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.

[Guest]

I maied Vexilar and asked if the rumors were true that Marcum stole their I. R. and splitscreen tech. A Mitchell Bennis replied and said yes.

[Guest]

Like I told my buddy that just got a FL18 that maybe I'd be eating crow because I talked him into a vex over the marcom but the longjevity of the vex and there customer service holds alot of merit in my book and he agreed and bought the vex.Next year after the marcom has proven its self and if they have good service I might not ever hear the end of his critisim!

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cal

[RK]

Esoxluscius -
At some point, somebody 'stole' the idea of cars with 4 wheels...

IR isn't that much different than supression on other units, and if Vex is claiming they invented that feature, I have some 15+ year old Lowrance units in my basement that indicate otherwise.

Frankly I'm a little surprised at how Vex is handling this as a company. Squawking about the competition, if they are as has been reported, seems a little silly to me.

RK

[Guest]

It is a no-brain'r that MarCum hijacked the technology. Vexilar had the only version on the market in their pocket.

Just look at the whole unit, it all came from Vexilar in one form or another, the look, the size, the colour, you name it!

Marcum may or may not have improved on the unit but the technology is pure Vexilar none the less.

Not too many company's would stand by and watch others rip them off, would you?

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Ed "Backwater Eddy" Carlson..><sUMo>

Backwater Guiding
"Ed on the RED"
(701)-281-2300

[email protected]

http://ed-carlson.fishingbuddy.com

[CNY Tim]

RK - The MarCum has stirred up the Vexilar people, how can that be?
Jealousy will get you Vexilar faithful a new FL-28 in the next couple of years or so if not sooner.
I told you guys competition is a good thing.

Will Vexilar copy MarCum's variable zoom technology?

I guarantee that Vexilar will have some assemblance of this technology on the new 28's. It's a valuable tool. I am just lucky I have it now.

My bet is that there will be an understanding between these two companies. I think there is room for both of them in the ice fishing world. Competition can also drive prices down, hopefully.
Think about this too what if both company's combined, WOW!!! A technological fishing tool that is dependable, has excellent customer service, with options for open water use and accessories. The FL-18 revolutionized the 3 color flasher industry in providing a 6' zoom which is unprecidented. MarCum just took it to the next level by making it adjustable in the water column and enlarging the window 5' or 10' window at the 20' or 40' setting. A 10'to 20' zoom at 80' setting and a 20' to 40' zoom at 160'. The charging system alone and soft case is worth the price of admission.
Thus far after 6 uses I can honestly say it's been superior to my FL8SLT and Colorpoint. There is a long way to go before the end of the ice season and more developments will unfold. It's been a postive ride thus far and I am thouroughly pleased with my MarCum LX-3.

[HOGEYE]

My buddy has one and it's I get lots of interference on my FL8 and I don't get it from the 18's. Go figure. It is an awsome unit though.

[HOGEYE]

My buddy has one and it's I get lots of interference on my FL8 and I don't get it from the 18's. Go figure. It is an awsome unit though.

[Guest]

A patent is a patent. Afterall this is a capitalistic democracy we live in. If Marcum boosted the Vex. tech then Vex. is entitled to be compensated. In the mean time I'm going to buy an LX-3 even though I have a perfectly good FL-8. CNY sold me and I want to make sure I get one while they are still availiable. I use the Vex.-8 year around and I'm sure the LX-3 will do just fine as well.

[Bruce]

I would hope that vexilar and marcum don't merge. Look what happened to pinpoint when they merged with another trolling motor company!!! Bigger is not always better. Bruce

[Pig_sticka]

the 18 works better than you will ever need. i wont even think of buying another one. in the olden days they didn't have any of this and they caught fish. at some point you just have to actually fish. you guys make it into a video game pretty much, just that when you catch something it is real. you sit there and look at a screen, and look at a screen, i do that at work lol. shur i have a 18 but why go out and spend another 400 bucks just because one product can zoom to "10 ft in 10.5 ft" of water??? isn't that product great ha ha ha. you obviously have way to much time on your hands.

[Guest]

PIG-STICKA
If you cant see that the marcum is better then the fl-18 then you need to go back and read Tims posts again, the marcum just out does the vex in about all catagories,if there is something out there that can help me get more and biger fish on the ice im sold, Tims posts are outstanding keep up the hard work on puting that thing to the test Tim........My two cents

[Guest]

HI GUYS!
I would like to add this!There will always be new and improved products out there and thats what makes us spend our money.I have the FL8 and I feel very comfortable in the way I read it.If the bottom signal jumps and kind of flashes I know there is a fish on the bottom or out side of the cone.What Ive found is that even when it looks like the fish is riseing off the bottom it might also be comeing in from off the side.I know that disproves the color thing some what but what im trying to say is learn your depth finder realy well and you will know what is going on down there.I have a buddy that has the old green box that has better target(line)seperation than my vex does and I watched him prove it to me in 60ft. of water.Unfortunatly they dont make them any more,and its tough to find parts!
New is not always better if you dont learn from what you already have!Science and technology is a great thing,and competition is even better,for prices.Lets hope for the best!

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cal

[Guest]

Vexilar's patent expired over 4 years ago. Thats why there are similar models in production. They had a 20 year patent. I don't think Vex will come out with a better zoom, theres no market for it. I still don't get why you need a to see a fish bigger than what it is 10-15 or 20 feet down? The zoom on the FL-18 was meant to pull fish off the bottom. That helped anglers who target fish that may blend in with the bottom. There is nothing different from either units thats going to help you catch more and bigger fish. You can lead a horse to water, but you cant makem drink.
Marcum's ad states, " you can see the hairs on an ant" Now how the heck is that going to get you more and bigger fish?
I used the Micronar and Hondex for years and then went to the Zercom units. I swore up and down it was a better unit. I bit the bullet and bought a FL-8 after i went through 3 Zercoms that had problems, not to mention lousy factory service.

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MILLE LACS AREA GUIDE SERVICE
651-271-5459 http://fishingminnesota.com/millelacsguide/
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[cmpeterson1]

remember people its 1 thing to steal a patent,but legal to improve a patent,am I not right??You can't patent a technology (correct me if I'm wrong)You can get a patent for the mechanical means to the end result.Unless you take them apart and compare all the internal parts,we'll sit on here and throw stones at each other.

[wallydiver]

I fished in the same house with my buddy who has and FL8. My LX3 looked like a Christmas Tree right away so hit the IR button 3 or 4 times and it worked like a charm. Not to mention the way the zoom worked like a charm... wait a second, I just did.

[This message has been edited by wallydiver (edited 12-17-2002).]

[Pig_sticka]

i ave never had one problem using the vexlar, besides me just not knowing what an ir button was. like i said before i am not going out to buy another 400 bucks worth of equipment when i already catch way too many fish. if i see a fin moving it wont help me catch a fish. if you got money hey go for it, but i dont. i have been out for almost a week straight fishing. last wednesday caught my limit of crappies and sunnies using what my vex. thursday caught my limit of walleyes with my vex, friday caught my limit of walleyes with the vex, saturday caught more than my limits worth of crappies and sunnies. monday caught 4 nice wallyes with my vex. how much better can you get on metro area lakes. all of those crappies were over 11 in, and the sunnies that i kept were over 9 inches, go figure i guess the vex sucks. no marcum groupies are going to pursuade me

[Duffman]

Pig Sticka.....
Man, you sure must eat a lot of fish.

[Pig_sticka]

dats true i am just a weird guy but really you cant get any better than i have done the last week, in the metro. i am not talking about red lake or lake of the woods, where marcum guy is fishing. i fish near white bear lake, fishing heavily fished lakes. i am not a genious but the fl18 is about as good as they come. i dont need to zoom in 10 feet in 10.5 feet of water to catch more fish. if ya dont beleive me head out with me one night ill catch you your limit and some.
good luck fishin
p.s. i have fun being big headed sometimes, dont take it to the heart.

[CNY Tim]

Duffman - pig_stickas so good he doesn't even need a fish finder.

Well I guess I am gonna have to do something that I was gonna wait on doing and that's to start saving up for an FL-28 with a 19 degree ice ducer.

Honestly, even I know unless I have these units side by side I am not going to get a true picture of both these units capabilities and that should remove any biases.

There is no doubt in my mind longevity and quality service are provided by Vexilar. The MarCum service has yet to be tested and longevity really can't be tested until this MarCum unit has been around for a minimum of 5 years without management changing hands.

The serious delays in email response have been concerning as well. I know MarCum is busy but I have asked some serious questions and have waited over a week for a response and nothing.

Your unit is only as good as your customer service and Vexilar leads the way. Plus I have been getting some emails from my friends that are up the food chain and it all comes down to one thing.

You can't go wrong with a Vexilar...

I have a son whom fishes that would not mind Daddy getting him an upgrade for his current Colorpoint.

I have a couple of questions about the 18. Is it as loud as my FL8SLT was? What I mean sometimes the FL-8 really belted out the db's? Is the narrower beam on the 9 degree necessary for water fished predominantly under 40'?

The versatility and options on the FL-18 are nice but I want an adjustable zoom or a 6' and 12' bottom zoom that does not have to be readjusted when moving from hole to hole and I believe Vexilar will answer the call with the FL-28.

I will continue to post my reports on the MarCum's performance but WILL NOT RECOMMEND this unit until I get better response from there customer service department. If it never breaks on me and I can get several years out of it without any problems it was worth the purchase, time will tell. So far so good.

[Pig_sticka]

actually i made one email to the vexilar people n they responded in a few hours. that is nice. they have the 5' zoom off the bottom which is really nice, if you didn't already know that. that is almost all you need you can still see if a fish comes in above that cause it is a split screen. do you really need to see if your worms are wiggling? that is what jigging is for. sometimes i do need to turn the button back n forth quick to set it again but that isn't that hard. for parts, customer service, and all the vex is good. but that 5 foot zoom is really nice, i use that all the time for the bottom dwellers cuz you can all the sudden see the bottom moving and up shoots a fish if you jig your bait. if you turn the gain down all the way i can still see my jig as green, and i have been able to fish right next to my bobber and see all the fish nicely. just thought it was weird you guys were talking so highly of the marcum when a vex is considered tops already. good luck fishin everyone.

[Swill]

Did any of you pic up a copy of the new 2003 In-Fisherman's Ice Fishing Magazine? On page 16 there is an interesting article which addresses the amt of anglers and their success using electronic aids to increase perch catch rates. They sampled 742 angler groups at Slought Lake in South Dakota and found two important things...

1- Percentage of Anglers using various technology..
73% us none, 20% use flashers, 5% use LCD and 2% use UW cameras

2nd they looked at the number of perch caught per angler per hour they found...
non tech users - 2.25 fish per hour
Electronic users - 2.51
Flasher users- 2.84

With that said....Angles using flashers catch more fish...WHY?
-because they can target schools of fish quicker
-and it could be assumed that if they are using flashers they might use more high tech equipment like ultralite lines, graphite poles, gps untits, portable fish houses, etc.

One thing the study does point out is that flahers users do catch more fish. Not a lot more but more.

Before everyone starts up again with this is best or that is best lets remember only a small portion of us actually use this equipment. It seems like everyone has it and we can't imagine fishing without it but just because you have it does not guarantee success. How many times have we looked at a flasher and nothing was bitting.

Guys...get back to basics... learning about the fish you are going for and developing a pattern as to why they are where they are is most important. Not if you can zoom in this or that feet. Like in deer hunting scouting and just spending time doing what we all love ICE FISHING is what really matters.
Well that was a long enough.... FISH ON and good posts!!!

[ScottO]

To answer your questions about the FL-18 CNY Tim -

No, the 9 degree transducer is not really needed in water less than 40 ft. You can use it, but you are covering a lot less area under you. You might want it if you fish alot of steep breaks, as the dead zone is a lot smaller. Dead zone is the stuff you can't see because the flasher marks the highest point on a steep break as the bottom.

The FL-18 standard transducer is a 12 degree. The standard on the Fl-8 is a 19 degree. Vexilar went to the intermediate cone angle because it works better with the zoom mode on the FL-18. You can use a 19 degree to cover more area, but the 12 degree is supposed to be the best trade-off between covering a lot of area and still being able to get the detail required for the zoom. I have not used the 12 degree in deep water yet, but the technicians at Vexilar told me it should work just fine down to 200 ft, the maximum depth on the standard range FL-18. I guess I'm a bit skeptical, because I know how well the 9 degree worked in the deep water, and how the 19 degree did not. I guess being only 3 degrees different rather than 10 will make a big difference. The 12 degree works great in the 10-20 ft that I have used it in.

I can't wait to get out in 100+ feet of water and target some lakers. That is the main reason I went from the FL-8 to the FL-18 - to zoom in on the lakers and whitefish in deep water. Now if we coudl just get some cold weather back to freeze up the deep stuff!!

It may be a month or more, but after I get on the deep water, I will let everyone know how the 12 degree transducer worked.

Tight lines -

ScottO

[Pig_sticka]

i dont keep fish, i average probably keep 5-10 fish all year round and they wont be big fish. i go out with alot of people and let them keep them if they want. personally i hate keeping a ton of fish and killing them. if anyone wants to head out sometime in the metro let me know. good fishing everyone.

[Duffman]

Pig Sticka...
It must be the differences in terminology that we use. When I hear "limit", in my mind I am thinking that is what a person took home instead of the numbers caught. When I say I got a limit of crappie, that usually means I got some fish to clean. Where as if I say I caught two dozen 'eyes and also some pike on tip-ups, chances are they are all still swiming.

[CNY Tim]

ScottO - Thanks for the info. The 18 has a 6' zoom correct? I was reading that someone was having a problem getting the 12 degree ducer to hang straight. Is this a common problem or just this guy got an out of balance ducer?

[ScottO]

CNY Tim -

THe FL-18 zoom is the bottom 6 feet, no matter what depth you are in.

I've had 3 ice-ducers, my dad 2 and know many other Vex users and none have had the problems described on the other thread here. I know some guys do try to "tune" their ice ducers to be perfectly level - I have never found a need to. Mine have always worked fine. I do not think it is a common problem. I suggested to the person on the other thread to contact Vexilar directly and see what they reccomend. Maybe he got a bad transducder.

ScottO

[CNY Tim]

ScottO - Gonna split the difference like Dark Cloud did and get the 12 degree ducer... Shopped around and I saved $50 bucks on mine.
FL-18, 12 deg. iceducer, icebox, $351 (inc. shipping). The other prices I had were $400 to $413 which both included shipping.
Now I can see what the heck you guys are squawking about first hand. Should be here before XMAS. Colorpoint's going up on E-Bay tonight. Just scoped EBay they had a colorpoint in there for $250, geez if I can even get close to that for mine that is sweet.
You may ask how my wife knows... She doesn't and when she does I don't care....

Now I can report on both...

[CNY Tim]

MarCum Report 7: 14 keeper crappies in 35' of water, crappies were coming in anywhere from 3' to to 5' off the bottom. The 10' zoom window got a work out today.
FishDaddy's buddy has a MarCum and he loves it too.

ScottO - I don't know how to technically explain this but the right side of my MarCum when it is in zoom condenses so that I can crisply see the entire water column on the right. The left side amplify's the bottom 10'. Don't ask me why cause I don't know other than that there is less spacing on the right then on the left. The target separation is fantastic in zoom mode. I can't wait to see how this compares with the 18 although I am going to have a problem with the zoom if those crappies are at 5' off the bottom.

[CNY Tim]

Talked to Dark Cloud last nite asked him about what his screen looks like on his 18 in zoom mode and his condenses as well on the right also the zoom on his is magnified on the left, hmmm.
Sounds like there both the same as far as split/screen picture goes. He sees the value in 10' zoom window and wishes the FL-18 had an adjustable zoom to 12'. I figure the FL-28 will...

[CNY Tim]

MarCum LX-3 performed well today again. Fishing a reservoir between 15' and 17' of water caught 10 or so nice perch 10-12" one sumo perch 13 7/8", a 12" crappie, 15" walleye and a 14" bullhead. Did not need the 10' window today all fish came off the bottom, 5' window was plenty. Water was murky and the fish bit better late. Glow Devil Red Glow, Shearwater Thumper Glow Perch Pattern, and T.O.I single dot glow bug. I like the fact that I can hole hop and need not adjust at each hole, the unit stays locked in.
IceWalker and his two buddies real enjoyed looking at the screen.