Marcum for more than ice

[Dennis Steele]

I took a trip to the Rainy River this past weekend with a buddy.

We camped out of my buddies trailer and instead of taking my River Pro we decided to throw his 14 foot cartopper on the trailer rather than haul my River Pro and have to take two trucks.

The problem was we needed a good sonar. I thought what the heck, I'll just bring my LX3 along. I figured since I can pick up fish through 3 feet of ice with no trouble it ought to work OK through an aluminum hull.

Well...it not only worked OK, it worked great.

We set the Marcum up on the middle seat and put the transducer right on the bottom of the hull. I poured a few ounces of water on it, just like you would on the ice but later found that wasn't neccessary. The hull was flat enough to get a good contact.

The walleye bite was a little slow, but there were fish bellow us. If we jigged close enough to the boat (where the ducer was) we could pick up the jig and watch the walleye come in to our bait, and move off.

After some experimentation we figured out what was triggering most of the bites.

We ended up catching our limits in a couple hours each time out, even though the bite was slow.

I don't think we would have had the success just using a regular LCR and am glad I brought my Marcum along.

[ChuckN]

Excellent tip Dennis! I've been sneaking onto the water with my 12' boat for convenience on nice days and I've been struggling with the sonar bit in the boat. I've been sticking the ducer off the side and that doesn't work so well at any speed. I will try your method!!

[BDR]

I also use that method when I fish the Rainy in the spring. Drop the transducer right in the drain pan and I am good to go.

[Northlander]

My LX-3 works great over the side for the fall Crappies as well. Just not for ice thats for sure.

[Random guy]

Think how well that would work for those remote / fly in trips. The Marcum is already packaged in that nice case, toss it in the plane and away you go. No cords or bulky brackets to get tangled up or damaged during the trip.

[augernaut]

I've used my sonar to shoot through the hull of my aluminum boat before too - works slick, no apparent loss of power! Not sure what it is about a flasher, but I just like it alot more than a graph for some reason! Good tip Dennis!

[Hotspotter]

Killer tip DS.

Used my Lx-3 this summer on a resort trip near grand rapids. Wife wanted to travel "lite" (interpretation - no boat so I wouldn't fish the whole time). I dropped the ducer in the back of the rental, and like Dennis said, when jigging near where the ducer shot to, I could see my jig. Nailed 3 walleyes, all of which I watched scream into my jig on the Marcum. NICE!!!

Joel