Using Vex for open water questions

[potatoe]

Doing some open water fishing with my son and really miss the little blinking lights. Has anyone bought the high speed transducer and fished open water with the vex. I am thinking the high speed so we can troll around and mark fish, we only have a little 16' boat with a 6 hp so high speed is only about 6 mph.

Thanks for any info or ideas on this one, we miss ice fishing we had a blast this year

[pisces]

Check Vexilar website and YouTube.

[esox_xtm]

I used my Vex FL-8 as a bow mount on open water for years. The thing that will throw you is that there's lots of "flickering" just due to movement and it will take some time for you to learn how to read while moving. I always found it valuable to find depth, drop-offs, weeds, rocks or cribs. From there you could anchor and use it a little more conventionally though it will never be perfectly still like in an ice hole.

Heck, with your 16' with that 6 hp you could probably get away using the iceducer on a homemade mount just to get an idea before you spend $80 on the HS version. Really very much the same except for the more streamlined design and different cone angle.

[ice dawg]

Put a little water in the back of your boat and place the transducer in the water where there are no rivets. There should be no strakes or anything under it. Some say you can put the transducer in a plastic bag with water in it and set it on the bottom of the boat. I have never tried the bag.

[potatoe]

Thanks guys for replies, I called Vexilar today and he said it would be good for locating structure and drop offs also. I was thinking it would help mark fish. He suggested going with the 12 deg high speed transducer. My other fear is that I will hurt or screw up my vexilar, this is the most money I have spent on fishing equipment but glad I purchased because it really helped with my son catching fish on the ice.

Scheels sells a lowrance fish finder for $100 and I would not be afraid to take it in the boat. Never thought I would miss ice fishing but I do, we had good times in the ice hut this year catching fish.

[potatoe]

Just found this video, has me thinking

[esox_xtm]

Thanks guys for replies, I called Vexilar today and he said it would be good for locating structure and drop offs also. I was thinking it would help mark fish. He suggested going with the 12 deg high speed transducer. My other fear is that I will hurt or screw up my vexilar, this is the most money I have spent on fishing equipment but glad I purchased because it really helped with my son catching fish on the ice.

Scheels sells a lowrance fish finder for $100 and I would not be afraid to take it in the boat. Never thought I would miss ice fishing but I do, we had good times in the ice hut this year catching fish.

It will not (I repeat will not mess up your head unit. I promise! Just don't let it go overboard.....

Honest man, Vex will tell you to buy a HS 'ducer because "they" want you to buy one, but you can_get_by with the one you have. Marking fish at speed is kind of a crap shoot no matter what locator you have. Best bet for a flasher is to fish known areas and fine tune the location within those areas.

[UFCreel]

Guessing your boat is aluminum. If it is. Here is what you want. http://0.r.msn.com/?ld=d34OQZd9eDoe12TlC9OFu2MjVUCUyvlywE0SeFRpUuUDtan0I259A0fu2nNuZ5uc97W6LhrsrGW8CERJSwY-2Yd_9OD1wBGQGVDWAQHeTdkoNthZzGG7Ud-yr1pdIxRlKoAlDMMz5fEdiQyw-WWiNqW3A2HQLo9RCEyv59EzZO_fnT59gI&u=http%3a%2f%2fwww.amazon.com%2fs%2f%3fie%3dUTF8%26keywords%3dalumaducer%26tag%3dmh0b-20%26index%3daps%26hvadid%3d7003184378%26hvqmt%3dp%26hvbmt%3dbp%26hvdev%3dc%26ref%3dpd_sl_2xupnqibjs_p

[ice dawg]

Thanks guys for replies, I called Vexilar today and he said it would be good for locating structure and drop offs also. I was thinking it would help mark fish. He suggested going with the 12 deg high speed transducer. My other fear is that I will hurt or screw up my vexilar, this is the most money I have spent on fishing equipment but glad I purchased because it really helped with my son catching fish on the ice.

Scheels sells a lowrance fish finder for $100 and I would not be afraid to take it in the boat. Never thought I would miss ice fishing but I do, we had good times in the ice hut this year catching fish.

The difference between an Iceducer and a high speed transducer is the shape and the high speed transducer comes with a mount. Using your Vex in a boat won't harm it. At one time I had a sonar with a suction cup transducer mount which kept falling off of the transom a high speed so I  stuck it to the transom inside of the boat with about 1/4" clearance from the bottom. I would pour enough water in the back of the boat to keep the transfucer wet and I  had great results. Years ago sonar manufacturers didn't have iceducers and we modified  high speed transducers for use on the ice.

[potatoe]

It worked, I cut a piece of wood and made a notch for the cable with stopper. Hung it over the side of boat, we did not have much luck until we moved closer to shore. Had some wind to deal with but then we started fishing right under the ducer, I actually caught some crappie like I was ice fishing. My son started catching some but I had to direct him where to place jig we could not both see the screen. We caught 15 fish tonight some were nice size. We fished till dark. It was a little interesting as the screen would flicker often but I could mark fish for sure.

Thanks guys for help and replies.

[ice dawg]

Way to go!!

[potatoe]

One last report, went out this am and I caught a monster crappie for me. It was 14" long, I was pretty excited as it came up

Thinking about using ice fishing pole to fish over edge of boat, my pole is to long and need to hold it to my side

[UFCreel]

Have done that and it is a blast!

[ice dawg]

I use ice rods when still fishing for Perch. Works well for dropping a bait right below the transducer.