Flasher in open water

[ArtVandelay]

I know this has been talked about before here but it's difficult to find. If you could provide a link that would be great. If it works as well in open water as through the ice, I'm sold.

So is the high speed transducer necessary? What if I'm double anchored vertical jigging? It seems I should be able to hang the transducer over the side and I'd be good to go.

There are two open water transducers available for the LX5, the high speed version and a puck transducer. If anyone has experience with these and can comment on which is the better choice, I'd love to hear some feedback.

Thanks guys and best of luck this weekend. I'll be fly fishing the Bow for the first time this winter...happy days

[Alberta Bigbore]

Ive witnessed alot in Manitoba and Ontario that people use an adapter of sorts for their Vexilars to mount right on the trolling motors.

[stickfloat]

The original "sonar"-"fish-finder" was the Lowrance Lo-k-tor...Green box, followed by the "Humminbird" Both were developed for open water fisheries. Over the years with the advancements of sonar units...the flasher type has been relegated to ice and/or anchor use..as they excel in stationary use...can be used for SLOW trolling but due to the REAL TIME aspect, targets can be missed unless moving very slow.

Flashers are very effective at anchor/vertical jigging..same as icefishing...below you. I f resorting to using a flasher, I suggested a mount on your bowmount/transom motor for SLOW presentation or at anchor

[FishHunterPro]

I've tried my lx5 on open water for lakers on a trip and it never worked aswell as I would have liked it to. A model with digital depth would have worked better. The conditions played a factor though for me that day cause the wind was up and the boat was all over the place.

[OttCan]

9 times out of 10, guys who are running flashers on their boat, mount them close to their trolling motor and don't rely on them for finding fish. But for depth in shallow water. It's usually mounted on the bottom of the trolling motor.

The reason why I bought an x67c was because of the capabilities of being a 4 season fish finder

[BuckHunterBowen]

We use one for finding drop offs. The real time feedback is great

[jaystev]

i use a canoe alot in summer and my flasher works right through the hull can mark fish and structure very well.

[fishin_guy]

I use my ICE 35 in the summer here in Manitoba. My wife allowed me last year to replace my broken portable fish finder so I now have a Humminbird 570 portable which has a vertical live screen for jigging. When I used my flasher I just put it off the back of the boat and the float just swirled around in the backwater of the boat. I only used it when trolling. It was more to mark depth. I would mark fish using it. When I did mark fish I would quickly adjust my trolling rig and most time catch a fish.

[Hunter Trav]

Originally Posted by OttCan

9 times out of 10, guys who are running flashers on their boat, mount them close to their trolling motor and don't rely on them for finding fish. But for depth in shallow water. It's usually mounted on the bottom of the trolling motor.

The reason why I bought an x67c was because of the capabilities of being a 4 season fish finder

x2, this was the same reason I bought the X-67 as well...

[pikester]

Does work pretty good for stationary jigging or slow drift jigging, used mine lots on Travers last summer to pinpoint suspended walleye. Just remember to pull the transducer in before trolling or moving to a new spot; guess what happens to the transducer if you forget

[thorne]

Im gonna take the opportunity here to ask a question I honestly do not understand.....what the heck is the deal with FLASHERS!?! This is by no means a criticism, I honestly just do not get it?? I find I get waaayyy more info with sonar, works great on ice, trolling or higher speeds with a decent unit. It gives me excellent detail of bottom composition, I can see individual fish action and behaviour as well as being able to accurately judge size of fish and have a record of it on the screen. I just want someone to explain what the big attraction to flashers are?? I find them, pretty limited. So if someone could give me an honest friendly explanation, and educate me, I would love to here it??

[pikergolf]

Originally Posted by thorne

Im gonna take the opportunity here to ask a question I honestly do not understand.....what the heck is the deal with FLASHERS!?! This is by no means a criticism, I honestly just do not get it?? I find I get waaayyy more info with sonar, works great on ice, trolling or higher speeds with a decent unit. It gives me excellent detail of bottom composition, I can see individual fish action and behaviour as well as being able to accurately judge size of fish and have a record of it on the screen. I just want someone to explain what the big attraction to flashers are?? I find them, pretty limited. So if someone could give me an honest friendly explanation, and educate me, I would love to here it??

I'm with you, someone reinvented the wheel put some funky colors on it and charged 20 times what it's worth. Sonar will do all a flasher will do, just gotta watch the live edge. Our economy is built on getting people to buy stuff they don't need, advertising is where the money is.

[Jbone]

I've got a finder with a flasher mode, also shows the sonar next to it. I can read the flasher quite well but I havnt been able to read the sonar very well yet but with the combination of the two on the screen it's been good to get an idea of whats going on on the sonar side. One day I'll figure it out

[HunterDave]

This thread got me thinking. I have a Marcum Showdown Troller that I bought specifically to fish Cold Lake. Would that sucker work through the bottom of my aluminum boat. I'd planned on rigging something for over the side of the boat for when I'm stationary or drift fishing.

[Kokanee9]

Originally Posted by HunterDave

This thread got me thinking. I have a Marcum Showdown Troller that I bought specifically to fish Cold Lake. Would that sucker work through the bottom of my aluminum boat. I'd planned on rigging something for over the side of the boat for when I'm stationary or drift fishing.

Yes it will work. I had bought a suction cup mount to put on the outside of the transom for a zodiac I had. Changed the boat eventually to an aluminum and found that the transducer had to be removed whenever I was not trolling or stationary. Couldn't trust the cup to stay in place when going at a faster speed and always had to go to the back and remove when going to another spot. Eventually I just put it inside the boat on the transom and kept just enough water inside the rear of the boat to have the bottom of the transducer covered. 3/8" - 1/2" at most is all the water that is needed. It wasn't necessary to have the entire transducer covered.

Bonus was that it worked when going from one spot to another at any speed, downside was that when stopping, the water would go forward along the floor and then settle down again at the back of the boat when it was coming off plane.

[Mudslide]

Most transducers will NOT shoot through aluminum without significant signal loss, although Vexilar has one called an alumaducer they claim will. You can get an adapter to fit most sonar units. I don't know if boosting the signal results in more interferance or how well they work for marking fish, so I'm not recomending it, but it's out there.

Marcum makes a boat transom mount high speed transducer that you can purchase as well if you want to use your ice fishing unit on your boat. I was tinking about getting one for my LX-7

[Mudslide]

http://vexilar.com/info/alumaducer/

[huntsfurfish]

Originally Posted by thorne

Im gonna take the opportunity here to ask a question I honestly do not understand.....what the heck is the deal with FLASHERS!?! This is by no means a criticism, I honestly just do not get it?? I find I get waaayyy more info with sonar, works great on ice, trolling or higher speeds with a decent unit. It gives me excellent detail of bottom composition, I can see individual fish action and behaviour as well as being able to accurately judge size of fish and have a record of it on the screen. I just want someone to explain what the big attraction to flashers are?? I find them, pretty limited. So if someone could give me an honest friendly explanation, and educate me, I would love to here it??

AGREE!!!

If I was an ice fisherman or any fisheran just starting out and was thinking of a sonar for ice fishing. Even if I didnt have a boat I would buy an good boat type so I could use it for when I did buy a boat!

Flasher tech is old tech. There is few if anything a flasher can do that a reg sonar cant. But there is definately more that can be done with the reg sonar.

But money is at stake, and they can sell more units.

[EZM]

Originally Posted by pikester

Does work pretty good for stationary jigging or slow drift jigging, used mine lots on Travers last summer to pinpoint suspended walleye. Just remember to pull the transducer in before trolling or moving to a new spot; guess what happens to the transducer if you forget

Answer ........ you get a new transducer.