Vex, Marcum or Humminbird.

[Twin bunks]

I bought a Cadillac once. Only Chevy's and a Jeep still in the garage.

Today I  bought the Vex flx 28 given the reports of 10-15-20 years out of Vex units.  Also the reports of being being able to download updates sounds more like a chore than a benefit.

 

Also, 549 for the pro packII at mills till 1/12!

[PurpleFloyd]

Well, I got my helix 7 in the ice today for the first time and I am very impressed with it. 

A few things happened to help narrow my choices:

I hired a new apprentice this week and it turns out his mom works at Minnkota and I can get employee pricing on a humminbird unit and secondly I fished sxs with a Vexilar today. The first thing I noticed on the vex was the noise it makes. That's pretty much no bueno plus it bugged out my screen. I got a lot of it turned out but it still made the screen look like I was playing space Invaders which was not that cool. 

 

I'm leaning towards a helix 5 ice.

[ClownColor]

On 12/24/2017 at 10:35 PM, PurpleFloyd said:

Mainly for my son. I just bought the helix7 ice for myself and my elite5 ice became his but they haven't been the most reliable and he seems to like flashers better for whatever reason so I am kicking around buying one either as a backup or for him to use and have one more for any friends of his or guests that may tag along.

 

 

Mostly inside a hub or flip. Some open ice but not really any hole hopping.

Single day.

 

Either in the Jeep,truck or snowmobile.

Pretty solitary

.

 

Probably no charging on the ice but I have a generator if we get carried away and an inverter in my truck as well. I probably have 2 extra batteries if needed.

 

 

If you’ve had bad luck with reliability with the helix7 and he wants a flasher,  why get another?

[PurpleFloyd]

The lowrance units that I have had have not been reliable. I just got the helix7 and have only had it out twice. So far I really like it.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

Been putting my new Marcum M5 through the paces over the last 2 weeks.  Love the 8/20 ducer.  Had a minnow on a rattle reel that kept swimming into my 20 degree cone yesterday so I switched to 8 to eliminate.  SFL feature won me a bet when I said "we have 3 perch under us right now" and my buddy said "no it's just one big one."  popped the camera down quick and I was right.  His FL-18 only showed one mark and our ducers were 2 feet apart at the time.  My vexilar is now my backup, taught my 6 year old how to use it yesterday, so it will have many more days on the ice.  I demo'd a helix 7 earlier this season but was underwhelmed between the lack of target separation and the battery life.  If I was in a wheel house all of the time and could hard wire to a larger battery I'd definitely give the helix more of a chance, I do like the graph mode, very little lag compared to a lowrance graph I've used in the past.

[holmsvc]

I have owned a FL8, LX5, LX7, and now a FLX28.

 

I bought the 28, because I had a few issues with the 7.  I had to send it in a couple times for issues with the board and the ducer.  If I fished on foot or out of the pickup all the time I'd have stuck with the 7, but it doesn't seem to holdup riding in the tote on the back of the snowmobile. 

 

I still have my LX5 and I have been very happy with it.  My girl friend uses it when we go fishing.  I would have purchased a new M5 over the FL28, but it doesn't have the auto depth feature and a digital display of the depth.  I really like both for hole hopping.   

 

The 28 is a nice flasher, but I have always hated the size of the mark your lure shows up as on a vexilar.  I also don't like the proview ducer as much as I liked the marcum for switching cone angle with the push of a button.