Looking for new flasher

[Simek86]

I know there are a lot of topics on this, but with how fast technology is changing and how quiet this board has been, I thought I would look for some fresh suggestions. I've been rocking the Showdown 5.6 for 6 years now. I absolutely love it. It's time for a new neoprene case, charger, battery, and probably transducer. I went on Marcum's website today, and although they do have all of those parts I need, it looks like they discontinued the bigger 5.6 version of the showdown...they just have the little pocket size one left. Rather than drop a couple hundred dollars on new parts for a discontinued flasher, I am entertaining the idea of just getting something new. The LX 7 looks awesome, but they are little on the high side of what I'd like to spend. Garmin has decent looking units in that 300-500 range, but it doesn't look like they have the option of  the vertical water column display like the showdown or the LX-7 does. Is Marcum the only brand with that vertical display? I'm not a huge fan of fishing the circle. Anybody have any good info or suggestions?

[3300]

lx6 would save some cash over the lx7 and would be a huge improvement over the showdown. there were some great sales end of last season. getting the energized outdoor battery is a nice option that will outlast your sla batteries and save weight. marcum quit making the dual beam showdown, so if you wanted a dual beam vertical display sonar designed for ice fishing the lx6 is the cheapest option from the marcum brand. having the graph chart and multi-chart display is a must have for me.



you could request for price alerts in this section and run a search thru it to try to find old deals that may be still active. try giving deal ninja a pm and see what he can find for you.
https://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=331034.0

[Rockfish24]

I sometimes like the vertical column as well.  The Humminbird Ice Helix has a column on the right side of the screen called an RTS (real time sonar) window.  This is similar to the vertical display on the showdown and LX7.  You can adjust the width of the window to your liking and also see the history on the rest of the display screen.  Lowrance has the similar display as well.  I don't have any experience with Garmin but have owned the showdown and currently own HDS, LX7, and Ice Helix 7 and prefer the Humminbird. 

[Doeslayer]

Im really no help... I love my vex so much... Fl20 is the way to fly

[kayl]

The Garmin echomap plus units have a 2d mode, as well as a flasher view which shows both the traditional circular view and the showdown-style view.

[Simek86]

Lots of great info. Thanks everyone. I have some homework to do!

[Unclegillhunter]

Another vote for the helix. In addition to the RTS you can do a split screen that has the flasher, the graph, and vertical view. has gps and mapping. I have the ice package got for $450.00 last year. bought a TM transducer for the open water season. Love it.This coming from a die hard Vexilar user.
Keep it safe! JDL

[esox_xtm]

Lots and lotsa options out there and there's plenty of good ones. Started fishing 50 years ago with a monochrome H-bird flasher and learned to read it well. Had an early FL-8 for ice and then it's been all graphs. Really grown to like the graph over flasher even though I've had/still got units that will display both.

One thing I will never be without is a GPS integrated into my device. Sure you got one on your phone but having one right at your fingertips is priceless. Mine does 4 season duty on the bow of my boat and if I bump up over a crib or brushpile it gets a waypoint, weedlines, dropoffs humps, gets a waypoint. Point of access gets a waypoint Ever try to walk off a completely fogging in lake? Don't even need a boat. It's already rigged portable and can easily go in a canoe or kayak. Consider the possibilities.

Sure, it's more $$ up front, but there are so many advantages I'd never be without.

[filetandrelease]

Like esox said lots of choices and many good units out there  , I use a hand held gps for ice and hiking to and from stream  fishing spots , hunting
  gps is a tremendous help ,fog  ,snow storms , getting back to old spots
 From boat to ice
     

[hardwater diehard]

I recently got a Garmin EchoMap Plus 43cv w/17000 lakes preloaded ..the QuickDraw mapping function/technology, to make maps of uncontoured lakes etc, is truly amazing make your mark/label your spots via its GPS etc ..upload it to QuickDraw community for your friends to view and/or download via a Garmin account ( no waypoints gets transferred just contours ) ..not certain I will use it as a ice fishing electronic just having it atop my ATV to get me where I need to be is pretty nice ..for ice fishing I would get a 7 inch unit with Wi-Fi  . Now if Garmin could just the Garmin QuickDraw map to upload to their Navionics ,which Garmin purchased, it would be quite a lot of contour mapping and ezpz to have handy via the Boating App.

[VenomInjected]

Garmin Echomap 63cv here...

LOVE IT... the GPS mapping/lake countouring... and being able to mark a 'landing' as I drive out so if I get into a 'white out' I know where to get back and also able to mark any hazards/cracks quickly.

The Garmin can bring me back to my holes from the day before on Lake Winnebago with ease. (larger lake)

The 2D graph with the side A-scope on ultra-scroll is normally how I fish... I love having a 20 second history of the bottom so that if I'm tying lines etc... I can see if I missed a fish coming thru etc.

I'll run 2D graph split zoom with A-scope if I'm in deeper water....  I put 2 videos of me running it last year... its so much nicer than my Marcum LX5 'flasher'  I could never go back.