MarCum LX3 owners-Question

[bobberup]

I just bought a marcum Lx3.ive used it twice and I like the idea of being able to see where the fish are and knowing the depth.But I was wondering if there is something i'm missing?I hear people talk about finding flats,breaklines?and humps. are you spending alot of time shooting through the ice to find these?also i hear talk about the bottom.rock's,sand,mud,weeds,etc.do the flashers give some kind of clue by the different color above the solid red bottom?any information to help increase my knowledge and use of the LX3 would be greatly appreciated.Thank you

[korn_fish]

bobberup - we find humps, breaks, etc by first looking at maps, getting in the general area and then either shooting through the ice (when its good clear ice) or drilling lots of holes, checking depth, and then drilling more holes, ,checking depths and using that information to find the spot on the spot for the breaklines, inside turns of breaks etc.

Editing

As for botom content, I beleive that the marcum indicates bottom content the same as the vex. if the bottom is represented by thick red, you are in softer bottom....if you show a thin red for the bottom, you are in harder bottom.

I think I am wrong with the above statement....reading Matt's post I got to thinking about the thickness of the red line that represents bottom. Apparently it is just the color of the band that represents content (mixed colors soft, solid red = hard), the thickness apparently only represents the width of the cone on the bottom. I had to re-read the fl8-slt owner manual for this.

[This message has been edited by korn_fish (edited 12-22-2003).]

[This message has been edited by korn_fish (edited 12-23-2003).]

[Matt Johnson]

Yep, the LX-3 can show you all of those things. The LX-3 can also zoom in on any part of the water column making it easy to pinpoint those suspended crappies or bottom dwelling perch and walleye. Any place a fish swims, you can zoom in on it. One side lets you focus on the area where the action happens and the other side lets you see the big picture. Left side is the zoom, right side is the whole water column. Finding the bottom makeup is easy too. A hard bottom will have a wide solid red signal which indicates a strong signal. Soft bottom will have a weaker signal and that will appear as a narrower red band or a mixed red and orange mark. A soft bottom with weeds will show up as a red or roange mark combined with both solid and broken yellow marks which is weeds. If there are fish in the weeds they might be red or orange. Adjusting the gain may alter this a bit as well, but after using it and gaining a little experience you will pick up on it in no time.

Feel free to e-mail me with any more questions. I can explain things in more detail if needed.

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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First Choice Guide Service

[email protected]
Catch-N Tackle and Bio Bait
MarCum

[Dan Wood]

Hey bobberup,
Welcome to FM and congrats on a great purchase!

Breaklines and humps can be located most easily by shooting through the ice. Carry a water bottle with you - squirt a small puddle of water and put your transducer down on the ice surface in the water. As long as there isn't too much for air bubbles in the ice, it will do a great job of picking up bottom. This saves a lot of time and energy of drilling holes. You also will find that you can locate weeds, rocks, suspended fish, etc. by shooting through the ice once you gain a little experience with the flasher.

As Matt noted above, the soft bottom will give off a weaker signal. A strong red band will be very hard bottom, the signal will be much weaker for soft bottom (green/orange and it won't be a real solid signal). You won't have to turn your gain up much at all to get a strong signal on very hard bottom, whereas on a mud bottom you can turn your gain all the way up and you still won't get a very strong bottom signal. You will soon be able to tell sand from mud from rock, etc. Weeds will show up as weak signals that will break up some and extend up off the bottom a bit (usually green). Fish on or near the bottom won't be as constant of a signal as the weeds and fish will come and go as red/orange/green. Weeds will stay the same color depending on your gain (typically green).

Good luck, you will love the LX-3!

[LOWinEYEin]

Dan
Shooting through the ice...
With the 3inches of frozen slush
it does'nt work.
Is there any other way?

[Hastings gal]

Matt & Dan,
I got to use my LX-3 for the first time last weekend up on Red. I loved it - the hubby did not like th interference it caused in his old clearwater classic. I was able to correct most of his blinking by using the IR feature. I have a question - How long does your battery last I bought my unit brand new in October fully charged it (took 1 1/2 days) then stored it in its box inside the house. I took it out last Thursday it was reading 60% - so I fully charged it again (took 4 - 5 hours) I was using it Saturday at LOW from 8:30 - 11:30 only using the IR feature no zoom then I used it on Red from 5:00 (had to put skids on the house ) - 10:00 using the IR feature and the zoom feature. On Sunday I fished on Red starting at 2:30 and by 5:30 it was reading 0% charge - it was still working but the colors were dimmer. Is this normal or is it possible that I got a bad battery? I loved using it the zoom feature was great - I did catch about a 36" Northern I wish I could have seen that come in! By the way the fish were not biting too good. Sorry for the long post, Keep Smiling

[CNY Tim]

Hasting gals - Wow 1.5 days to top it off... There's something wrong with the battery you received. Was it a Powersonic battery with the blue top? That battery on zero charge on the DCS should respond back to 100% within 6 hours.
Call customer service: 763-271-1988 and let us know how you made out. Glad you like the LX-3.

[buffalochip]

hey! bobberup, nice job with that marcum on sunday afternoon, the crappies did'nt have a chance 10-4. see you next weekend

[Bill-E-Bazz]

Hastings, I have the same problem. What i do is when i am not using it i unplug one of the connecters it still reads while it is plugged in. Anyways that is my .02.
Good Fishin'...

[Dan Wood]

WhaTT,
If there is a lot of air in the ice (frozen slush) you may have issues. They do pretty well even through that, but you have to move around a little and look for a decent spot. Normally I can get a reading on bad ice with a little moving around, but sometimes you just won't be able to if the ice is that bad... That is where the gas auger comes in handy

[Dan Wood]

Hastings gal,
If I have this right, you fished 11 hrs. on one charge. That sounds pretty typical from what I've seen. I typically re-charge after every trip out. It is a good idea not to let it get down to 0% when you can help it for battery life.

I store my unit with the charger on, the trickle charge won't overcharge your battery.

[Matt Johnson]

I'm getting about 18 hours out of mine. I think you got a bad battery.

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

------------------
First Choice Guide Service

[email protected]
Catch-N Tackle and Bio Bait
MarCum

[Ed Carlson]

Try getting the battery load tested by a local mechanic. See if it is weak or bad, or not.

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Ed "Backwater Eddy" Carlson

Backwater Guiding
"ED on the RED"
[email protected]
><,sUMo,>

[bobberup]

thanks for the replys.cant wait till the next time i can get out and experiment some more with the marcum.just wish it would get colder and make some good ice.

[opsirc]

my sweet wonderful wife let me pick up a LX3 for an early x-mas/BD gift. have not had a chance to try it yet, hoping to soon.

O

[Dan Wood]

Hastings Gal,
Were you reading 0% after the full 11 hrs. of fishing? I've only run my battery down that low once on my LX-3 and that was 2+ full days of fishing when I couldn't get to a charger. That was stored inside over night - as you said your doing. That was probably in the 20+ hr. range I'm guessing from full to 0%. I typically recharge after every time out and after a full day of 10-11 hrs., it is usually near the 30-40% level. I'd call the MarCum customer service # from Tim - they should be able to help you out (link below to online customer service).

http://www.marcumcustomerservice.com/cs/supportrequest.aspx

[This message has been edited by Dan Wood (edited 12-23-2003).]

[Dan Wood]

opsirc,
Sounds like you have a keeper there... Congrats, you will love that LX-3.

[HuskersRule]

Do you bring your finders inside or leave them in the garage?

[Rick]

I'm getting about 20 hours out of mine.

[Hastings gal]

Dan, I'm usually up at Red for the weekend I know the Hubby's CC is 5 years old with the original battery still and his outlasted mine. I would think I shoud be able to go for the weekend and not have to worry about recharging it. I will see what kind of battery is in it and call the # that was given earlier (Thank you) Hey Rick send me yours! I keep mine in the house/inside vehicle/inside house - I do not keep it in the garage or in the cold.
Keep Smiling.

[This message has been edited by Hastings gal (edited 12-23-2003).]

[This message has been edited by Hastings gal (edited 12-23-2003).]

[Ray Esboldt]

Here's a real simple and quick way to distinguish hard bottom (rock, gravel, clay) from soft bottom with a flasher, any flasher. Select a depth scale that shows you the bottom (duh?, like I said, simple), and turn the gain to roughly 1/4 power (may vary depending on model). Let's just say we're in 15 feet of water and we're viewing the 0-20' scale. Now select the next depth scale. You still see 15' as the depth, but is there any readout at 30'. If yes, you're on hard bottom. If no, you're not.

Now, you still don't know what the bottom is exactly unless you're extremely intimate with your depthfinder and that's a possiblity. But, you have a good idea of what you're hovering over. From there, I'd go looking for that hard bottom/soft bottom transition. Then you're on to somehting.

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Ray Esboldt
www.marcum.com