FL-12 Problem.....

[Fred_Bear]

I've used my new FL-12 all winter and loved it but never really fished water over 30 FOW until last weekend. I was fishing 60+ on a very hard bottom for lake trout and I had problems all week picking up my bait anytime it was over 30 feet down. I could turn the gain all the way up and it still would not pick my bait up. I made sure the bottom of the transducer was totally clean with no ice on it and had it down about 4 inches below the ice. Even tried a transducer off my old Vex but that had the same problems so it must not be the transducer. Oh and no one else in the group had the same problems as me and they were all fishing the same type of water.

Any ideas???

[walleyewild]

Call Vex Customer service they are local and easyto deal with.

[mamohr686]

Were you on the LP or low power setting? Do you have a battery status indicator? It seems to me you eliminated the transducer so my guess would either be a bad battery, a bad power cable, or the LP setting was on. So should also check the conections and make sure they are clean and secure. After you've eliminated those three things, it should be sent into vexilar.

[Fred_Bear]

Definitely wasn't on LP and the battery ran from 8 - 5 so i doubt it was that. Still could possibly be the connections i guess, so i'll run a good check on them, but I highly doubth thats the problem. Like I said, it was the first time its been used in over 30 FOW so it could just be a faulty machine.

Looks like its gettin sent in after the season....

[dtp]

How much current? My uncles ice fish (Ashland Wisc) Chequamegon Bay a lot in 80' plus water, the current pull the bait out of the cone - they have to angle the transducer to compensate. They use a home made gooseneck device. I have to do something similar on the St.Croix in 40' - drill my Vex hole 4' downstream. Probably nothing wrong with your Vex, does the bait come into view as you pull it back up?

[EBass]

That does seem odd. Maybe a defective gain? Does the gain work shallower? When I'm over 30+ I have to turn the gain up to 2, but that's about it and I can see my tiny jig. I have noticed that harder metal lures such as a Hali's gives off a stronger signal than a lead jigging spoon. Makes sense, but never paid attention until this winter.

Here's Vexilar's #952-884-5291

[Fred_Bear]

Hey thanks for the number Ebass and it definitely could be a defective gain or at least there must be something defective about it.

And DTP there was slight current in a few spots i fished but guys fishing right with me had no problem with there vex's. So that pretty much cancels out the idea of it being anything to do with the lake.

[GAP]

I've had the same problem with my fl-12 and could never figure it out let me know what you figure out