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.

[Xplorer]

Mykal,
Thanks for the info, I emailed Marcum yesterday morning and Duane emailed back in the afternoon. I responded to him this morning and will let you know the outcome.
Xplorer

[Mykal]

Xplorer, that's great news. I had a chance to rent the OVS 500 and try it on MilleLacs this winter and it was sweet! The fishing wasn't good, but we could see the Walleye and Perch come in and out. I like he OVS 500 because it's the only unit out there that gives you all three lighting options in one unit. No light, IR and Hi Intensity. Good Luck.

[rod bender]

Ellevold, let me know how that turns out. I think I'm going to wait until the season is over to do anything. I did try an older battery that I replaced on my Vex and it didn't help. The jitter only showed up a few times in the 4-5 our trip so I wasn't real concerned but would like it fixed. Let me know through e-mail if you can. Thanks.

[email protected]

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Rodbender

[Guest]

I have received a lot of reports that the MarCum LX-3 eats up a battery VERY fast.

"Sucks the life right out of them" is the exact words used. They commented they do not think a 12V cell will last a full season at that rate. These are full time ice guides by the way.

What has been other anglers perception of the MarCum LX-3 and it's power use?

(Maybe 2 12 Deep Cycles hooked up in a series is the answer?)

[Guest]

Backwater Eddy,I have been using my the whole season and have never had It drop below 50% even on 2 days of fishing without recharging.I usually recharge It after every use since it recharges very fast and you can leave the charger on without worry for extended periods of time.GOOD FISHIN DON

[Guest]

i don't think you wanna hook up 2 12 volt batteries in series der edison. unless the markcum can work at 24 volts.

[CNY Tim]

Been having some fun on the perch lately guys and getting familiar with the FL-18 and am pretty pleased with it accept for a couple of instances while in zoom my 0 mark to 3' mark on the zoom side wen't full red but I just tweeked the depth button and it cleared right up. No problems with it today. Must have been because I was fishing within close proximity to a couple FL-18's the other day.
I have not had any problems with the battery on my MarCum and it is very efficient battery wise thus far.

[Hjalmer Tordenskjold]

Hey Ed,

I tink you better hook up dose two batteries in paralell, or the Marcum will take and let all smoke out of its vires and components den. Dat would feet 24 volts to it, ya know, vich vould not be too goot a teal, den.

Take and hook dem tings in paralell, and it vill take and be ok, ya know.

[Guest]

Ya, taught it smelt funny Eh?

[Guest]

Ya, taught it smelt funny Eh?

[Guest]

Who has a contact number or email adress for marcum? I need to ask them about the jitter problem.

[CNY Tim]

One thing I have noticed between my LX-3 and my FL-18 is I don't have near as much interference on my MarCum as I do on the 18 and what little interference I had on both units was knocked out. However, I have never had an instant when my MarCum has not held bottom zoom unlike my FL-18 but with some minor adjusting I was able to get the the FL-18 to correct this problem. Maybe with the Version 2 upgrade in the off season that minor problem will be corrected. The target separation on the MarCum is more precise because of the thin line display reading on the LX-3, but the colors on the FL-18 are more my liking. There both great units thus far and have performed extremely well. Not a bad buy either way you go, but like I said I only fish water less than 40'

[CNY Tim]

More info from MarCum...

The different transducer cone angles will be addressed in our upcoming review meetings. The deep water use is excellent. The head design engineer uses his unit for Lake Trout in 80 to 120 feet. He just returned from four days on the ice and was pleased with the deep water performance. Hope all is well! The units are close to being sold out for the season. Thanks for the comments!

On the fishing front, had a decent day in central southern NY snow squalls yesterday with 25 nice perch in 38'. Been alternating using my MarCum LX-3 and the Vexilar FL-18 so far so good with both units.

[Scott Steil]

Ed, not sure if your question of using a lot of battery was answered.

LX-3 draws 300 mA
FL-18 draws 270 mA

My FL-18 is 1 year older then my LX-3 but the batteries last roughly the same amount of time. I can use both units for a weekend of fishing and not have to charge them, unless we fish all day. Then both units have to be charges once.

[Mykal]

Thanks all. CNY Tim, please keep us posted on the transducer options for the LX-3.

[CNY Tim]

Caught 23 nice perch yesterday on a local lake here fishing 4-7' of water. My son used the Vexilar FL-18 and I used my MarCum LX-3, both units performed well. Shack a buddy of mine is fishing with an LX-3 and he's having problems. One color on the display like a light orange and that's it. I swapped out my transducer on to his machine and nothing changed and also swapped out the battery and still no change. I think it's in the power head... Shacks gonna finish the season with it and send it in to be fixed. Just thought I would let you guys know.

[Guest]

Be sure to check with Scott Steil for any updates and info on the Marcum.

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MILLE LACS GUIDE SERVICE
651-271-5459 http://fishingminnesota.com/millelacsguide/
click here

[CNY Tim]

Shack - had a problem with his power head on his LX-3. Damaged during delivery as one of the gimbal mount nylon bolts was sheared. We knew it was the head because Sunday when we were fishing he tried my transducer and battery and it was the same to no avail. The unit was fishable but only displayed a burn't orange color. Shack contacted MarCum
and they immediately shipped him out a new powerhead and new gimbal hardware. He called them Monday and had the powerhead Friday and was back in business. Now that's customer service!

[rod bender]

CNY Tim, when I received my LX-3 in the mail from Reeds all four of the bolts that hold the main unit to the base were sheered off. I called Marcum and I had 4 new ones in a few days but I'm currious about your color problem. Did you not see any red at all?? Also, does your unit flicker quite a bit? It seems that my lines are constantly blinking on me, more so than my old vex?

[CNY Tim]

rod bender - Shacks unit with the gain turned to ten never saw any red or yellow just burn't orange. I would keep a close eye on yours. If my LX-3 came with 4 of those nylon bolts sheared I would be very upset that I just either bought a dropped/ customer returned unit or some lunk head dropped it during shipping. Why take a chance.... See if you can get the same deal as shack did.
My unit does not flicker at all, however in the zoom 80 ft. setting it does flicker slightly no more than my FL-18.
Good luck...

[Guest]

Tim
How long of a cord does your LX-3 have on the ducer?I was fishing where there was 42 in of ice and a foot of snow pack on top and couldnt get the ducer low enuff to clear up surface clutter.If i shoveled the snow away to get the ducer down close to the bottom of the hole i could clear uf the clutter .Have you had this troubleor is my cord just short?
Marv

[cwmn]

I have the same color problem with my Zercom Colorpoint, red doesn't show, sometimes it does work but most times it doesn't. I wonder if this is a in-bread problem. Isn't the Marcum base on the same technology as the Colorpoint?

[CNY Tim]

user_name - My cord is approximately 52" in length. I did not disconnect it and measure it but from the stop to the end of the transducer it was 42" and I figured I had 10" of cord left from the stop to the power head.
I have had the trouble a couple of times with the the double echo surface clutter but it hasn't been a problem. The way the ice is here this year a nice 7' cord would have been more than enough. I will address it in an email., maybe they can put this on the table with the transducer options at there next board meeting.
cwmn- I had a Colorpoint as well in fact two of them and my only problem I had was with my first unit with UFO type interference. I had that unit about a year and requested a replacement and they delivered. Never had a problem with interference with the 2nd one and was always able to see all 3 colors on both units. Some times I would not get red as a bottom reference because of the type bottom especially soft bottoms. I guess you could turn your gain up to get that red bottom tone in that situation but it would probably broaden your jig and give you more of a cluttery display. Whatever problems they had with the colorpoint have been corrected resoundedly with the LX-3, it's been a great unit thus far. I sold my 2yr. old colorpoint for $235 bucks on E-bay and turned that money over towards a new FL-18 for my son. I love both units.

[CNY Tim]

I tested similar conditions on the ice Thursday and Saturday. Thursday I was fishing 38' of water with my FL-18 and all day I could not get rid of interference and neither could my friends on there 18's, we were close, within 30' of each other on a school of perch but no adjustment would completely eliminate the interference, the best you could do was minimize it.
Saturday we did the same thing but this time I brought the LX-3 and I had interference but I tapped the I.R. button once and it was gone. I should have asked Dark Cloud and his Dad if they were having interference problems. It did not matter they still caught more perch than I had as I had 22 perch Saturday and they had 27-30 ea...
Now I will always bring the MarCum when we are fishing tight. We had over a 100 guys on that spot Saturday it was a circus.

[BUSHWAC]

Tim- chasing lakers on Saturday I was fishing a steep break in 45ft. had about 18"of dead zone that was tought to tune into. Kunzeye was using his 9deg vex and had about 12". so not to bad, but still waiting for the deep water transducer for next year. moved over to an 80ft flat off the deep water basin and didn't have an inch of dead zone. seen every laker that went by and they were hugging the bottom tight. the zoom was very effective that morning. also dropped a crappie jig down to 84ft and could see that thing plain as day. just thought I would let you know I have given it a pretty hard work out this year and so far thing has operated flawless. I will be giving it a good workout up north chasings lakers with all those Shanty Gang vex users soon. so I will let you know how it holds up, at least against the harrassment!!

[CNY Tim]

BUSHWAC - I believed they finished there staff meetings as far as new business. I sent them an email if I hear anything I will post here. Yeah, you have a blast fishing with those shanty guys but I believe the MarCum is good but not good enough to avoid the vexilar harassment. Have a fun filled safe trip.

[Mykal]

CNYTim, I had a problem with my LX-3 this past Saturday night. It suddently started to make a high pitched whining noise and my display would get fuzzy.(I know now that it is a brush problem that affected only a few units.) What makes this worse is that I have my first trip planned to LOW this coming Friday. So I'm thinking I'm screwed. Well on Monday (yesterday)I make an impossible request to Marcum to get a new powerhead sent to me before this Friday. With your help and contact, I am getting a PERSONAL DELIVERY of a new powerhead tomorrow in Rogers by one of the head engineers!! I would have never made such a request of Marcum to do so, but Marcum came through when I needed them the most. They understand how important it is to me. I just wanted to share with you how impressed I am with this company and the people who stand behind it. They have earned a customer for life!

[CNY Tim]

Mykal - So glad everything worked out for your trip. Will just have to stay on him about the narrower ducer
Customer loyalty brings repeat business and provides a level of comfort to the customer.
MarCum has met that challenge and then some...
Good luck on your fishing trip Mike.

Thanks again Paul!

[Mr. Pike1]

CNY Tim, great to hear you were able to assist Mykal in getting in touch with the right people at Marcum to meet his needs. It ia great to see a local compamy step up to the plate and delivery true customer service..

Kudus to Marcum and CNY Tim.

*I have the Vex FL-18 and can only hope if a time sensitive issue arises that I recieve the same type of indiviual service.

[CNY Tim]

Thank you for the kind words Mr. Pike. We all spend a lot of dinero on these hopped up flashers and quality customer care and prompt service are essential. MarCum is up to the task and this unit is remarkable! I'll be fishing 3 out of the next 4 days but will check in with fish reports. Take care...