Support Iceshanty... Get some great gear and forum goodies... Join The Iceshanty Hardwater Militia
Wow, I now really really really want to buy a Flasher. Never owned one and now really just getting in to ice fishing going by myself vs. always with buddies w/ the gadgets telling me "ah, don't worry about it, I have one or two of those." While that is nice, I couldn't go whenever I wanted and take my 5yo.When going w/ friends, they just tell me the depth is XX feet and the crappies are at YY feet, never really getting to play w/ the flasher.So today my neighbor/friend was nice to let me use his Vexilar. My 5yo and I went out on a little lake/pond that we dock fish in the summer for b'gills/sunnies. First I asked some of the others what was going on. Guy said the Crappies were deep, but now moving shallow. Now keep in mind we went out around 1pm, so not the best fishing time, but again, goal was to have lunch on the lake, play around, and maybe catch something.The Command Post was set up over 17 FOW - drop in the Flasher - NOTHING - bummer! It was 15 deg, slight breeze here/there off/on sunny - beautiful day. Drilled some holes at 12, 3 and 9 o'clock, 50 & 100 ft away.I was having fun playing with the flasher and didn’t mind drilling all the holes w/ my 8" hand-auger. Ice was only 12" so easy to do.So was really cool to find in 25FOW, and see many bars of orange & green covering 16-19 feet on the Flasher. I figured that had to be the Crappies. Just unfortunately they were not hungry for Crappie minnows and didn't try waxies. They only stayed for 15-20 mins and then would just disappear.Also cool you could see air-bubbles float up. Watch a small single green bar slide around the scale. It was fun teaching my son what to look for on the screen and how we can see the bottom and the type of bottom. We were in muck, didn't see any weeds. I even saw the screen, around 10' down, start green, turn orange, more orange, red, larger red...back to green and then gone. Somehing big swam by.Some of you reading this may be laughing and can hear the comments now. To all the newbies - go buy one! You won't regret it. I think I can scrape up $300 from my slush fund for a Marcum VX-1.To all those who bring friends with that don't own one, please stop saying "just use mine." Instead, tell them "GET YOUR OWN!" and then maybe I would of bought one sooner :-)The secret to success is knowing who to blame for your failures.-despair.com
i picked one up this year too and find myself loaning it to dad or my uncle for a few mins each time we go out. I don't mind I almost feel bad becasue they done have one, I'm not sure if they want them or not, but I do notice my dad will often look over my shoulder to watch the screen. maybe a fathersday gift in the works
Sorry if this is a complete dumbass question, but can you use a vexilar when NOT ice fishing? I.E. summer bass fishing off a boat? Just started ice fishing a week ago, been freshwater fishing for a few months, figure I'm ready to start getting some toys, but not really 100% on what's what yet. Thanks
not meaning to hihjack the thread, but you can use a vex or marcum in a boat in the summer? with another piece of equip (transducer)? they should say something about that on their website. cool
they do it was all over the box for my lx-3tchttp://store.marcumtech.com/Category/Transducers-and--Sonar-Accessories/
But how well does it work - I suppose if your just drifting or sitting still it would work good. Anyone ever try it?