Author Topic: LX-7 locks in on surface clutter  (Read 2068 times)

Offline buz23

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LX-7 locks in on surface clutter
« on: Mar 07, 2015, 08:25 AM »
I've had a couple instances when I was hole hopping where my LX-7 would lock in on the surface clutter instead of the real depth (which was about 35').  I normally leave the thing on dynamic depth with a 10' zoom, sensitivity pretty high because I'm fishing small jigs.  The transducer is about 6" down in 2' of ice (6" hole).  I was able to get it back by cycling the power or by going to manual dynamic (what the heck is that anyhow) or manual.

It only has done it a couple of times, but I wonder if someone has a trick - transducer further down in the hole? or something else which works to prevent this glitch.

Offline 3300

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Re: LX-7 locks in on surface clutter
« Reply #1 on: Mar 07, 2015, 08:48 AM »
the gain is too high. try around 10 on narrow and 13 on wide for deeper water like your scouting in or so.
the dynamic needs to be set to manual dynamic. this is your real problem until they come out with a "software fix". dynamic and auto depths are too problematic. easy way, is hit front panel depth button, use arrows to get it onto manual dynamic, hit menu, then use arrows to move the depth. some of the button function have the short cut sub menu like this one.
set the depth you want to read, then the zoom depth after you settle in to fish. i don't like auto zoom either.


Offline bee

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Re: LX-7 locks in on surface clutter
« Reply #2 on: Mar 07, 2015, 10:32 AM »
First off the xducer has to be below the ice. If you are using custom depth set the top depth to like 3-4-5 feet. You then won,t have the surface clutter to deal with.
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Offline Knoodles

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Re: LX-7 locks in on surface clutter
« Reply #3 on: Mar 07, 2015, 05:55 PM »
x2 on ducer.  run it below the ice and I bet your problem goes away.

Offline 3300

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Re: LX-7 locks in on surface clutter
« Reply #4 on: Mar 08, 2015, 12:59 PM »
don't hang the ducer under the ice. chris and mike from marcum said do not do it. it is supposed to be one inch in the water and thats what it is designed for.

so just quit using dynamic depth and use manual dynamic depth instead. problem solved. if you don't want to see clutter, then turn your gain down.

Offline bee

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Re: LX-7 locks in on surface clutter
« Reply #5 on: Mar 08, 2015, 01:17 PM »
I say they are full of it. If you have a 2 foot hole and the xducer is only an inch down it is not going to work correct. How is the cone area going to work? Are you using an Ice Ducer?
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Offline 3300

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Re: LX-7 locks in on surface clutter
« Reply #6 on: Mar 08, 2015, 01:58 PM »
works fine, just like it supposed to.
you do know it only shows a small area under you right? even if its at the top of the hole. next time you are out, just pull your cord up so only an inch is in the water and see what your sonar says it see's on the dash board/information section. it shows how many feet around it can see all of the time. only thing that changes that is if your on narrow or wide beam. actually, when you bring it up the 2 feet you mentioned, it see's more than it would closer to the bottom.
is also a lot nicer to having it only an inch in the hole while your pulling fish from the same hole and not getting tangled like it will if you have the ducer hanging under the ice.

Offline 3300

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Re: LX-7 locks in on surface clutter
« Reply #7 on: Mar 08, 2015, 11:05 PM »
went out to check the numbers.
if you don't change any thing except for the height of the ducer; bottom of ice it read 3.4 feet radius, at top of ice it read 3.8 feet radius. both spots show the same jigs as they were only 10" away from the ducer hole. this was checked in 10 fow on wide beam. lx-7.

so, yes, raising it gives more area to read bottom. does not hurt performance at all. it helps.

gman51

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Re: LX-7 locks in on surface clutter
« Reply #8 on: Mar 15, 2015, 09:00 AM »
the guys fishing at in-depth outdoors have their ducers max out in their holes and they were the first ever to Field test the lx series for marcum you would think they would know this if it were true and would apply it insted of lifting 4' of ducer cable out to land their fish.????

Offline bee

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Re: LX-7 locks in on surface clutter
« Reply #9 on: Mar 15, 2015, 09:34 AM »
works fine, just like it supposed to.
you do know it only shows a small area under you right? even if its at the top of the hole. next time you are out, just pull your cord up so only an inch is in the water and see what your sonar says it see's on the dash board/information section. it shows how many feet around it can see all of the time. only thing that changes that is if your on narrow or wide beam. actually, when you bring it up the 2 feet you mentioned, it see's more than it would closer to the bottom.
is also a lot nicer to having it only an inch in the hole while your pulling fish from the same hole and not getting tangled like it will if you have the ducer hanging under the ice.

It sounds like you are not using an Ice ducer. Is that correct?
Thats Why They Call It Fishing.

Offline 3300

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Re: LX-7 locks in on surface clutter
« Reply #10 on: Mar 15, 2015, 09:49 AM »
It sounds like you are not using an Ice ducer. Is that correct?

of coarse i am using the ice ducer that came with it. i am ice fishing after all.
any ice ducer will do the same thing as  i described.
the closer you set them to bottom, the less it can see.  so the reverse holds true. when setting it up high, the more it can see.

do you not use your dash board to show you how much bottom it see's? super nice feature to have.

its really nice to fish it this way and makes the most sense also after doing it. no more long ducer wire to try to hold up off the ice hole hopping and getting tangled with fish line and fish.

i do have a boat and several fish finders but don't need another one on my boat or any actually, so no open water transducer needed for my lx-7. i cast to shore in rivers, so open water fish finders are of no use to me. if i decide to fish differently, i will add the lx-7 to the front of the boat and take away the bird that sits on it now.

Offline 3300

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Re: LX-7 locks in on surface clutter
« Reply #11 on: Mar 15, 2015, 10:06 AM »
the guys fishing at in-depth outdoors have their ducers max out in their holes and they were the first ever to Field test the lx series for marcum you would think they would know this if it were true and would apply it insted of lifting 4' of ducer cable out to land their fish.????

bad habits are hard to break. (i quit smoking too.)
it was for me until i found a cut on my ducer wire from doing the same thing. chris gave me a new one and drove into my head how it was "designed to function" and so i pass that info along and i use it that way. it is the easiest way to use a ducer on ice really. it gives more area to see fish and is out of the way when landing them. win/win usage! i know i will never hang it under the ice again, there is no reason to do that unless you don't have an arm to hold the cone shaped ducer off the side of the hole. then a float could be used, but i hate em and they get tangled in fish too and frozen in and lose area to view by having it half way down the hole.

the arm method is the way to go and only an inch of the ducer is needed.
another way and i use this if staying put for a long time, is to have just enough cable to have a an inch of ducer in the water and the head unit up on a bucket and center the cable by moving the bucket/arm.

one more reason to use the "just in method" is the dead spot lx-6/7/9 have. they have a 2.5 foot dead zone. so raising it up to the top of nearly two feet of ice means ,now you only have a half a foot dead zone.


Offline bee

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Re: LX-7 locks in on surface clutter
« Reply #12 on: Mar 15, 2015, 01:59 PM »
I owe you an apology. I had Elite 7 on my brain as I fish a Lowrance. Sorry and happy times. Never had one of those other brands.
Thats Why They Call It Fishing.

Offline 3300

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Re: LX-7 locks in on surface clutter
« Reply #13 on: Mar 15, 2015, 07:57 PM »
we're entitled.

Maine still rules!

how do you like the lowrance? i thought about one before the lx-7.

Offline bee

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Re: LX-7 locks in on surface clutter
« Reply #14 on: Mar 16, 2015, 05:44 AM »
we're entitled.

Maine still rules!

how do you like the lowrance? i thought about one before the lx-7.
  I like it . Only hitch is deep water.
Thats Why They Call It Fishing.

Offline buz23

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Re: LX-7 locks in on surface clutter
« Reply #15 on: Mar 21, 2015, 04:45 AM »
Just a (final?) note on this problem.  I let out another few inches on my transducer so its about a 8" down in 18-20" of ice and the problem has not repeated.  I'm fishing 35-38 FOW lately, went back to dynamic range, sensitivity on about 20 to see a 4 mm tungsten jig. 

I went fishing the other day and forgot the LX-7; next time I do that I'm turning around and going home.  Once you are used to seeing what's going on there's no going back!  I love stopping the jig 3-4 feet above the perch and seeing them zoom up to meet it. 

Offline 3300

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Re: LX-7 locks in on surface clutter
« Reply #16 on: Mar 21, 2015, 10:49 AM »
manual dynamic is the depth you tell it to fish in. then the display becomes dynamic. meaning it will try to display what it thinks is proper. so if you like the information to be on the very bottom of the display like i do, then it also tries to do that, but it is glitchy and some times moves it to the middle instead.
like auto zoom does.

because you have your gain up so high, that is the problem. are you using wide or narrow? i know in that deep of water i would use narrow. it focus's the beam so what ever power level you use is set to a minimal instead of cranking it way up and cause problems like the clutter your getting. turing the gain will make that go away. if you are having problems still seeing your jig you add another spike to make it bigger.

so i agree that dropping down the hole more would make some of the clutter go away. its just not how it was designed to be used according to chris and mike, the techs at marcum. chris gave me a new ducer that was cut by an auger blade. he made me repeat what he said as to how far will i drop it into the hole. it was a no charge gift from him. i like fishing with it just in the water. no tangles when landing fish and only one hole needed all day. unless you want more lines in.

is your's cut?  <----------

i had to crank my gain near max to see my 4/5 mm tungsten jigs too before i inspected the ducer cable and found that cut. the cut is just enough to throw the alinement off. tilted if you will. might want to check yours too. i had no idea how mine got cut. i am so careful or try to be. augurs are like ninjas waiting to slice and dice w/o seeing it happen. got one of my bibs once too w/o seeing it happen. lucky for my it was a blue clam suit i never use except to move snow out side. any more, i cover it if not making holes so it can't happen any more.

with the new ducer it is back to normal. had it down to gain of 3 in 10 fow on narrow beam. when it was cut, 22 fow i had it on or near max 27/25 for a 4/5 mm tungsten jig. iknew that was too high of a gain to be using in that depth.



Offline buz23

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Re: LX-7 locks in on surface clutter
« Reply #17 on: Mar 21, 2015, 03:34 PM »
I should have added that although I have the gain around 15-20 I am using it in open water mode, so I think that is much less gain than it would be in ice mode.

Offline 3300

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Re: LX-7 locks in on surface clutter
« Reply #18 on: Mar 21, 2015, 08:49 PM »
yep, open water is recommend. makes you wounder why it has an ice mode, huh.
was out today using my lx-7 in 6 FOW. well, 6 FOW over the weed beds, but 10/12 FOW otherwise. had it turned down to 3, i do wish we could adjust the display to have the bottom all of the way to the bottom of the display when in that shallow water. it is half way up to the top of the screen in 10 FOW.
just try to keep the ducer centered is the only other thing i can add to the clutter showing up on high gain.

 



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