Can't see first 4 feet with Marcum, Can HB , Lowrance see near the ice

[gofish33]

I have Marcum LX3 and an LX5.  When I'm fishing bluegills in 10 FOW, there are fish (crappie/gills) that will swim up to within 2 - 3 ft of the ice....and I can't see them with a Marcum.  I've read that this problem also exists with the LX 6 .    Will the HB or Lowrance units show you fish swimming by 2 ft below the ice ?    I'm thinking of buying a unit to cover these conditions.

I have searched, can't find an answer .


gofish33

[matzilla]

My Helix 5 does...

[buz23]

I have Marcum LX3 and an LX5.  When I'm fishing bluegills in 10 FOW, there are fish (crappie/gills) that will swim up to within 2 - 3 ft of the ice....and I can't see them with a Marcum.  I've read that this problem also exists with the LX 6 .    Will the HB or Lowrance units show you fish swimming by 2 ft below the ice ?    I'm thinking of buying a unit to cover these conditions.

I have searched, can't find an answer .

Rumor has it the next firmware update for the LX-6/7 will address this issue.

gofish33

[hnd]

we get this all the time on a pond we fish.  my lx5 and previously my vx1 showed fish in 2-3' fine.  one thing that helps is to not hold the ducer below the ice.  have it up in the hole. 

[joemx1825]

Marcum's next firmware will fix the LX6/7/9 shallow water reading (I spoke with the engineer) It's in final testing now and should be released soon...

[3300]

the lx6 and 7 have a shallow water missing 3 feet of water issue for some, not all. the lx9 has a deep water issue for some. those firmwares are due out this month and this month is half over.
marucm uses the arm and the transducer is supposed to be just in the water to remove air from under it. that's all it needs. you can use on top of the ice too for depths, but you have to add water to remove air. air adds resistance to the sound.

i can see fish and jigs up to 3 feet of the bottom of the transducer on my lx7. i converted it into the lx9 and yet been able to fish it. the lx9 is supposed to not have the missing 3 feet under the puck.
keeping the puck up high does a few things for you and right now being higher is adding more vision to the missing water issue with the lx6/7, but it also allows you see more area in that shallow water. on narrow beam in 10 fow it see's about 1.5 feet at the bottom and so half way up from that would .75 feet area. basically double that for wide beam.
more benefits from fishing it high like it says to do in the manual is landing fish. it's easier when there is no wire in the water and in the way or getting caught n line and loosing fish or cutting the cable.
most times you don't have to do any thing to the transducer and can land fish easily.

check your cable to see if it's cut.
make sure to use the puck just in method. only reason to go deeper is if you see the hole is reducing the vision of the transducer. that easy enough to figure out, but it takes over 2 feet of ice before that will happen.
never fish it below the ice.
keep the puck in the center of the hole.
use your jig to tune it for the water you fishing and try to follow the jig all of the way.
spoons and the like will swim away and you have to wait for them to swing back into view.

you should call marcum  888-778-1208  and ask if that's normal for the lx3 to have missing water and if the answer is no then check all of what i mentioned too.

[Kevin23]

My marcum was dead above 3.5ft. My lowrance loses jigs at 2-2.5'.

[yotyfox]

Try raising the transducer as high as you can without getting interference from the sides of the hole.

[gofish33]

thanks for the suggestions, I will try with the transducer in the hole ....will be out in the shallows again on Monday

gofih33

[matzilla]

Here ya go...



Fished brush all day in a shallow private farm pond. Jig is orange/yellow at 1.75' everything else is brush. I had full view of the jig from 1' to bottom

[gofish33]

I assume there's a circular flasher mode Does it use the full screen for the flasher, or does it split it with the graph (a la Lowrance) ?


gofish33

[matzilla]

yes it has a circular flasher mode....it also has an a-scope RTS window on the right side of the single beam graph view as seen above the DI-GPS logo in the above picture. This works just as a showdown would, but in color.

Here is the flasher mode

[gofish33]

Thanks for the info on the Helix.  I tried my LX5 again on Monday, the jig shows up around 3.5 ft , not good when you might have fish wandering by at 2 ft.   I tried my boat Hbird last year but couldn't get the settings right, will try it again this weekend and if that doesn't work out I'll check out the Helix.



gofish33

[augergas]

You're doing something wrong. I fish with LX5's in 3 and 4 FOW all of the time. They work great. Make sure you shorten your transducer up as short as you can. I usually have mine above the bottom of the ice about 6" in shallow water.

[Drift Dodger]

So according to this thread's title, my Marcum must be unique!

I used a measuring tape ... the jig appears on the LX-5 display when it is 16 1/2 inches below the transducer.

[gofish33]

Neither my LX 3 or LX 5 will do any better than 3 ft.  I emailed Marcum and got an answer back, that 2 1/2 was the minimum  .   So, yes I think yours is unique.

I'll continue to fish with my Hbird.

gofish33

[3300]

when i fish my hbird ice55 the top few feet of water are trashed with clutter. you can't see fish in the clutter any way. another problem with swim noodle flashers are the fact that the transducer is so far in the water, so you really are loosing more than 2.5 feet of water on those systems.

marcums claim of 2.5 feet is correct. it depends on if you read the manual to set it up for shallow water fishing or not.

they are working on a firmware release to address that issue for the digital sonars, not the analog flashers. i won't use it if it only adds clutter to my lx9. why bother. most of us are on ice thats say 12 inches. your puck is in the water 1 inch (that's all it needs to work) so now you missing 1 foot 5 inches. what are you going to see in a cone area the size of a pea? if you really need to see 1 foot 5 inches, your better off looking in the hole and you'll see a lot more, unless it's dark. if you think fish are skimming the ice, they won't stop so your sonar can see them while you adjust your bait to match them. just run a dead stick and use the sonar for what its meant for.

i don't miss my hbird at all!

[Kevin23]

I can see all the way to 1' with my ice 35 in wide beam, ive been fishing in 3' of murky water with it. I ditched the float and just hang the ducer about an inch in the hole, or wherever it hangs level without an arm.

[Townie]

No probs. With my 'ol x67c but im not fishing any shallower than 4'