Humminbird vs vexilar

[slick2526]

Well guys this looks like its going to be the only two choices now since humminbird bought out marcum. Im not sure if that is true but the fishing manager told me that as scheels.

Of the two what would you choose? I was looking at the new h's and they seemed very nice but then i read a post that someone said they are hard to see in the sunlight. Can anyone else back that up? I also like the fl-18s but i dont like the idea of only being able to zoom on the bottom 5ft of the water column.

[harvey lee]

Nature Vision purchased Marcum and they will continue to market the same great unit as always.

[slick2526]

Ok. so the sales rep at scheels didnt know what he was talking about. Im curious does anyone know if scheels carrys nature vision products? i have 600$ of store credit at scheels and would like to use on a new flasher

[zamboni]

I am pretty sure MarCums are carried at Scheels.

[pkwalleye]

slick how'd you get the sotre credit??

[Northlander]

I wouldnt buy a Humminbird flasher this year. I would give them a year or 2 to work out the bugs.

I still think the Marcums will be the best flasher out there even after Nature Vision picked them up.

[BK19]

I still think the Marcums will be the best flasher out there even after Nature Vision picked them up.

that is yet to be determined i think we need to debate this one

WHATS THAT oh it has been debated on here LOL

[Matt Johnson]

The Hummingbird units look cool, but like Steve said, I'm willing to see how they do after a solid year of use. I'm not knocking them, as I've used one, but I still would like to see how the first season goes. So if you ask me, I'm going to tell you to buy a Vexilar

Throughout the years Vexilar has proven its performance and durability time after time. Their units are bulletproof...

[dkf]

One major concern I've heard with the Hummingbird is the transducer support cable is too short. If you get over much over 18" of ice you won't be able to get the ducer to the bottom of the hole.

[swags_7]

Matt, I thought you used Marcum flashers? What changed?

I will continue to run a MarCum though, as I've become accustomed to those style of units and they work the best for me.

[slipperybob]

There's a few major things that the Marcum units needs to improve on.

That's signal tracking - you lose your lure if you drop it down fast or pull it up too fast through the water column. It makes it hard to guess what's my depth as I have to stop to check where my lure is at. A fish on a torpedo run doesn't show up until your line is on a drag. By then you don't even see a fish. I'm not talking about getting out of the sonar cone.

Plus I should be able to read all twenty feet and not just eighteen feet of my twenty feet scale.

Am I asking too much?

The vexilar seems a little slower in deep water in the 40 ft scale, but you see your lure tracked down at full speed drop. Plus the display signal kind of pulse when you're finesse jigging telling you your jig is danceing ever so slightly.

[cliffy]

There's a few major things that the Marcum units needs to improve on.

That's signal tracking - you lose your lure if you drop it down fast or pull it up too fast through the water column. It makes it hard to guess what's my depth as I have to stop to check where my lure is at. A fish on a torpedo run doesn't show up until your line is on a drag. By then you don't even see a fish. I'm not talking about getting out of the sonar cone.

Plus I should be able to read all twenty feet and not just eighteen feet of my twenty feet scale.

Am I asking too much?

The vexilar seems a little slower in deep water in the 40 ft scale, but you see your lure tracked down at full speed drop. Plus the display signal kind of pulse when you're finesse jigging telling you your jig is danceing ever so slightly.

I have been using my Marcum for the past four seasons and have never seen these problems. Anyone else been experincing the problems Slipperybob is describing?

[Deitz Dittrich]

I have seen the 18 feet of water in the 20 foot scale... But I have never once had a problem with signal tracking as slip described. I really do like my 5....

[NCLaker]

Could be a transducer issue. I owned a LX-3tc for a brief time last season, ended up bringing it to Marcum to be serviced due to issues with interference and not tracking bottom or lure. They ended up replacing the transducer & some stuff in the head unit. Saw a number of posts with similar issues with the LX-3/3tc.

Great service from Marcum - they fixed it with no questions asked. Didn't want to risk being stuck on the ice with a bum flasher again so I went back to a Vexilar.

[harvey lee]

I have use both Vexilar and MarCum. I have never had an issue with a MarCum and love it and its performance.

[Ed Carlson]

My first impressions of the 55 out of the box.

I have some concerns to the new Ice packages. The ducer system is questionable to me. Why add the support cable to the puck? It distorts the cone angle off center and the duel beam uses 1 crystal not 2...not sure how that will perform or if it can be really considered a true duel-beam? Why is the support cable needed anyhow...is it concerns over a weak ducer cable connection to the puck?

Buttons, it has a heap of push buttons, and historically push buttons have not performed well in the cold...so that has me a bit concerned.

When trying to air-demo a 55 at 24" off a concrete floor...I could not get a return signal even after cycling through the gain settings. In order to illustrate the new color schemes I had to turn up the gain high and place the ducer on a glass display case...that should not be needed.

In comparison, a Vex at the lowest gain setting and at 24" off the floor I can get a very clear bottom signal with a target reading if I introduce a ink pen into the cone of the ducer. Not sure what is up with this gain issue with the 55?

Assembly of the ice pack unit was nothing short of a major pain. The soft pack carry case appears very durable on the 55.

I will need to see how it performs on the ice before I comment much more. But these were my first observations and impressions of the 55.

[slipperybob]

I didn't say it was a problem. It's just seems to be minor (major for some people) differences between the Vexilar and the Marcum Flashers. It would be a major improvement if a full speed lure drop can be tracked without signal lost. That's the very nature of sonar, if it doesn't read it fast enough, it's not going to show it. If I drop three-five feet per sec and the flasher shows a signal at 10 feet and then shows the signal at 15 feet. It doesn't move from 10 to 15 feet. It points at 10 feet, vanishes, then reappears at 15 feet. Maybe a faster transducer?

[Deitz Dittrich]

I think the tranceducer is plenty fast slipbob.. Heck its going the speed of sound and more than a few times a second. Are you sure your lure isn't falling out of the cone angle?

[Northlander]

Faster transducer? I can see my jig move at every depth every second I move it. Unless as Dietz says it leaves the cone angle. I dont think its a issue of a duces being "Slow".

[slipperybob]

Yep, pretty much straight down gumball jig 1/4 oz. If it's a flyer spoon that's reasonably understandable.

Between by buddy's FL18 and my LX5, they show a little different. My LX5 does much better for tracking signal going up the water column, but my buddy's FL18 does a little better for tracking signal going down on water column.

I've once lost a forage minnow jig (smaller one 1/12 oz?)when I touched my line on the lantern and watch the free fall jig go down. Flashes in and out and my LX5 as it falls down the water column. A readout only comes out if the sonar signal timing is recieved. While signal tracking was good mostly between 1-2 feet fall rate. There's the occassional three plus feet jump where signal tracking was lost.

In most instances the ice ducer is plenty fast enough. The occassional torpedo fish eludes me and when trying to get deep fast only serves to fail.

[PerchJerker]

I don't have a problem with my LX3 or LX5 losing the lure or not showing it on the rise or fall, no matter how fast it's rising or falling. Every motion is picked up and shown on the display, just like it should be.

[NCLaker]

Slipperybob, I would recommend you go on their HSOforum and call their customer service number listed. Explain your problem and they will tell you if it needs to be serviced or not.

Use to service them out of Anoka (not sure if still do after the buyout by Nature Vision). This time of year they should have a pretty quick turnaround.

[slipperybob]

I personally don't think there's anything wrong with the way it works. It picks up all those air bubbles and ice crystals on the fireline way too well. I've got a crappie chased lure from initial drop and followed it down to bottom in 17 fow.

It's on those few occassion, where I'm jigging and I get a fish torpedo onto the lure. Often times the fish is coming in from outside of the sonar cone which shows as a flash in when they enter the sonar cone. I was on 35 fow and jigging 5' off bottom. I get an extremely fast three flashed signal reading rise from bottom to lure, hard hit, then two more signal flash rise from there and lure was out of sonar cone. Fast moving target, clearing more than 10 feet acording to flasher read, just isn't tracked.

[BK19]

I am pretty sure MarCums are carried at Scheels.

nope was in kato today and they said no marcums and that they were out of the picture they never sold well compared to vexilar and says hummingbird will be the main competitor against vexilar it will be a wait and see deal they look nice and may work okay but i dont want to chance it although my boy needs one so maybe he will be my guinea pig

[robert1965]

where does lowrance and its issues fall into this topic