Using FL-18 around the FL-8

[hip_hop_fisherman]

Does anyone else have any problems using the FL-18 around the FL-8? Recently up on Mille Lacs it was a real pain for me and just curious is its common or not. Could tell immediatly when the FL-18 was turned off because all the interference would disappear. While the FL-18 was on I couldn't even distiguish my jig from interference no matter how much I played with it. Does everyone else have the same problem or is it me?

[Fishn'Lady]

Does your FL-8 have the I.R. button on it? Or is it an older one before that came out. My FL-8 is older and does not have that I.R. button on it and cannot run another Vex too close to it. If it has that button try pressing it. I'm not sure if the FL-18 has a seperate button for this or if they built that in, but if it has a button try fiddling with that to see if it reduces some of the interference on the FL-8.

[hip_hop_fisherman]

Sorry, should have been more specific, thats what I meant by "no matter how much I play with it", referring to the interference button. I can run next to other FL-8's no problem, its just the FL-18 (never ran it next to marcums)

[Rather.B.Fishing]

Hip Hop, I used to use my FL-8 in close quaters with a FL-18 and sometimes it would be no problem, other times a disaster. (one of the reasons I switched to Marcum). I found when my battery was fully charged I had better luck.

Good Luck...maybe it's time to upgrade. There sure is some great products out there!!

[Ed Carlson]

Without the aid of a IR on the older FL-8 your limited to a few options to limit or eliminate the interference.

The cone angle of both units will effect the amount of interference you get as well as how close you are to each other. If either or both of you can narrow the cone angle it will limit overlap and interference. The deeper your fishing the more this overlap will be an issue. If the FL-18 has a duel beam transducer run that unit on 9 degree beam and it should help. If you were ever inclined to upgrade the transducer on the FL-8 to a duel beam this would also help because you gain the ability to lessen the cone angle.

Shifting the IR on the FL-18 may also limit your interference on the FL-8...maybe..it is a long shot? Push/cycle the IR on the FL-18 up to 10 times and see if it has any effect on the FL-8. It might work..hard to say?

Getting the two units as far apart as feasible will also most certainly help.

Another option is on the FL-8 only lower the transducer as far down the hole as needed to read your bait. This will limits peripheral signal interference to a point.

If you get interference on the upper part of your dial it may be due to "Ringing", that means the puck is not far enough down and the sound waves are bouncing around in the hole...drop it down a bit if that happens. Adjusting the depth of the puck in the hole may or may not help, but it is worth a try. It has worked for me with a FL-8 in the past when fishing near a Zercom causing the same interference as your seeing on your FL-8.

Hope this helps.

[Gissert]

Ed summed it up pretty well.

My wife and I fish out of our Shoremaster Voyager side by side. Funny how when she comes with the FL18 migrates to her side, LOL.

I have an older FL8 without the IR feature. If the bottem is relativley flat, and the FL18 'ducer is on 9 degrees, we can get them to operate quite nicely together. Once the water gets to be 20 feet or deeper, it gets tougher to cancel it out, but we can usually still use each unit effectively. If the monkey races on the dial get unbearable, we shut the FL8 down, and just use the FL18 on 19 degrees. An extra hole in between our fishing holes allows us to each see our lures, no problem.

If the bottom has a sharp break, or there are rocks, it can be almost impossible to get the units to cooperate. The signal bouncing off at odd angles can give units in adjacent shacks fits also.

[ice_shack]

I have an FL8 with IR and can usually get mine to work OK but not always perfect by cycling through the IR. I think there is like 8 settings? But having a fully charged battery does make a big difference.

[Jarrod32]

I just fished this past weekend with my FL-8SLT next to my buddy's FL-18...with a little dinkin' around with the IR buttons, we were always able to eliminate all the interference between the two...

[shooterIII]

If all else fails email Vexilar at [email protected] I have always had fast and informative response whenever I have contacted them.

[Tripleplay]

I fished this past Thursday on URL with my FL-8 in the same house as another FL-8 and an LX-3 with no problems after hitting the IR button a few times. Fished both Friday and Saturday ON LOW with a different FL-8 and an FL-18 with a bit more interference but not enough that it was a problem. It did take a few hits on the IR button and when someone would pull a transducer out of a hole and then had a slight change in cone angle and such I would every now and then have to hit the IR.

I also moved the float distance around a bit and it seemed to help a bit.