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Target separation on flashers


aquafang

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The showdown has target seperation down to 1/2" it seperates your treble on a jigging spoon at 20+ feet of water

That's because the Showdown can "write" a line on the display with better resolution (thinner) than others.

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What you have to ask yourself will it make a difference if the fish is .5'', 1'' or even 3'' away from your presentation. If you are able to get the fish to strike it will not matter; it will also not matter if you don't get the fish to strike. Either why you have learned what you needed to know, and that is if the presentation you are using is working. If you are looking from the smallest separation distance get a underwater camera and the issue is over you will know exactly how far something is away from you presentation.

For those that will say the camera will not work in the dark or in murky water, all i have to say is I am sorry there is no hope for you. If you still need something better then electronics or a camera I suggest you change you fishing location, try the grocery store, you will be able to tell the exact how far the fish is from you lure since you will be hold both. The later would be only logical next step for ice fishing.

The new and improved tech that they are coming out with each year is just a way for individuals to see who's is longer.

I hear what you're saying regarding the equipment-worship and ego-trips that some folks have regarding their ice electronics. Some of it is definitely what you're talking about. However, for alot of folks, it comes down to truly believing in a product and getting the most equipment for the same money. That said, there's nothing wrong with doing your research and getting not only what's meanest feature-for-feature, but what works best on the ice in a variety of situations.

My personal opinion is that I can't think of a single situation where more detail is worse. Folks have brought up the plankton issue and baitfish, and just to clear that issue up; with less target separation on lesser units, the whole water column is a single blob, effectively blocking your ability to see fish thus making your flasher useless.

For me, the single greatest reasons for the superior target separation on the Marcums are:

-Discerning different fish, and different fish sizes amongst schooling fish

-Separating walleyes and other bottom hugging fish from the lake-bed, especially when their mood is negative

The single greatest reason for me personally to have the extra detail however is determining the difference between a sniffer and a biter, and then with that information, figuring out what to do when the former occurs. For those of you who have studied fish on an underwater camera, you know that there are often many more "sniffers" than anything. Conventional wisdom tells us when a fish approaches your lure on the flasher, to turn your attention from the flasher to the rod-tip. I think this can be a mistake on neutral to negative fish. We often overthink things, jig too much and scare the fish away. I eventually switch my attention to the rod-tip as well, but not until I "see" the fish committing on the LX-5. I'm convinced that the less I fish "blind," the more fish I'll put on the ice. I get to see the fish's reaction to every twitch, jiggle, or pop, and I can more readily play keep-away if needed.

I agree with your comment regarding the underwater cameras, but for those who like to hole hop, the flasher-only is the way to go. Fishing with both a camera and flasher however, so you can become a better flasher-only user is a good exercise IMO!!!

Joel

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I cannot tell you how helpful the detail was this past weekend. It was like clockwork. The fish were very tentative, I could get them to raise up and then they would SLOWLY approach the bait. I held it steady and watched the LX5 display. As the final bar of my lure turned red I could see my line move ever so slightly and a simple lift was all it took..... FISH ON.

Detail produces results. No doubt about it.

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I ran into a scenario this weekend where target seperation helped a lot.

Right at sundown the water column filled with plankton. As the plankton got thicker it became more difficult to find your bait and the fish amongst the plankton.

So basically the LX-5 was showing all the plankton as single individual yellow blips (nearly the entire screen was full). I would identify my bait by jigging it. Then lower it through the plankton until a red mark appeared and then work that fish. It was pretty cool being able to do that.

I can't say for certain because I didn't have anything to test, but I think anything else with lower power might have just picked up the plankton as one big blob.

As it stands right now there is not is single unit on the market that is able to pick up a single plankton (phytoplankton or zooplankton) what the units today are doing is lumping many of them together to form that single supposed mark on the unit. This is actually giving the unit a somewhat false reading. The zooplankton are making their daily low light migration. This migration occurs as a large mass with millions of zooplankton moving at once vertically in the water column to feed on the even smaller phytoplankton. so if you think that you are seeing individual plankton you are sadly mistaken. But fish and lures will still show as a stronger signal since they are more dense then the plankton surrounding them.

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