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Howdy friends,
I'm new to BFT--great forum to be apart of!
I'm looking for a flasher (never owned one before) and I'm in the market for a great all-around addition to my growing ice fishing gear. I need something that is dependable, gives accurate readings, user friendly, and worth my money. If you could give some suggestions on model, cone degree, and over all quality of your favorite flasher I would appreciate it.
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I have a showdown It is easy to use doesn't have all the colors to figure out drop transducer in the hole and watch your offering drop to the fish [reply][/reply]
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Whipper Snapper,
I too, use a Showdown. Chose it because of the vertical scale which mimics the water column down the hole. Has great features and clarity. Used it today on Starvy to pick up several nice perch and a trout or two.
Its really easy to see a fish come into the cone and actually see the fish rise to take the lure. Caught several today by observing them come to the lure. Company claims 1/2" target seperation and my experience is that is true. Love mine and heartily recommend it.
Trueblue2
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About a week ago I posted same kind of post cause I was also looking for a flasher... After looking alot and reading up I narrowed it down to a vexilar fl-18 and a humming bird 45... I went with the vexilar because of the bottom lock feature in half the circle... Hope to use it for the first time this weekend..
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+1 for the showdown. Been running it for three year and love it. A very simple and easy unit to run. Up is up and down is down. If there's a line in between the top and bottom, it's either your jig or a fish. No need to get to technical, all your doing is looking down a stationary hole in the ice. All you should be looking for is the depth, were your jig is and were the fish are. The showdown in my opinion is hands down the most user friendly ice machine out there.
Photo shows I was fishing in 23 feet of water. All lines above the 23 mark are fish or my jig. In this case I was sitting over the top of a school of bottom hugging perch. The thicker the line the bigger the fish.
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Last year I purchased a lowrance x67 ice machine and absolutely love it. It has the bottom zoom feature also and it has proved itself time and time again. I fished pineview quite a bit last week and had no problem finding the perch and crappie. Its a great summertime finder also
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I have been using a Vexilar FL-18 for four years now. It DOES have all of the colors, which are extremely useful. They indicate the strength of a signal, so as a fish approaches at a given depth the color fo the signal changes from green to yellow to red, allowing you to time your response with quicker set time to the line.
The thing I appreciate most is its sensitivity. At 20-30 feet I can still distinquish between my perch jig head or ice fly and a 1/16 ounce weight on the line. Many times I have dropped it down a hole right next to another fisherman's fishfinder and found fish that they were not displaying. Last year on DC I approached a group using a LCD screen fish finder who reported no fish despite fishing for over two hours. I dropped my flasher unit in next to my line, showed them a fish hugging the bottom, and then played the finicky thing repeatedly with my lure until he grabbed it and I put him on the ice.
That having been said, I have found a weakness to the FL-!8. When I am over a very deep column of water (90+ feet) but have the setting set for the first 20 feet because I want to closely examine the upper part of the column, I sometimes will get a false 'bottom' reading at twenty feet. It does not seem to occur at any other depth setting. I do no know if it is peculiar to my own machine, or if it is a generalized weakness for all of the FL-18 series.
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cant go wrong with a vex, h-bird, showdown or a marcum, each has things the others dont. I have never used a marcum but have had experience with vexs and h-birds. The vex has a better target seperation then the h-bird which is great for panfish, however the h-bird ice 55 can zoom any column of the water and has a digital read out, fishin trout and bigger crappie the ice 55 is awesome.
once again adding a flasher to your arsenal will increase your catching #s, i would rather leave my auger then forget my flasher!
Good luck
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Flasher technology is over 60 years old. I'll take a graph any day over a flasher. Lots of them have a flasher style display if you want it. Most have a portion of their display that does the exact same thing as the showdown. They have better zoom.
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I use the Humminbird ice 45 - she works like a dream, but takes a little while to get use to. I don't think you can go wrong - a flasher = more fish. I came very close to getting a showdown because of the vertical fish column, but went with the bird and haven't looked back.
Good luck
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I've had my Showdown finder for over 4 years and I'm a raving fan of the device. I've used other types of finders for ice fishing and the Showdown is by far the easiest to use and learn. I sent mine away two years ago to have the software upgraded to the current model's 5.6 configuration.
The Showdown zoom feature allows you to select a range anywhere within the water column for more detail. Last week we fished Starvation in 52 feet of water. I zoomed in on the bottom 10 feet and I could see my 1/16 oz. jig and attractor when they were a few inches off the bottom. If a fish came into the cone's area it was immediately visible and I could change up my presentation to get the buggers to bite.
The unit has a very low power demand and I've used it for nearly two and a half days at the Gorge without charging. When we were fishing the Gorge I experimented with the sensitivity and I could see a 1/4 oz. jig at 85 feet.
One thing I have noticed on the downside. Apparently my friend's Lowrance unit causes interference with my Showdown if he is within about 50 feet of me. My Showdown doesn't cause any problems with his unit. I tried tuning my sensitivity down and it only helps a little and I have to turn it down so much I can't see my jig. I had to move away in order to use my unit at the settings I needed to fish effectively.
The bottom line is get what you feel comfortable using. The prices can range a great deal, so take a look in person at one of the stores and examine the features of all the choices. Good luck and good fishing.
Mike
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I have a Marcum LX 7 irs great it does it all and in digital 8"" screen full color, has a flasher and the showdown vertical dual BEAM ANGLE, GRAPHING , UPGRADEABLE if needed a really sweet unit tookit out today the 1/2 '' seperation is true caught several perch today because of it tech , it spendy but good tools cost good money will last many years...
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