Apparently my family and family friends knew that I love scheels a lot and ended up with like $200 in gift cards. Just curious what's a good fish finder or flasher that I could get around $$$ 300-400 ???
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I really love my humminbird ice 45. It has a multi color digital display and the battery life is awesome. I'll never ice fish without it
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I got a marcum showdown and I love it it has a bar graph (easier to read in my opinion) adjustable sensitivity and it has the ability to tune out other flashers I picked mine up at scheels for 199.99 I just got the 2.0 all I can afford on my budget they have the 5.6 dual beam with a case at scheels for 350 I think. Very highly recommended
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I have had a humminbird ice 45 for about 4 years now and it has been very reliable. It works great and has helped me catch a lot more fish.
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Marcum showdown, inexpensive and very easy to use. Love mine and highly recommend it.
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There is no such thing as another FLASHER there is only one FLASHER V-E-X-L-A-R!!!!!!!! Just my 2 cents
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+1 on the showdown. It puts out 8,000 watts versus the Marcum or vexilar 2,000 watts. I have the Marcum lx-3 and love it, it has the interference resister feature on it but it won't function when my buddy brings his showdown. Its all about power.
If your primarily looking for an ice fishing finder then the showdown. If you want a year round one good luck w the hunt there are a lot of features. I like the lowrance elite series finders they have the flasher mode and GPS with the option to use advanced maps and extra memory storage if needed. Humminbird does make good stuff though.
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Lowrance elite 4x ice machine is awesome. flasher mode and chart plotter mode AND it has a dual beam ducer for shallow and deep water. just depends on what your preferences are really. any guy on here could swear on his mother's coffin that he or "a buddy" has the "best" one out there. Bottom line. do your homework and try and see them in action before you buy. Just don't go with the hawkeye,
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Your more than welcome to see my marcum showdown in action or the best way to see all of them in action quickly is YouTube ( just my opinion)
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SHOWDOWN TROLLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love mine so far and for the price you cant beat it.
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showdown troll or 5.6??? Hopefully I can sell some more stuff and maybe just get the 5.6 any opinion on both of them?
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I have a very good friend that mainly targets perch just like me. He says the dual beam is not needed for our style of fishing.
I guess it depends on what you are targeting and where you fish.
I hope that helps.
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Wasn't the dual beam transducer on the showdown the one a lot of people were having problems with? I can't remember which one for sure but last year when I was looking I remember hearing a lot of bad things about one of their transducers.
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I am pretty sure you are correct.
I have heard nothing but good about the single beam though.
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I have the troller and i have no way to compare it to the dual beam but there is nothing that goes through my screen that i cant see. I outfish everyone i go with every time and have great separation and clarity with the basic troller. Not sure i would ever spend the money on a higher end unit for what i can do with the troller. If you have the money for the higher end unit it might be worth it, but you wont go wrong with either one IMO.
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Same, I fished with a friend that had the single beam last year and it worked fine.
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I have to disagree about the comment "It's all about power". I also am a vex fan. They are a proven leader in the industry, but you will pay some bucks for a vex. Oh, and they only run 800 watts. They don't need the high wattage to operate. That alone speaks for itself.
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VEXILAR FL8 SE!!!!!!! GREAT VALUE AND IT WORKS GREAT!!! The wider face would be nice if you're fishing with someone. Overall, great piece of ice fishing hardware.
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Thanks for all of the comments and on here. I made my decision today after work and just snagged the last showdown troller. Will test it out tomorrow and sunday and see how much I will love it. [
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I am not an expert, just a junkie.... here is my opinion:
First of all let me say that I think the single beam would do just fine for most of what we fish in Utah. What the dual beam does, is gives you the option to narrow the beam so that in deeper water, you are seeing what is closer to your jig rather than a larger area of the bottom. IE, you will see more fish with a wider beam, but they may not be close to your jig.
For a 20 degree beam, in 50 feet of water (where a lot of folks catch perch at Starvation by the dam), the diameter of the cone (bottom that you see) is 10 feet. The 8 or 9 degree would see 7 feet. Not drastic, I guess, but it does make a difference.
If you fish deep water, like for Macs etc, you may like the dual beam so you can narrow the cone size down. Last year at Fish Lake I was fishing 90 ft of water and catching Macs. It narrowed my cone down by about 12 feet compared to the 20 degree cone.
For shallower water, you want a nice wide cone, because you will not see a big area of the bottom because the depth doesn't let the transducer beam widen out very far before it bounces back off the bottom.
Understanding how the cone angle widens out as it travels away from the transducer makes it easier to interpret what you are seeing.
My advice, don't spend the money on something you don't need, or won't use. Vexilar, Hummingbird, and Marcum are all good units. I have fished with each of these brands, and there are things I like about all of them. Just find the one you like the best.
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