Multiple transducers

[fishinJohn]

I have a fl-12 that I bought last year and I chose the 12* cone angle thinking middle of the road would be best but at times when fishing shallow water I wish I had the wide angle to see my bait better. Is it worth it to have a couple and use the best for where you are fishing? Better to get the dual beam? If you get the dual does it come with the switch? Thanks!

[looneyducer]

The split transducer (9-19) has a switch on it.

I have a 9 and a 19, but it certainly would be nice to just throw that switch in deep water.

[fishcast]

I have a vexilar with the dual beam I use for ice, and I just use a 19 puck ducer for open water. I think the dual beam is a real nice feature ice fishing when you get extremely precise. I think it is one of those things you wouldn't want to be without once you have used it in certain situations, but if you haven't ever used it most people might not really see the point.

I usually use the 19 beam, but when I'm in weeds or deep water or sharp breaks I check out which angle and amount of gain gives me what I am looking for along with the low power switch on occasion.

I know people with the 12 degree beam and they really have no problems, the dual just helps give an edge in certain situatons if you want to pay for it.

[Fish Fry Guy]

I agree, the 12 works well for most situations. If your in shallow water, I just end up opening up my holes closer together and hop to where the fish are. The 12 opens up well as you get into say 25 to 30 feet of water. In deeper water, I'd much rather have the smaller degree transducer.

[hanson]

I'm not so sure there is a "huge" benefit to having a 19 degree over a 12 degree in shallow water. It will allow you to see a little bit larger area of the bottom but if you are fishing in 8' of water, how much more will you actually see? I could run the trigonometry to find the difference in actual feet but its negligable IMO. Punch a few more holes in the area and hop around. Alot of times in fairly shallow water I'm catching fish I never see on the flasher anyway. They are outside my cone angle but when the lure starts dropping down, they'll race in and hit it.

I do think its valuable to have a narrower cone angle (9 degree) in deeper water (25' plus), and when fishing steeper breaks. Fishing breaklines is always a nightmare as you have that dead zone below the bottom indicated on your flasher. The cone angle picks up the shallow side of the break as the bottom but you really might have 2' or more of depth where your lure is at. Grrrr....

[looneyducer]

I have to disagree, at least in part. Smaller for deeper is more important, sure, but there is a large difference between 12 and 19 degree coverage in shallow water. Vexilar's HSOforum lists the difference at 10' at 2'2" to 3'4" (1'6" for the 9 degree). While this looks like only a 14" difference, we're talking about a circle. The area covered is over twice the size. Two and a third, I think. A 19 degree's coverage area is nearly five times the size of the 9 degree.

[CNY Tim]

Chris may have been talking 8' flats with very little cover. I love my 8 deg. MarCum in heavy cover and deep, absolutely incredible... Just another reason to go MarCum LX-5., you get the dual beam standard with the package, no need for expensive add-on's there all right there in front of you standard;)

[Surface Tension]

Having dual transducer is one of those added features that can help in some situations. The MarCum does a very good job of separating weeds, bottom, lure and fish with a wide transducer with just gain adjustment so I rarly need to use the narrow beam ducer in those situations.

When on steep breaks the Dual ducer really is nice to reduce that dead zone.

MarCum and Vex are completely different when it comes to shallow water and weeds. With a Vex I'd switch to LP mode first in those conditions, if that doesn't clear things up go to a narrower ducer.

[CSP88]

Quote:

---

I have a fl-12 that I bought last year and I chose the 12* cone angle thinking middle of the road would be best but at times when fishing shallow water I wish I had the wide angle to see my bait better. Is it worth it to have a couple and use the best for where you are fishing? Better to get the dual beam? If you get the dual does it come with the switch? Thanks!

---

If you are set on buying another transducer I would definitely go with the dual beam (9*/19*). It's great having the flexability at the flip of a switch. That's what is great about the Vexilar line.....you can get the dual beam on any of their units from the Fl-8 up to the FL-20.

Chad