Flasher recommendation for deep water fishing

[ziggy6]

I have a Humminbird 35 that has difficulty reading in water over 80 feet so I'm thinking of changing to a Marcum or a Vex...cant go over 500 or the old lady is going to kill me. Would anyone have recommendations for a machine that would work well in that depth? thanks

[BlackDucksAndBrownDogs]

The Vexilar FL-20 with a Tri-Beam transducer works well for me.  I did have an issue with the transducer last year, but Vexilar's customer service was top notch.

I've never owned a Marcum so I'll let others comment.

[bigstorm]

I had the same problem with my ICE35, upgraded to the Marcum LX6. Wow, what a difference!

[tswoboda]

Vex Fl-12 with a proview transducer.  Fl-18 or Fl-20 if you want to have zoom... again with the proview transducer.  The proview works very well in deep water.

[Yankee Troller]

The power on the HB Ice 35, 45, and 55 isn't as strong as their LCD Ice machines. That being said I ran my ICE55 last Winter over 140' with no issues. It hung right in there with my buddies LX9. The LX5 that was there didn't mark like the LX9 or the 55. The Vex was OK, but after everyone saw each others the LX9 and the 55 were very close to being the best on that day.

The power on the HB LCD units is 500w and 1500' capable. The ICE55 is 300W and 200' capable. I used the ICE688 this past weekend over 100' of water, and it performed awesome! I had my ICE55 with me. I should have done a head to head comparison.

Check out HB's new HELIX units. Priced right, and they have the same power as the ICE688:

http://www.humminbird.com/Products/HELIX-5-SONAR-GPS/

There is a review on the electronics section of this forum.

[crappieslayer37]

Vex 28 pro view ducer

[Drifter_016]

Marcum LX-5 here. Dual beam transducer and tons of power.
No problems in deep water at all. So far have used it down to about 160' with good results.

[3300]

lx-6 form sportsman direct. i got the lx-7 for the price of the 6 cyber monday/week sales last year off season from reeds.
4 payments or 138 a month if you are a member, but would be worth it to get the payments and membership benefits. your ol lady won't hardly notice that!
strongest power so far and digital.
10 day turn around if the ribbon cable falls off like mine did. some fix it themselves.

[Spider1]

I have the 45, have no problems at all but then I usually don't go much deeper than 40 ft, sometimes I hit a hole but I haven't had a problem yet... knock on wood.

[frigidaire]

After a recent, and very successful late season for lake trout on Keuka Lake in ~170 fow I can report the following:  Vexilars are the best flashers, hands down, especially the FX-28.  Marcums are fine, but only to their limit of 160ft.  Humminbird ICE 35, 45, 55 are nearly useless below 120ft.  I have the ICE 55.  After one outing I left it home and went back with my old, CHEAP Piranha 170 sonar.  Fantastic!  I could see everything!!!  A lot of guys were using the newer Lorance sonars, Elite 4 & 5 models.  Watching the lakers come up off the bottom to chase ascending jigs was a hoot!!!

[Yankee Troller]

The ICE 35-55 don't have a ton of power, but I did use mine on Keuka in the same water you mentioned last season, and it was far better than a LX5, and marked as good as an LX9. Didn't fish with a Vex guy.

The Humminbird Ice 597 and 688 have much more power and are crazy good in the deep water.

[DR.SPECKLER]

vexilar fl20  with proview or the  flx28 with proview.great durable flashers  for deep or shallow water.

[TwoLightsKid]

I've been happy with my lowrance elite 4x for deep jigging lakers down to 180'.  Only problem is when I'm fishing lighter jigs in areas with some current and the jig gets pushed to the fringes on the sonar cone. 

[JJBat150]

I fish Keuka lake year round with a Humminbird 597 and have no problems seeing a 1 oz jig at >180 FOW.

On the ice I usually use a Humminbird PiranhaMax 176i, and have no problems with the same jig at the same location.

This past winter, I did take both units out at the same time for a side by side comparison - When I was in "shanty town", I found that the 597 was picking up a lot of interference from others around me and i would loose the jig at ~100-120 feet and became pretty much useless.  The PiranhaMax , on the other hand didn't seem as sensitive to the interference. It would show steady lines running at angles based on how close other would get to me, but could still see the jig on the bottom.

Once thing to consider is the area of coverage the sonar gets ("cone size") especially in deeper water... I found the the following  information interesting regarding the Humminbirds I own.  I kinda figured that using the same transducer I would have the same cone size when each unit was set to 200 kHz.

597:

83 Khz has a 60 Degree cone
200 Khz has a 20 Degree cone

PiranhaMax:

200 kHz has a 28 degree cone
455 kHz  has a 16 degree cone

[3300]

was wanting to see what the marcum lx6 and up can read as far as depth goes.

this is from the manual.

RANGE— The LX-7 is equipped with “Auto Range” and “Dynamic Depth”.
The LX-7 will automatically lock onto the proper range with either of these
settings. There are also 9 manually adjustable depth ranges—10, 20, 40, 60,
80, 120, 180, 240 and 300-feet. If you manually select a range, select a range
that is deeper than the actual depth and when in doubt, error on the “deep”
side. Regardless of the depth range setting, your LX-7 will always display
digital depth, even if the bottom is deeper than the bottom limit of the RANGE
setting (down to 300’).


MAX PING RATE— Adjusting this setting will increase the response time of
signals from your transducer to the screen. If fishing shallow
water (less than 20 feet) use the lower settings. Likewise,
you will see better performance with the higher settings in
deeper water.

[dabills]

After a recent, and very successful late season for lake trout on Keuka Lake in ~170 fow I can report the following:  Vexilars are the best flashers, hands down, especially the FX-28.  Marcums are fine, but only to their limit of 160ft.  Humminbird ICE 35, 45, 55 are nearly useless below 120ft.  I have the ICE 55.  After one outing I left it home and went back with my old, CHEAP Piranha 170 sonar.  Fantastic!  I could see everything!!!  A lot of guys were using the newer Lorance sonars, Elite 4 & 5 models.  Watching the lakers come up off the bottom to chase ascending jigs was a hoot!!!

I fished Keuka late also. I was using a Lx-5 but could only mark to 160 it was kind of annoying. Were you marking a lot of fish deeper than that? I had no way of knowing.