones we have issues with are the FL-12's those dont seem to want to work well with any other unit near...

[CJH]

It seemed like Hummingbird was affected by both.

I routinely fish with my Ice 55 next to an LX-5, FL8, and a Lowrance Ice Machine, sometimes all of us together. I get ZERO interference, never even used the IR. As I mentioned above, Humminbird uses a different frequency than the others, so you shouldn't be getting any interference. If you are, call customer service.

[morepower02]

I have been fishing with a Lowrance Elite 5 next to a Vexilar FL8 a few times this year with no issues.

[hooked79]

thanxs for all the great info

i kinda like haveing differnt brands just for fun so i might look for a marcum for my dad than we got most of the brands covered we got a few frends that use vex's but they bring there own house most of the time

i might look into a showdown i dont have alot to spend but i wanna get him something that works good

[Vitreus]

I'd say the biggest factor in interference is the gain on your flasher. A lot of folks fish with their gain up really high. Just because you can make it look like a big mark on your flasher doesn't make it a big fish! Lower gain increases target separation and decreases interference.

[silverbulletguy]

I've fished with my Bird right next to a vex and a marcum and didn't have a problem. I had a good time watching those two fight for quite a while until they got everything dialed in just right.