Flashers

[Goodnight]

Have never owned a fish finder for ice fishing, have one on the boat though. I'm going to purchase a flasher this year, but would like some advice from folks that use them frequently.  What brand? What model? Why? Would like to stay under $600.  Thank you!!!

[shoeshineman]

I bought my first flasher this past Summer for $250. It's a 10 year old Vexilar 18. It seems pretty bombproof. I've run a few times this year and it is solid.

[my-marty]

I bought the marcum m1 last season and really like it. My only regret is not getting a flasher with dual beam. You can get a very good flasher for less that 600.

[Mizayikaa]

I have a Hummingbird 55 that I really like. It is the only flasher that I have ever used though so I have nothing to compare it to.

[3300]

you can get the marcum lx6 for your budget. it is a digital sonar with 6 charts to pick up to 4 to show at the same time including a graph.
if you buy from marcum, they have 10% off your first order.

it could look like this

[oldschoolben]

Spend the extra 150 and get a helix 7

[pmmpete]

Don't get a flasher.  They only show the sonar return from the current moment.  Get a chart style of fish finder where the return marches across the screen from right to left, like boating fish finders.  For example, if you look away from the screen, you might look back and see, wow, a fish rose up off the bottom to the level of your lure or bait about 10 seconds ago, and then settled back down to the bottom . . . but wait, it's coming back up again!  You can get an excellent fish finder for way less than $600.

Most "flasher" style fish finders have a round display, with the sonar returns shown around the outside edge of the display, but the Marcum Showdown fish finders have a vertical display which shows the shows the sonar returns from the current moment in a vertical column, with the water surface at the top and the bottom near the bottom of the column.  If you really want a "flasher" style fish finder, I find the Marcum Showdown easier to use than the round flasher style fish finders.  But I think that a chart style of fish finder is way better than any flasher style fish finder.  My Showdown fish finder is languishing in my basement, because I take my Lowrance chart style fish finder on all my ice fishing trips.

[gf hardwater guy]

PM offers some real good wisdom. If I was to add anything, I would suggest you stash your $600.00 for a bit and go out fishing with as many of your buddies who have flashers/Graph machines like PM stated and see which one(s)perform best for you. In Great Falls, Scheels hosts a Saturday on Wadsworth pond in the dead of winter where they demo not only the latest in electronics, but all kinds of ice fishing equipment(augers, houses,etc). I also agree with PM, you should be able to find a lot of electronics for the amount you have budgeted. Might even be able to find something that you can use on the ice and open water in your boat.

[Mancaveburnett]

I have a marcum lx 5i, the new version is the m5. Its a great unit, this is my 3rd season with it. Something I like is the zoom feature. If you fish in less than 15 feet of water i wouldnt even worry about the zoom. I would stick with either a marcum or vex.

[RuralMT]

But I think that a chart style of fish finder is way better than any flasher style fish finder.

With this only being my third season on the ice, I'm far from an expert on...well anything ice-fishing related, but during my first season I went the route mentioned by PM and couldn't be happier.  I bought a Garmin Striker 4 on sale and, with the purchase of the iceducer they offer for about $80, I was still under the $300 mark.  No doubt, a flasher is handier to move from hole to hole, and I would invest in one if I was competing in tournaments.  However, the Striker 4 + iceducer does exactly what I need it to do on the ice and is useful to me during the open-water season as well.  Plus, as PM also mentioned, it's a lot of fun to watch the chart and it gives you an idea of what happened when you looked away for whatever reason. 

[fritz2324]

I have a marcum lx3tc, This will be my eighth year with it.  No problems except a couple batteries.  It gets the job done. Whatever you choose will be a great benefit, let’s you know if your fishing overs fish, and how they are reacting. 

[Moose_04]

I had a Humminbird ICE Helix 5 for three seasons and just sold it. I upgraded to the Helix 7 so I can use it on my boat and through the ice. These are great units as they can operate like a "standard" fish finder and they have a flasher mode and gps. I bought my wife the Helix 5 G2 last season and they are a nice unit. They have CHIRP sonar and gps. They are within your price range and like I said have gps.

If you have any other questions, let me know.

[happyheber]

vexlar fl 18 

[BobberdownMT]

Vexilar FL-18. Bombproof easy and does everything the rest of them do

[Noon]

why not just get an ice ducer and a carry case for your fish finder from your boat?

[happyheber]

Vexilar FL-18. Bombproof easy and does everything the rest of them do

     ya buddy     

[mtcommonwalleyeguy]

For $600, I'd go with an ice package Garmin echomap plus. As large as possible. Those things come with contour maps for many Montana lakes built in, let you make your own contour maps, have accurate gps, have the graph and vertical flasher mode with bottom zoom, and traditional flasher mode. I'm running a striker model (the baby brother for the echomaps,i.e. no built in maps), both in my boat and on the ice, and i love it.

[Unclegillhunter]

Good idea going out and seeing units on the ice you will find most folks will be happy to explain what they like but not so much what they don’t. I used Vexilar for the last bunch of years. Just bought a Hummingbird Helix ice 5 g2/gps. Has a flasher mod and chirp sonar think I paid $450.00 planning on using it for open water come open water season. I can’t sell on this site so that is out but most flashers will do the job. If you go with a flasher get one with bottom lock, or maybe it’s zoom. Also look at the target separation. Good luck with whatever you decide on.
Keep it safe! JDL

[3300]

there is a 20% off sale at marine general so you can get the lx7 for 600 or the lx6 for 550.
https://www.marinegeneral.com/product-category/specials/winter-specials/

these can be used year round with their high speed transducer and many enjoy doing so.

my hb ice-55 "flasher" took a back seat about 5 years ago. you don't know what your missing until you see what your missing with some thing else. same goes with ice rods. it was a good learning step for me. it shows the basics. it was my first sonar. i knew shortly after getting it i wanted more, much more control and how the information is being displayed so i was looking for better the whole time i had this flasher. the lights drove me crazy at nite time and had to face the display down towards the ice to keep it from blinding me ( i get optical migraines from bright lights). the vibration would get louder and louder until you turned the head some to hopefully make it a little quieter even for a small amount of time. the way it fishes with a swim noodle was nuts and then dangling it under the plate meant more fouled fish in the transducer line and loosing fish and time. hanging the transducer under the plate makes it more prone to other sonar signals also and get frozen in.
using the arm system on marcum sonar fixed all of this for me and now you can buy after market arms to make your bird fish this way too. back then it was one of the other, but it was only one thing of many i wanted changed.

the sonar engine is what makes these units worse or better than others also. until you try others, you don't know what your missing. the display plays a huge part of it as well. having 4 charts (from a choice of 6) at one time is huge compared to that of a fixed flashing light flasher display (this is why they call it a "flasher") that can only flash lights in a circle and can do nothing more than just that for displaying fish and jig and bottom. the center display of the hb ice-55 is only for the sonar settings not any thing else.

staying practical for moving is a key factor tho. this means the panoptix is out of that realm, for now. when they get theirs lighter and smaller and easy to move it will be a go to for many.

here is mine before swapping the shuttle to the lithium shuttle. i added cob lighting under the head unit because i fish a lot in the dark. the light is super bright and faces away from my eyes. also the transducer is just barely in the water. it's about one inch in and at the top of the hole to help reject other sonar signals.


in the flip over on a bucket to save the neck in a dedicated hole. no one else on the lake means i can hang the transducer under the ice plate.


i did upgrade to their lithium shuttle and like it all the more.


you can have it display as a "flasher" mode also if you want. this shows some of the charts you can display.


https://www.rapala.com/marcum/fish-finders-sonar/digital-ice-systems/lx-7-digital-sonar-system-8-lcd-dual-beam/LX-7.html

the marcum lx6 does every thing the lx7 does except a smaller screen in 6 inch vs 8 inches.

[Elkhnter]

For the Money I sure would buy a standard flasher- Humminbird has the Helix-5 and the Helix-7 a lot better money spend as they have both a graph and a flasher which you would have the best of both worlds, well i'm not a flasher guy so I never use that feature since the graph shows you an actual fish as a fish and not a colored line.. Which I like to call circus lights.. LOL 

[Cornbread]

I have a Marcum LX5. It worked for just over a year and then broke. Now the entire display just spins in circles when you turn it on. Even with a brand new battery. For what I paid for it I feel it was a huge rip off and I won't be buying anything from them again. I could send it in to get it fixed but I am thinking I would rather have one of the new style sonar ones like a Hummingbird Helix. It may be a few years though before I drop that kind of cash on a piece of electronic ice fishing gear again though. It makes fishing a lot easier but I would not recommend the Marcum flashers based on my experience with them. Mine ended up being a lot of money for something that didn't work for very long. It has been sitting out in my shop now for a number of years. Makes me mad every time I see it out there, but I don't toss it just in case I do decide to get it repaired.

[happyheber]

VEXLARS are second to none. and their customer service will blow you away 

[Perch-Eye]

I hear you cornbread on the Marcum . I got a Pancam for Christmas three years ago and it only worked a couple of times before the motor that spins the camera cable quit working. I sent it back and they replaced the broken part  and it was hit and miss when it worked. it didn't want to work with the cheap tablet so I got a s4 cell phone to try it that way but it kept going dead so this year I got a new battery in the camera and the cell phone and now it runs for about 20 second and then freezes up and says it lost the wifi signal.It's just a $250


   Ken.........

[3300]

I have a Marcum LX5. It worked for just over a year and then broke. Now the entire display just spins in circles when you turn it on. Even with a brand new battery. For what I paid for it I feel it was a huge rip off and I won't be buying anything from them again. I could send it in to get it fixed but I am thinking I would rather have one of the new style sonar ones like a Hummingbird Helix. It may be a few years though before I drop that kind of cash on a piece of electronic ice fishing gear again though. It makes fishing a lot easier but I would not recommend the Marcum flashers based on my experience with them. Mine ended up being a lot of money for something that didn't work for very long. It has been sitting out in my shop now for a number of years. Makes me mad every time I see it out there, but I don't toss it just in case I do decide to get it repaired.

if you want it fixed, it will cost 85$ and they give you a lot of new items for it when you have them go thru it like a transducer and bag and battery. the transducer alone is worth it.
they also quit using those junk brushed motors and use brushless motors now so that's what you'd get if you send it in.

this is a huge difference from humminbird's cost for same repair. my hb ice-55 motor fried and it cost 200$ with shipping and they would not fix the on/off/depth decoder switch. when you spend with hb they give you a 90 warranty and so i sent it back with the bad switch and they still refused to replace it. so it cost even more to try to get it fixed and they refuse to take care of. no one else can take care of that switch either. we know the item number but you have to buy 1000 switches before the manufacturer will sell them.
mine didn't work very long either and it cost me 530$ plus the 220$ to try to get it partially fixed. so i have a 750$ junk sonar that i wished i never wasted any time or money on. lesson learned. no more humminbird in this family, ever again.

so now you know what happens when a motor goes out in both of these brands. i think many people have no idea until they learn the hard way. it's easy to see tho. just go to their web sites and look into out of warranty repair costs or call them.

[3300]

I hear you cornbread on the Marcum . I got a Pancam for Christmas three years ago and it only worked a couple of times before the motor that spins the camera cable quit working. I sent it back and they replaced the broken part  and it was hit and miss when it worked. it didn't want to work with the cheap tablet so I got a s4 cell phone to try it that way but it kept going dead so this year I got a new battery in the camera and the cell phone and now it runs for about 20 second and then freezes up and says it lost the wifi signal.It's just a $250 pos
Ken.........

looks like your wifi problem is with the s4 phone you chose. it has major wifi issues according to the articles online. as far as camera panners go, they are all junk and only a few to pick from. they use tiny gears and tiny under powered motors.
see if you can use a friends phone or family member to try theirs with it. the pancam is supposed to have 300 feet wifi connectivity.

https://thedroidguy.com/2018/05/4-samsung-galaxy-s4-wifi-internet-connection-problems-83593

https://www.technobezz.com/fix-samsung-galaxy-s4-wifi-problem-updating-4-4-2/

https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/samsung-galaxy-s4-problems/

[Cornbread]

That's good to know about the fix 3300. Thank you. What makes me mad is a I spent so much on it to begin with only to have it give out way before it should have. I saved up a long time to be able to afford it and then to have it die like that, it felt like I just chucked all that saving down the toilet. I will probably have it repaired then seeing that is cheaper than buying a new one of a different brand. Any idea what turn around time is on it when you send them in?

[3300]

i now how you feel exactly. it happened with my hb ice-55. marcum has great customer service and they like to talk when they aren't too busy. they are like us and are anglers too.
i would call them and ask what they expect it to take. the season is on for some. i think for this time of year about two weeks. off season is one week most of it is for shipping. just send them the head unit is my recommendation.

when you call them explain what you said here and they may waive the charge for you. they have done it many times before knowing their motors are junk until they switched to brushless last year finally. they can afford to take care of it, but depends if they will for free.
if not, it is well worth it to know you'll have a fresh transducer because they do wear down and faster when you hit or bang them they become less sensitive.

the brushless motor should last forever, unlike what they used in yours. i would point out that you know this while on the phone with them. it is a thorn in their side that they used those old motors.

and a new battery so you can fish longer before needing to charge, but you should always charge when done for the day/nite. it's hard on them to go marathon with them to see how long before things quit working. the head unit stress's at low voltage and is what is called brown out when trying to work like that. also, you have to crank up the gain to make up for wattage output at the transducer. because of this constant downhill voltage slope of sla batteries, i went with lithium because it is much more stable and has a fast drop off when depleted. this means steadier performance from the sonar and less brownout stress and more than half the weight removed to move hole hoping/checking holes for fish.

and a new case. i use water proofing spray under mine to help it from absorbing as much water as fast, but since switched to the marcum lithium shuttle, so their is no case to maintain and lots of features to use.

 i wanted to add that their new M series sonars means a motor change. it means those use the brushless motors so people know which one they are buying before spending. they did this with their lx-6 and made the next version lx-6s. the S means shuttle change. they quit using the lx-6 shuttle and now us the lx-5 shuttle with its smaller foot print.

Our toll free number is 888-778-1208
763-512-3987

394 QUEBEC AVE.
NEW HOPE, MN
55427

[Bhoesl]

Just bought a new marcum M1, anybody know why in the manual it says never to hang the transducer below the ice "or damage can occur"?
Any other flasher I've used I always believed was best TO have the ducer below the bottom of the ice.
Just curious why it would say not to in the manual.

[3300]

all you have to do is remove the air from under any transducer to have it work. this is a major advantage of using their arm. just keep the transducer centered in the hole and about one inch or less in the water. i use velcro one wrap to help hold the cable from slipping down their stopper and i wind a few turns of cable around the arm before using the one wrap velcro. be careful not to pinch cut the cable with the arm folding it away. it's best to undo the winding if you did that to hold the cable in place.

this arm and just barley in the water method of fishing make it so much easier landing fish. it also helps by allowing the ice to reject other sonar return signals from reaching yours.

their cable feels soft to me and you need to protect it from fishing line cuts, this is what it should say in their manual. also try not to jam the cable on top of the transducer or you can get a pinch cut.

cornbread, i was wrong, they want 80$ not 85$ and they do want the transducer back.
https://marcumtech.com/us-non-warranty-claim/

[Elkhnter]

3300: Well I will respectfully disagree with your statement on Humminbird I like a lot of folks running humminbirds and for one not a lot of problems with their products! And they few times that we ever have had problems they provided us with perfect services. So I think it goes without saying sometimes one get good service and every once and a while someone doesn't get treated the way they should. I'm sorry that happened to you as it isn't right..

Anyways for what its worth I would'nt be scared of running a hummingbird- As I've owned their products for over 20-years and haven't had any issues!!