Fishing Forum

Marcum vs Vexilar (yet again)

I know this is a topic that has come up MANY times before so I will try to keep my questions specific.

I know that I want one that can zoom in on the bottom. This eliminates the cheaper Vexilars.

Most of my fishing will be for trout at the Berry and Perch at Rockport so I guess my question boils down to: Can a Marcum vx1 (about $200) see an ice fly and a perch on the bottom of Rockport at 40 feet? And if so why would I pay $400 to $500 for a better flasher?

I know you get what you pay for but I'm trying to figure out if I want/need the extra features of the more expensive models.

Thanks.
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I went through the same thing over the last two ice fishing seasons.. I started with the fishing buddy 2200 and I though that worked well until I got the chance to buy a Marcum LX3 for 199 bucks out of the bargain cave at Cabelas... that worked awesome and improved my fishing results immensely.. then last season I decided to sell the LX3 to my buddy and upgrade to the LX5...

Here are the differences that I noticed... and dont get me wrong, you cant go wrong with either... the LX3 gets a little easier... things like trees and rocks will make it think that the water is shallower than it really is...

the other big advantage of the LX5 is the seperation.. last year I fished a bunch of places for perch... and will my LX5 I could see that the water depth was about 20 feet but there was a branch about five feet off of the bottom... I could also see that underneath the branch there were a whole bunch of perch... when I dropped my ice fly down the hole I could clearly see my fly and the fish as seperate lines on the flasher..


with the LX3 the lake appeared to be 15 feet deep and it did not show anthing below the branch.. no matter how I adjusted the sensitivity I could not see the detail...

my suggestion is get the nicest one you can afford... there really is a difference but at the end of the season you probably wont be glad you got any of them...

one more thing, if you keep an eye on the cabelas bargain cave there are usually returned flashers in there for about 30 percent off with the same warranty...
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