Vexilar FL-20 in deep water applications

[bigfish_1556]

I did not have the time to read through the 40 pages of electronics posts, so apologies in advance if this has been covered in the past......

I was lake trout fishing this weekend in 150-170 FOW.  Was able to mark accurate bottom depth on my FL-20, but only rarely marked fish or my baits.  There was a heavy delay in the readout, and I had to turn the gain up as far as it could go to even occasionally mark my lures.  Even with full gain, my lures/bait would only appear occasionally.......... I was pretty disappointed overall. The unit works well in water under 80-100ft., deeper than that and things seem to go to crap.  Is this common or am I experiencing a problem with my unit? I would think for what was paid for the thing that it should read 200 FOW and show the fish and my gosh darn bait down there..........

Any suggestions appreciated!!!!

Forgot to add, my buddy has a reconditioned FL-8se unit with deep water readout, and his appeared to be working fine? What's the scoop there? Is this worth a call to Vex service?

[lotwfisher]

I would check your battery....Also at the depth if you have a wide cone angle then it may be too deep for it too work effectively...Even tho it should actually mark more at that depth sometimes it wont work as good as a narrow cone that is designed for deeper water. Other than that I would call Vexilar and see what they say about it....Have you tried it in shallow water to see if the vex maybe is faulty??

[icetechy]

The FL-20 from what I have read lacks the POWER to get the deep stuff done period...  I have seen the same scenario present itself on another site.  Guy had his FL-18 with him and stuck it in the hole where his FL-20 was and miraculously fish appeared and his jig didn't have any problems showing up, he couldn't see jack on the FL-20 at full gain, even tried his buddies transducer and still the same thing...  Seems like that new wide screen takes a little juice away from the nuts and bolts.  Keep your FL-18 until they can fix this.

[LoneWolf]

It was the same with the FL-18. Even on the narrow beam in deeper water .. beyond 80 feet .. there was a heavy delay in response time and as you said the gain had to be turned up.


 

[RLWagner]

If you are already utilizing the narrow beam cone, keep in mind that even a tiny angle variance associated with how it hangs in the water, will cause it to miss the target in the deep water you mention.
A fixed extension arm may help keep the transducer straight.