MarCum LX-3 Test Report

[CNY Tim]

I caught 7 keeper crappies 10 - 13.5" and kept a dozen nice gills and 3 big perch. Caught alot of small perch today. 5" any where we walked on the lake with 4" of snow on top. We fished 8' to 16' best depth was 15'. Crappie were riding at about 10' along with the nicer gills. You had to keep it off the bottom on that lake or you'll get nailed with dink perch. Not a great trip as far as bluegill action but it was great to use my MarCum and we can fish close with Vexilars and no problems 1 I.R. off, 1 on I.R and one on I.R. plus one no problems. I had the zoom on 10' when I was fishin 15' and it was awesome. Funny seeing your jig and fish on both sides of the screen. Gotta train my eyes a little more to stay on the left side. What the zoom feature allowed me to do was keep the bait away from the smaller fish and the decent gills and crappies when they popped on the zoom I thought they were bass or pike, awesome machine. I am glad it's compatable with Vexilars that was a big issue.

[Kidd]

CNY Tim, wondering if you've had the chance to fish either the Marcum or the FL18 over a bush or brush pile. I have a couple of spots I fish where the crappies sit right inside a pile of brush. My FL8 cannot distigush my jig from the branches and I'm wondering if either of these can.
P.S.
I'll be buying either the Marcum or the FL18 next year and I really appreciate you taking the time to share your expierience here.

[CNY Tim]

Kidd - Thanks for your comments. I have fished some submerged trees on Young Lake and to be honest with you NO flasher can distinguish your jig from structure or anything else, unless your jig is moving and the structure is stationary and if your fishing a current area it will be worse.

If your stationary over a target with no current, signals will bounce off of brush, limbs, bottom, weeds, fish, etc. The only thing that will distinguish your bait from the structure is movement. What I try to do before I drop a jig is look at the picture that my MarCum is presenting me and determine if those marks are fish or structure. Drop a jig down and see if you have movement from the signals on your screen. If after a couple of minutes there is no movement you could assume it's structure but not necessarily. Jigging is the only way to determine and no flasher can accomplish what your asking maybe an LCD could, I don't know.
How deep are your crappies that you fish normally in that brush pile? Do you have to put that jig right down in there bread basket? Can you work them out of the structure?
The MarCum has a 5'or 10' adjustable zoom., would that help you in this situatation for better target separation 1"? Or would the bottom 6' be enough to see the area that is in question better with the FL-18 that has .5" target separation? You will like the fact with the MarCum LX-3 that if your fishing relatively the same depth you can lock it in and forget it. It's set for the rest of the day. From what I have heard the FL-18 has to be reshuffled through the settings to re zoom when hole hopping, I don't know what this means but will find out shortly.
My FL-18 will be arriving this week and I will be posting results with that as well. From what I hear from others it's a very good unit, extremely versatile, plus you can accesorize it to the max, and the customer service is fantastic.
The reservoir crappies I fished with my Colorpoint came out of thin pine tree brush piles, basically light cover little so I could distinguish fairly well but it can be difficult at times. Look for changes in your flashers signal with associated movement if a branch that is a weak yellow signal turns orange or broadens and flickers that maybe a fish moving in the pile.
I have a buddy who has an FL-18 that fishes reservoir structure brush piles and trees I will talk to him about it but I believe the answer is no. Maybe a camera may be a good option for you. If most of your fishing is brush piles.

[Kidd]

CNY Tim. Thanks for the response. I'm fishing anywhere from 28' to 35' feet over brush piles that rise about 4 - 6' off the bottom. Most of the time I can get the fish (crappies) to come out of the brush but sometimes they bury in there and I need to go after them. What I was hoping to hear is that the brush remains green and these new units keep my jig red. A camera is next to useless as I’m fishing very stained water. The camera is good for 3 feet max.

[CNY Tim]

Kidd - How much of a flat surface or how much lead is in your jig that you use. A jigging rap, nils, genz worm may help you there. It sounds like a 10' zoom window is right up your alley. A larger surface area on your jig would help deliver a broader spectrum on your flasher yet still minimize your brush.

[CNY Tim]

I just received an email from MarCum concerning Vexilar personnel allegations of MarCum copying there splitscreen and Interference Rejection.

Tim,
I would ignore the vexilar allegations. We obviously reviewed their patents
and got a read from our attorney prior to going forward with our product
launch. Its not worth wasting time over.

[CNY Tim]

Fished shallow under 7' of water today iced 15 gills, 13 over 8 and a nice 9.5" slob, no crappies, an 18" largemouth, 21" pickerel and two break offs.
The MarCum functioned flawlessly again today! Did not use zoom just left it in Normal mode today.
Received my FL-18 today but I am waiting on a Genz ice box to mount it too so I can start testing this unit. Long story there..My 18 does not have the update and won't get it until after the season ends. The 12 degree ducer is a weapon of it's own that's one big transducer.
MarCum test 10 Sunday up nort...

[Guest]

Tim,
I just wanted to say thank you for all your efforts to better educate those of us who have some shopping to do in the future.

[CNY Tim]

Thanks firstchoiceguide doing my best to serve, must be the prior military in me U.S.A.F, 9 1/2 years served and proud of it.

[CNY Tim]

Fished a perch/walleye lake from 13' to 35' of water used the 5' zoom window as the the perch were tight to the bottom and would not come up more than 4'. Only caught two and alot of lookers. Could not move much, the slush and snow on top made it real tough. Fished next to an FL-8SLT in 35' of water and a couple of taps on the IR button and no interference. The MarCum LX-3 was flawless yet again.

[Guest]

Kidd , I have fished submerged brush etc for Crappies/Gills like you with and FL 8 SLT and cound not distinguish between my jig and branches by color. The way I could tell which was my jig and which was a branch was that the jig moved up/down while the branches remained as constant marks.
I'm not sure any locator could distinguish between fish and brush just by color. I don't think that ( afordable )technology exists to distinguish wood from fish/jigs.

[BUSHWAC]

CNY TIM, I have used my Marcum now about 10 times. the thing is awesome, the target seperation is fantastic. in one of the past post there was talk about signal strength and the fact that you could not tell if it was a small fish or a larger fish on the outside edge of your cone, true. how ever, yesterday fishing gills i could certainlly tell the difference between the large gills and the smaller ones. they were chasing my jig so much i knew they were close to the center on my cone and close to my jig i just pulled it away from the smaller marks and let the larger red/orange marks hit the jig. i caught many more larger gills than the people around me. while they were sorting through gill after gill, i was busy iceing larger fish. the interference factor is totally licked. i have fished within a few feet of vex's and zercon's, there has not been one time where i had even a trace on my display. the display is awesome also. i have had many vex users come over when they see the misfit out on the ice. most all of them have had the same comment, wow! nice display, even the FL18 boy's. i was a little hesitant to get one at first just because of the 20 degree cone, i do fish some deeper water. i was told they will have another transducer next year so i figured what the heck. someone stated they never buy new technology, well i do. if you are not willing to take a chance here and there, we would all be fishing with the same old stuff. if your not willing to take a chance on new things and such. your probally the same type of person that hears " should have been here last week" a lot. i would rather be a trend setter than following in every one else! Tim, thanks for the info. your Marcum using fishing friend, Jeff.

[CNY Tim]

BUSHWAC - Gills stacked like that... Why didn't you call me? LOL
When I first found out that MarCum had the technology back I was sitting here waiting and anticipating a unit like this.
The colorpoint has always been a favorite of mine and always had a crisper display then the FL-8 and the ability to show fish tight to the bottom. Inconsitencies in the early colorpoint units and no interference rejection hurt.
I hate it when people say that the new MarCum LX-3 is the same old colorpoint.
It isn't even close...
Adjustable zoom, cleanest 3 color display in the industry, high tech-efficient charging system, soft pack that kicks a$$, Interference Rejection that works.
I believe MarCum will be with us for a while and durability and customer service will be tested.
Only MarCum users know how truly awesome this system is... Word of mouth is one thing but seeing this unit in action is the seller. Vex 18 fan's don't want to admit that they saw a MarCum LX-3 on the ice and liked the display better than the FL-18. They won't say it., but they know it and soon the icefishing world will know they should have bought the MarCum...

Stay tuned I will be posting results with the FL-18 shortly.

It's nice going from a guinea pig to a trend setter ain't it?
Take Care Jeff

[Swill]

CNY Tim...Can you bring along a digital camera to take photos at different stages when you are fishing? Or maybe someone could borrow one for you if you don't have one? I fished this weekend with a friends fl8 on winni for perch and it sucked. The fishing was great but the fl8 did not pick up the perch which were in 32 feet on the bottow and I knew that because the aqua vu camera showed em Kinda makes me wonder how many eyes have never showed up!!!

[Dark Cloud]

Holy Cr*p - Now we have two Marcum nuts to deal with. I think we are dealing with the difference between a 9.99888 and a 9.99988 here. Please dont act like your gonna catch any more fish with one or the other. It is nice having competition out there but would I have caught 52 bluegills this morning instead of 48 if I had a Marcum instead of my new 18??? I was able to figure out with the aid of electronics that the fish were shy and wanted a super downsized package on a dark colored jig. And I was able to play keepaway with the smaller gills and ice more jumbos. Probably could have done the same thing with a super 60 or an old paper graph....

[Duffman]

Easy there D.C..... you and the Wac may end up bunkmates in March. LOL

[BUSHWAC]

Dark Cloud, I don't think I ever said that the Marcum is better than the FL18 did I. Give or take a micron the two units are just about the same thing, a tool to be used. No one around me was even using a vex yesterday I was just showing a little excitement for the fun day on the ice yesterday. sorry if my LX-3 evaluation post offended you.

[Dark Cloud]

BushWac - Woh Bub - Im just bustin b@lls and havin fun. Rarely serious here. Was aiming that one at SuperTechno Tim anyways. I get to here his Marcum cr#p almost everyday and I guess I snapped....
Duffman will tell ya, not too much I take serious besides food and catching and killing things. Sorry if ya thought otherwise....

[Guest]

Man this can be a tough site!
Its great to hear all the controvercery over this subject!I was also one of them that posted about spending that much money on a new item!I do break down from time to time and buy new items and have gotten burned alot also,so Im hopeing every thing turns out well for you guys with the LX3!I also hope you keep posting the good or bad on these!I am always in the market for new items,competition,ect.

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cal

[BUSHWAC]

Dark cloud, I hear ya bud. just pushing things back at ya! figured someone had to fire something off after that one, why do you think I waited so long to post. no hard feelings, just going to save you a little RKG for the march trip! LOL

[Guest]

I put my FL-18 to test yesterday in 6 feet of water over Bluegills. I can certainly say the zoom is worthless in water under 10 feet. I also didn't like the LP mode, had to increase the gain. I kept it on normal mode with the gain at 0. My jig was yellow and the fish targets were a nice red. The bright display was great outside but almost too much in the portable.(i have sensitive eyes) After all said and done, felt like i was using a FL-8. The zoom can also fool you by increasing the size of the nothing that's under your hole. I think all this zoom stuff is catching more fisherman than fish.

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651-271-5459 http://fishingminnesota.com/millelacsguide/
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[Guest]

Tim, How many fish have you caught using the Marcum? And could you please give us a ratio of fish caught with Marcum/fish you may have caught with an fl 18. Do you feel that the Marcum technology performs better while fishing perch or Blue gills. Do you tend to find more fish with the marcum on overcast days? I heard that the the Lx emits a much more crisp display in a low pressure system in comparison to high pressure. It must be something with the sensitive brushes the marcum has. I also heard that the Marcum performs poorly when used for fishing crappies because the crappies are such thin fish, and with the fine definition on the LX 3 its difficult to see the fish. What have you found in your thorough experiences.

[Cyberfish]

Dman, the brighter display was the thing that sold me on the 18. I been using my 8 on my boat for almost ten years, and the only thing I didn't like about it is it was hard to see. If I was just using it for icefishing, I probably would have tried the Marcum, it sounds like a really good on ice!
I tried my new vex out in nine to ten ft Saturday, I thought the zoom worked good, except I had to turn it back to regular and then to zoom again when I changed holes or it wouldn't look right. I used the LP setting then adjusted the gain til my jig was a thin green line. I could tell bigger fish from smaller ones then. the little perch were green mostly with little flashes of color, the smaller panfish had more color, and the biggest ones, and the bass made a good thick red mark. I agree that the zoom is not really needed, but hey, its fun I use mine ten times more in my boat than on ice. I don't know if I will like the bottom lock setting or not, but I can't wait to try it.

Set the hook!

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[Dano2]

O.K., first off I think this is a great thread for folks like me that are trying to decide between the two, but from one person testing each one, I think i will need more than just one opinion, I believe rick was also teting both, but haven't sen him post much on it yet, or maybe I need to look closer, heh.
My main concern and what has me sold so far on the FL-18 is the use of it in open water, and from what I can see they have moree asses. available, like the different transducers and such, I would like to have a portable unti type transducer so I can use it on my boat plus a friends boat (to cheap to buy one, heh, or just broke).
It sounds like the Fl-18 does well in shalow water as well, you just have to tinker with it a little more, is this correct?
no big deal.
has anyone used the Marcum on open water yet, or did this unit just come out?
Speaking of open water, how well does EITHER unit work if your jigging for wallys and the boat is moving around?
do they work well for telling what kind of structure your over and how about when pulling cranks, any advantage there, or am I better off using my cheapo hummingbird?

[RK]

Bigguns - I've used mine fishing crappies and gills some. As far as I can tell, there's no trouble reading crappies at all (even the little potato chips - heh). It can read a teardrop and single maggot in at least 25' of water (as deep as I've tried it) and when perch fishing a flasher spoon and the 1/64 oz. jig and waxie 2" beneath it were two different marks on the screen (in 17' of water). I can't see it having trouble with crappies.

Cheers,
RK

[Swill]

Would it be better to have a sales rep from Marcum and Vexilar meet at a lake in the metro area....drill two holes side by side and then invite us forum members to check out each company for ourself?
Heck you could pick any metro lake and post a the meeting date so we can all meet.

Both companies will most likely chicken out...cuz they know they are almost identical...

[CNY Tim]

Swill- I am working on getting a digital camera for some shots of LX-3 in action. My wife has a new one but she won't let me take it on the ice, can't blame her. I got almost a whole roll of film shot, a few pictures shy of it being developed. Swill were you on a slow tapering drop off when you were fishing or a flat? There may have been a dead zone?
With the older FL-8's you really have to concentrate on the bottom flicker to see fish rolling in the red zone. With the new FL-18's and the MarCum LX-3 having the zoom feature on will take out the guess work.

[Swill]

Tim...It was pretty much a flat. You would have to walk 30 feet or so to go up a foot or so.
Thanks for the great reports!!!!

[CNY Tim]

Dark Cloud is a good friend of mine and I would seriously worry if he was not ripping me. He keeps me on the straight in narrow. Called him last night... It's all good. Just the usual jabbing nothing out of the ordinary. Good guy that Jay is.

[CNY Tim]

D-Man : While talking to DarkCloud last night he noticed the same situation with the LP and having to turn up the gain. And was better off just keeping it in Normal mode and gain down. Dark Cloud liked the zoom mode maybe he can elaborate more on his findings.

[sorenson]

Tim,
Can you email me sometime at your convenience regarding a Colorpoint? I have a couple questions maybe you can help me with. Thanks
[email protected]