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yeah I know.i was just wondering why people say their display is blobby in shallow water..and yeah I broke the mid section of a old 9ft crappie pole so I used the top half and made a ice rod out of it.real nice tip that does not need a indicator.i don't like auto mode either.
Reading the flx28 manual, it says the higher you turn up the gain, the wider the cone angle you are seeing? Is that the way it works? I think it should be made the other way around. So in deeper water, you can turn up the gain to see a smaller jig, and narrow the cone for deep use. Then turn gain down in shallow for a wider view. Ive never used a proview. Or a tri beam. Been a while since I've used a Vexilar for that matter. Guess I'd have to see the Proview in action to understand it better.I would think the tri beam would allow for more variables. Wide beam in shallow. Or narrow beam in shallow weeds with a lower gain setting. I assume the weed setting on the 28 compensates for that?
with the flx28 and proview you rarely lose your jig so just turn the gain to see whats outside your hole then narrow it down to see fish directly underneath you.i don't lose my 3mm jig with 1 spike on it very often or at all really.
Holy smokes guys I had no idea this thread would catch as much attention as it has haha. I couldn’t resist, I went against my better judgement and took the FLX20 with it yesterday as the Walleye reports were to much for me to handle not taking the Vex with me. Sitting out over 16’ of river water, Slight current and first time out with this new Vex since not having my old FL-18 I sold like 5yrs ago and was anxious to see how she’d perform. Granted with the bit of current and me wanting to crank sensitivity back just so I had a “thin” green line showing. Low power/zoom/3 colour mode, unless I had rod tip as close as possible to ducer cable that 12* wouldn’t pick it up initially. That was in the morning. Went back to same area and got up onto a drop off for the afternoon and I felt more comfortable with it but I truly feel “IF” these Tri beams are as strong as say a single cone ducer, in my Humble opinion, I can’t see why it isn’t the one for my fishing situations. Thinking how much of an inconvenience especially spending as much money on these Ice Cadillacs with say the Proview then having to think oh ok so it’s to powerful in 16’ so I need to adjust go to 30’ scale etc etc, man I just wanna fish. Again, and maybe I’ll have a different opinion if and when I get the Tribeam, but wouldn’t it be nice if say over that 16’ of the 12* is having a hard time picking it up because of say current, flip over to the 20* and be done with it !!?? One other thing I noticed with the DD-100 yesterday, it only once showed the actual depth, was all over the place mostly showing 68’, 34’. Any idea what could cause that. I really think I’m gonna call Vex to see if they’ll help me out and swap this proview for the tribeam and be done with it.
interesting doc. when we used the proview in <10 there was no way to widen the beam and not introduce a crap ton of clutter onto the screen. you could still make out your jig but you made out everything else too. and we couldn't turn it down enough in lp/weed mode to get the thin line.
I called today and had a Very Brief chat with Tom over at Vexilar because I wanted to talk with someone that knew this stuff. He said the FLX-28 WAS DESIGNED for the PROVIEW... he said by using the Tribeam, I will lose the auto depth and also the digital depth display which honestly I could care less about and I feel would be a fair trade off for a simplistic turn on and go type flasher no matter what depth I’m in like my ol FL18 was.
Update, well guys since having the New FLX-28 for the past 3 weeks or so, I’ve used it about 5 times thus far. I’ve only fished in depths from 8’-16’ fishing for both yellow perch and eyes... I found using Auto depth/Low Power/Zoom, with the sensitivity bs led down as Low as it can go, that ProView is too strong and no matter what colour mode I use, I can’t adjust fine enough, BUT if I go from Auto Depth Range to the 20’ scale then no problem I can reduce sensitivity/gain low enough to have a nice thing green line or even make bait disappear. One thing I have noticed is the digital depth display/readout doesn’t work while using the 20’ range but works fine in Auto. Seems strange Being the 9* ducer is so narrow when using swim baits like a jiggin rap or my favourite, CD-5 Salmo Chubby Darters, this setup will not read until that bait makes its way back into the centre of cone signal. If I thought the Tribeam would truly be superior to cover my needs over this ProView, especially when 95% of my time on the ice is spent chasing yella bellies and pickerel haha walleye in waters less than 16’ I’d make the call to the good people at Vexilar in hopes to do an exchange even if it cost me a few bucks to do that. Overall I love the FLX28 compared to the 18 I had for about 5yrs and FLX 20 I briefly owned until the 28 arrived. Now to just figure out what I want to do over this transducer. Tnx guys.
I prefer the tri-beam myself on the 28 but just a personal preference. I try to remind myself to not overthink the bells and whistles. Most times it comes down to having the right bait with the right jig action in the right spot. Being able to see where the fish are in the water column is 90% of the battle with flashers. About the time i get hung up on "target separation" or "cone angle" or whatever, I get my a$$ handed to me by a buddy with an FL-8. If you can see your bait and the fish, you've got most of what you need. Everything else is just icing on the cake.
Thanks for letting us know your experiences. I put in a different thread in a different section that there are consequences to going with the tribeam on the FLX28. I hadn't recalled it being stated here nor did the tech say anything about it initially, however, Tom Z. over at Vexilar was able to further explain the limitations that the FLX28 has with the tribeam. Most notably for me is that using the 2 together you will find that when you get over 35-40 feet, you will likely have your gain maxed out regardless of the cone angle being used. Even then there was moments that the small jig would cut out on the screen and would be frustrating at times. Especially when dealing with a finicky bite. I actually now have a FLX with tribeam and a proview that I'm going to work with a little bit side by side. Also picked up a smoking deal on a Marcum M5 so regardless I'm covered. (I know I have problems, but you never know when you need a spare unit... right? lol)
Wow I’m thankful for your input OA, especially after reading your experience with the tri I haven’t yet added one to the cart. So from what you’re saying the Tribeam is possibly underpowered and the ProView over powered. I called down to the cool people at the Vexilar company late this afternoon... The really upbeat friendly lady Hope that answered put me in touch with Tom the head of Marketing and I believe research also. Thankfully the common ground we shared with the Chubby Darters made for more, what I felt was more like a personable call rather than maybe an here we go again type conversation which I was thankful for. Anyways, after explaining my experience so far with this new FLX28 and it’s ProView ducer, Tom suggested IF it’s too powerful in the Auto range even with the gain/sensitivity all the way down to Zero in Low Power/Zoom, to turn unit Off, middle Range knob position to Normal, then depress Gain knob then power up unit to Auto range which will put unit into Weed Mode. He mentioned using this mode will reduce power by 10-15% compared to even the Low Power mode. He suggested to try this first. He in no way tried to discourage me from the Tribeam, because he felt confident enough the PV being was designed to work with the 28... something else when I mentioned when using these swim baits like a jiggin rap or Darter, and it swims outside the cone angle and completely vanished from the screen until it almost reaches dead centre in shallow water... and again I felt another reason I wondered of the Tribeam might be a better choice for the shallows, he said, even if I was using the tri and had it set to 20*, the real difference between the 9 and 20 in the shallows in regards to how many actual Inches of extra bottom coverage would be minimal and not worth going to the tri. So the jury is still out until I can get out within next few days and test drive in Weed mode. Sorry for long post all
Yes you can adjust the pulse power by using the low power and weed mode, but it's still that same 9 degrees coming out of the crystal.
As long as I can reduce the amount of signal strength going to that lure so it’s nothing wider than a narrow green line no matter what Range I’m using, then I’ll call that fine but if I can’t then I’ll continue to look for an alternative route.
