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Converting Ice Flasher for Open Water


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I'm sure some of you have done this. I have a MarCum lx 3tc. I recently bought a 16' alumacraft that came with an older eagle depthfinder and want to add to my repertoire a flasher as well. i have found on marcums website a kit to upgrade to the high speed ducer and all mounting brackets. was wondering if anyone else has done this and what they think of it?

or any other suggestions? the kit is $90, so im thinking, (i havent done any extra research yet), that maybe i could spend a little more (thinking around $150/$200) and get something else that could stay with the boat all the time, therefore eliminating the need to switch back and forth...

i'm also open to the idea of just upgrading the entire unit i have to something that would work well...? (i'm experienced with flashers, but havent fished enough open water to get a real good feel with the lcd set up...)

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Flashers work great for jigging, I used to run my flashers on the bow all the time when I used to fish eyes...

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I'll bring my Vex in the boat with me and drop it off the side if I'm drifting. I like the output more than my graph and I've got more faith in it as well.

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I use my Vex in my 14' all the time. I just put the transducer on a plastic leech cover and pour some water in the bottom of the boat, as long as it is submerged a little, it shoots through the boat. Works great and I didn't have to buy a kit.

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i do the same thing with my marcum i cut a small chunk of 2 inch pvc pipe silicone it to the bottom add a little water works great

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I run my LX-5 on the bow of the guide boat for vertical jigging and a quick easy to tread reference using the LX Puck Ducer and it works great. Then on the duck boat that doubles as a secret lake creek crashing panfish attack vessel I use A LX-3tc with a LX High sped ducer and it does a great job even in the ultra weedy places that little boat goes.

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I plan on mounting mine to the front of the boat soon as I've done the "shoot through the bottom of the boat thing" and it works well. I also had a guide once that told me "if there's not a flasher somewhere in the boat, the guide ain't worth ........". Not that I neccesarily agree with the guide, but they do serve a purpose during open water.

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I have my vex on my 16' lowe lunker and love it. I used to run the ducer through the hull but got a high speed for cheap and now can have the gain down. I also have a gragh. My flasher is the way to go for me though... I can tell bottom content better and like the instant readout when vert jigging. Love my flasher year round use.

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thanks for all the suggestions- i brought it out last night and just slung it over the side of the boat and it was the reason i caught a couple extra gills (as the were only a couple feet below the surface in 15' of water)

having the cord over the side worried me a little bit as i trolled around so i'm going to try the leech cup trick next time out and sooner than later hopefully upgrade to the high speed. i figure if i get out enough it'll be real nice to just hook the screen up to a couple of wires hangin out and go, unless the leech cup works great.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
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