Marcum IR revisited

[iffwalleyes]

I just wanted to post my results that I found this weekend fishing with my marcum LX3 along side my buddies with 2 FL 8. In the past years we have fished with 3 FL 8 and have had a very diffcult time with interference on all of our units. This year my Marcum seemed to have no effect from their units mine did affect theirs a little but they were easily cleared up by hitting there ir button a couple times. It was much easier this year than it has been in the past with the 3 identical units. So in my mine people that think the Marcum screws up the Vex and are wrong it is very easy to adjust and clear them up. I have had no problem when fishing along side a single Vexilar. The only complain I have is that I don't like the wide cone angle that Marcums have in the deep water situations. I was picking up about 4 lines this weekend where we were fishing. We were in 34 feet of water so I realize it gets multipled but they need to get a smaller cone angle for an option.

------------------
Grip it and Rip it

IFFWalleyes
I Fish For Walleyes
[email protected]

[Northlander]

You must have all been in 1 house? How far away from eachother. I agree with you and would also like to see a deep model for water deeper than 160'. Also a longer ducer cord. I do love my unit though. Much better bottom read than my Vex and your right I have no problem with interference.
I did find that if I use the 5' zoom mode I wont get my partners bait in my cone as often.

[bigV]

Anybody fished together with more than 2 identical Marcums units ? Wondering about interference in this case.

[iffwalleyes]

Northlander we were in all in a 8X12 house. One of Arensen's if you know what they are like four holes in each corner. Your right about the longer cord a couple more feet would be nice. I realize it shows more fish but the problem is that when you have that many lines near the bottom of the lake it makes it very complicated to see any of the fish because the lines are all in the way. Therefore it really isn't a benefit in that situation. Everyone who owns one know that they are good units this are just suggestion to make them better. I like to 20 degree most of the time but I would like a narrow cone when in the deeper water when fishing with a group. When I am by myself you can't beat it.

Grip it and Rip it

IFFWalleyes

I Fish For Walleyes

[email protected]

[berfish]

I have fished in the same house with two people using the LX-3. We both a little interference when we turned our units on but the IR button fixed that with one or two hits. I have fished with almost every combination, Clearwater, Vex 8's and 18's, Lowrance, old Hummingbirds, Marcums, old SI-TEX FL-6, this year and have had no problems.
bf

[bobber_down]

Just wondering if anyone could give me a good recommendation on which of the units are better/worse? I'm considering purchasing one and I guess I don't know enough about the Vexilar FL-8, FL-18, or Marcum LX3 to make a good decision. Any help would be appreciated.

bd

[Surface Tension]

Picking up you buddies lure isn't in the criteria to using a smaller cone angle.
At 34 ft you are covering roughly 10 ft of the lake bottom with your cone angle.
Targets on the outside of your cone angle send back a weaker signal. If your gain was set just high enough to pick up your jig then other jigs on the outside of your cone angle wouldn't show because of the weak return. I find in 35' of water with 2 fishing holes 5' apart I have to drill a hole in between the holes for my transducer to be able to pick up both jigs.
Now if have you 4 lines closer together then that how can you give fault to the cone angle?
Next time your in a situation where your crowded in a shack lay your transducer cable along the side of the hole so it tilts the horizontal surface away from other lines but still picks up your jig.

[This message has been edited by Surface Tension (edited 02-25-2004).]

[iffwalleyes]

Suface tension you ask if I have 4 lines close together how can I blame the cone angle I am not. But like you said my cone at 20 degrees is covering 10 feet. I am not faulting the transducer one bit. I do know how to adjust the gain. But what you said isn't always true. If you are using jigging spoon like I do all the time they have a smaller surface area meaning less to bounce off of and it will give a weaker return when using my dead stick my minneow has a larger surface area meaning a I will get a larger return. I myself do not like seeing my second line. I only like to see my Jigging line. All I am saying it that Marcum should offer other cone angles to be purchased such as a 9 degree like Vexilar has. I have my FL 8 with a 9 degree and I really like that I work just about perfect for me in most situation. I have used used this setup for the last 5 years in the same houses and situation and had no problem fishing that close to one another. So that is how I can blame the cone angle. Like I say it is fine when I am fishing by myself. I know that not everyone aggree but remeber not everyone wants the same thing. Some like to see both their lines I don't. It is just something for Marcum to consider. I think that there would be enough demand for one of these.

------------------
Grip it and Rip it

IFFWalleyes
I Fish For Walleyes
[email protected]

[This message has been edited by iffwalleyes (edited 02-25-2004).]

[Surface Tension]

iffwalleyes, I hear ya on the profile of a jigging spoon on how it goes into stealth mode when sitting still. Since you could read your buddies jig did you catch any of them looking at your LX3 instead of their Vex
Try tipping your transducer just a hair like I suggested earlier.

[Guest]

Keep in mind that the larger cone area allows you to see more fish too.

[Bob Horn]

Back in November I contacted Marcum to see if they had a dual beam transducer and they told me that there will be one for next season. I had one on my Fl-8 and love it, but I bought a Marcum when I upgraded. I guess we will have to wait for next season to see if it`s released. Fish On

[Scott Steil]

I just want to add that MarCum appreciates your feedback and most of the suggestions that have come up here are being addressed already. I think over time you will find that MarCum is very intune to your concerns and continuously trying to improve their products.

------------------
Mille Lacs Guide Service
(320)293-3287
www.millelacsguideservice.com

[Jim W]

Surface Tension brings up a great pointer.

To reiterate, invision fishing in a two man portable with two holes. Yours and your buddy's.
Try placing both of your ducers on the "inside" of your holes. IN other words, "closer" together.
This will shoot your feedback away from your partners ducer and your readings should clear up.
This is just one way to eliminate problem picking up your friends feed.

Jim W

[Dan Wood]

Regarding IR, the results I've seen with this unit fishing next to an FL-8 are a bit different. The FL-8 could not eliminate the signal nearly as well as the LX-3. Those are my observations with the two (the FL-8 units may have changed their IR over the years, this is my old FL-8 unit that is a few years old).

For the majority of situations, the 20 deg. transducer cone is about ideal. I have seen a couple of situations as well where the narrow cone would be a nice option, although this is not the norm. I hear it may be an option next year on the MarCum units.

[marine_man]

I fished with IFFWalleyes this past week... although I wasn't sitting right next to him... I was diagonal from him (FL8-SLT)... if you understand my diagram shown below...

o o

o o <-- Marcum

o o

o o <-- FL-8SLT (
/\
|
FL8-SLT (A)

Anyways... the guy with the FL8-SLT ( sitting right next to the marcum lx-3 seemed to have more interference than I did (FL8-SLT (A)). In the three days we fished I would say that I had less interference than the marcum or the other vexilar (A)... which I do understand was somewhat due to my proximity to the Marcum.. but on the whole I would agree with IFF that it was much easier to tune out 1 other FL-8 and the LX-3 than it was to tune out 2 other FL-8's....

marine_man

[f1sh1nfool]

I had an interesting experience in january on LOW. i fished with four of my buddies in a 10x14 shack. three of us had marcums and one of us had a fl-8. we were fishing in 30 feet of water. the guys with the marcums could not tune out the interference while the fl-8 showed little or no interference. I got so sick of the interference that i went outside 20 feet away in a portable. This was the first and only time that I had fished with this many guys in a close proximity. we were able to tune out the interference almost completely when one of the marcums was turned off.