Best Flasher for around $300

What are some of my options for flashers that are around $300, new or used. I have used the FL-8 and I like it a lot, but it died on me at the end of last year. What would be some similar flashers? Something that would be reliable.

I don’t know where you are Alex, but unless you ran over your fl-8 with a semi or tossed it off a cliff Vexilar should be able to fix it for 50 bucks or less.

They are in Bloomington MN, bring it there or send it in.

If you don’t want a FL-8, get it fixed anyway, sell it for 150-175 bucks and now you can get a $400 Flasher

towrig wrote:

I have used the FL-8 and I like it a lot, but it died on me at the end of last year.

I guess there’s a first time for everything. Never heard of an fl-8 dying on someone. I highly recommend looking into the battery, transducer or a blown fuse. Unless you dragged it behind your truck from the twin cities to lotw, I suspect this thing is still good.

towrig wrote:

Something that would be reliable.

I recommend an fl-8 for reliability.

I had my used FL8 for about 10 years and put it through the ringer, until I sold it to my brother last year. After his 3rd use it “just stopped working”, I brought it in to Bloomington and for $85 got all new everything including battery and it works like a charm. Agreed with the previous posts, tough to beat a Vex for reliability, and if you get yours fixed and don’t want it, you should be able to sell it easily and upgrade.

My dad has a FL-8. I have a Marcum VX-1 Pro. For entry level both are good units. The one advantage the entry level Marcums have is the 5 foot bottom zoom especially in deeper water. I was fishing LOTW with both units and being able to zoom in on the bottom gave me a better feel for where my dead stick truly was as well as identify those saugers and walleyes coming in.

Love my LX-6…. don’t ask how I got it for $300…

And yes, in the history of the Fl-8 one has never broke.

I’d never buy a “new” flasher considering how well they hold their value, and how the technology from 15+ years ago (FL8 and other comparable flashers) put you on just as many fish as a brand new “tablet” flasher.

I ran a Marcum VX1 with bottom zoom that I picked up used for $175 and sold for $200 x3 years later.

I then purchased a Humminbird 35 for $170 and used it for x2 years before selling to a neighbor for $200.

Now I run a Vexilar FL-12 on an Ultra Pack which I purchased for $165.

I fish for perch, gills, crappies, saugers, and walleyes on the river and could not ever say that one flasher gave me a distinct benefit over the other. I’ll stack any of them up to the latest LX whatever or Vexilar FL76 or whatever they are are getting suckers to spend $500+ on. My initial investment of $175 and profit of $55 has left me with a net investment of $120 over 9 years of fishing with a flasher. Don’t get tricked into buying some Cadillac “flasher” with the hopes of it putting more fish on the ice.

I had a great experience with my HB ICE35 before upgrading to the LX6

Vex

I bought my used LX-5 for $325 I think. You can usually find them for around $350 though, that’d be my vote.

Garmin and Lowrance have some options for ice. Garmin has the striker 4 for $200 and Lowrance has the Hook 4 for $279 at Cabela’s. The only possible issue with these is that I believe they only have graph mode. So if you prefer the round flasher dial presentation these might not be for you. You could also look for last years Marcum units. Most places I’ve seen them so far they have been marked down quite a bit.

Alex I have a FL12 for sale. $325 TYD. PM me.

monstermatt wrote:

Garmin and Lowrance have some options for ice. Garmin has the striker 4 for $200 and Lowrance has the Hook 4 for $279 at Cabela’s. The only possible issue with these is that I believe they only have graph mode

^^^

Get out of the stone age flasher mode and into 2d for ice, it’ll change your life! (alright maybe not your life but it’s way more useful than a freakin dial, I mean serious when has a moving blinking dot been relevant since Pong?)

I don’t know why people got rid of their rotary phones… they work as good as the new smart phones… at making calls ????