Explain the advantage of a FLASHER…

Hi guys,

I know there are people here with tons of experience with flashers. Could someone explain the advantate of a flasher over a conventional sonar unit? My Sonar has a “flasher mode”, is that not the same thing? If a flasher is in real time, is my “flasher mode” not?

If it helps your answer any… I am getting rid of my old sonar/gps unit this winter and upgrading to a sonar/gps on the console and a sonar unit on the bow trolling motor. Someone suggested to me that I would want a flasher on the bow.

I cant see giving up the advantage of seeing bottom structure and baitfish with a sonar unit… unless I am missing something.. am I????

Thanks in advance!!!

Dave

good question, am waiting for an answer also. As far as ICE fishing is concerned, an FL8/ 18 is a MUST. I would not leave home without it. but in a boat, front and back, hope someone jumps on here with a good answer for us. Jack..

I too, want that answer.

I’ve been using an Eagle Ultra Classic portable graph for my ice fishing for the past 5 years and have no reason to go to a flasher. The nice thing about the graph, is that if I turn away for a minute, I can look back to see the “history” on the graph of what happened, incase a fish did a “fly by” and I need to do some “work” to get her to bit……

flasher spacing can tell you the difference between weed types as well as bottom types. If you learned with a flasher you will be much more attune to what is going on under your boat much more then with a graph. Now adays the the fancy color graphs are changing my mind.
jc

How does the sonar screen dispaly a stationary target when used for ice fishing? example-fish that comes up and looks at bait.

Jeremy, you are right about that…..knowing how to read the band width on a flasher in relationship to the hardness of the bottom. The difference from a hard rock/gravel bottom to a soft mud bottom. Rocks give a narrow band as with mud a wide band in soft bottoms. The same goes with watching the new graphs as of the present. I can’t say much about the weeds as I fish mostly structure on Mille Lacs. It’s interesting to see a flasher while motoring up on a mid lake mud flat on Mille Lacs…….the flashers band width will just expand as you run up on the mud flats soft bottom!

Just a few points that I am aware of.

I use a Vexilar FL-18 during the ice fishing season. The flasher will show you instantaneously objects with zero delay. If you see a mark on the dial………

it will be right below ” fish on ”

My favorite is the 2 inch solid sporadic lines and all the sudden a sharp double echo followed by my more sporadic lines…
jc

I found this video on the Marcum site interesting, but I still dont see the advantage over a sonar graph….

Marcum video of Flasher

Dave

alot of it is the speed of the flasher over the graph. Your flasher unit is more like real time with the graph being alittle slower.I use my flasher when im running cause i feel im getting a faster update on the depth of water. I have never learned the flasher all that well and myself prefer to use a graph to look at the bottom,but any fish i mark with a graph i look at as yesterday’s news.Mark the same fish with a flasher and chances are they are there.Then again i have been wrong before

Probably the “real time” ability of the flasher… But, today’s graphs are pretty much “real time” as well, and many of the graphs now offer a “flasher” screen, as well as “fast track” where you can view the sonar signal returns on the right side of your screen. On my Lowrance LMS-330C, I have watched my jig in 20 feet of water, up and down on the graph, as close to “real time” as you can get.

See the Lowrance X100C Owners Manual (PDF File) , page 35, for an example of what I’m referring to here.

I still think flashers are probably the best sonar for ice fishing, but if you want the versitility of a graph on the bow, I wouldn’t hesitate.

Flahers are tops for ice fishing as when you see a fish you can watch your jig being lowered down or raised up to right where the fish is and bam you got em. I have a reg. sonar unit on the front of the boat but when I bought my Vexilar FL8 ice fishing combo I picked up a transducer that can be mounted on my front trolling motor so I could use the flaher in the boat too of I wanted to. This gives you the same advantage in open water for catching suspended fish too. Thanks, Bill

Thanks guys, but I think I am still missing something. If a really nice Vexilar flasher is $400+ and you could buy a Lowrance graph that would do the same thing for the same $, what would make you want the Vexilar?

Is it portablity for ice? or more solidly built?

Sorry for being dense… I think I am sold on 2 graphs instead of a graph and flasher, but I am still struggling to understand the allure of the Vexilar flasher. I know it has A LOT of fans….

Dave

For ice fishing, a flasher is more handy. Yes, the portability, but also the screens on some graphs may fog a bit in the cold conditions. I should also add, about being able to see my jig on my LMS-330C, that is most of the time, not all of the time. Under some conditions I have not been able to pick up smaller jigs. But with a flasher, it seems like you can always pick up your tiny ice jigs, and watch the fish moving towards it in real time. Personally, I don’t know that a flasher would be my #1 choice on the bow unless I was into vertically jigging a lot . But for ice fishing, the flasher is the way to go.

For me my flasher is fish in the boat, nothing catches me more fish than my flasher, short of a camera nothing gives quicker feedback. As most fishfinders today being realtime, I dunno… (haven’t used enough different types to be sure in my opinion) they are quick but I know my x-51 cannot tell me info like a flasher does, if I pull into a spot and I think there may be fish there, the flasher is the only real true thing I trust, since mine is in permenant icefishing mode, I just drop my transducer over the side, and that will tell me right now what’s really going on down there. The if I drop a jig down, I can watch them react to it, and see their interest, not to mention it tells the tale pretty quick of which way they want it, jigged, jiggled, snapped or deadsticked. Instant feedback, something I just cannot get my x-51 to do, even in the “flasher mode” which I think doesn’t work??? Given the choice of one or the other for a boat, I’d still take a lcd graph it can so you more about stucture than a flasher could, because of the history it shows, it can also show you bait/fish pretty good, it’s also easy for anyone to look at and read. Flashers on the other hand take a bit of explaining, but once people get the concept it’s clear as day. Ice fishing they cannot be beat, the ablility to shoot through the ice is awesome, you can check you depth so easily, and after drilling a hole you have the instant feedback a graph doesn’t give (IMO) and the screen won’t freeze up. I have a buddy who has always used his lcd graph, (a very nice one at that) for all his fishing, after icefishing with him a couple times, after I made him watch my flasher I could see a fish follwing his bait he couldn’t, and after he watched the flasher he caught it, his graph did nothing for him. Instant feedback in the key IMO, in a sport where the fish can decide in a matter a fracton of a second what it wants to eat, instant feedback gives you better odds in my book anytime, anyday. I use my flasher everytime I take the boat out, without it I can make due, but it certainly makes my days easier. This being said I have not hooked my flasher up so it works when I’m moving more than a couple mph, and use it primaryly for jiggin’. Secondly it is rather hard to keep your bait in sight on the flasher on the river (open water) with some good moving current, but it is possible, I don’t seem to have this problem so much in lakes without the current. There are days out on the lakes that my lcd graph said there were no fish, it indicated nothing, nothing at all, and 2 things told me there were fish to be found in this area, one another fisherman in around the same depth quite a ways away, knowing the lake I knew I was on the same flat he was, secondly the flasher told me the fish were indeed there, only very tight to the bottom, and not active, but with the flasher I could see what I needed to do to get them to bite, it gave me the confidence to stick to the area and fish these fish, and it payed off I know the other boat I used to help me find the fish, caught some fish, I didn’t see of any others caught from the couple other boats out there, only my flasher could do this… Honestly I can’t figure out why people moth ball them in summer, they are great year round, and like I said cannot be beat in Winter. YMMV

Thank you for the thoughtful responses. I believe I understand!

Dave

I dont think you can say a flasher has an “advantage” over todays new locators. But I can say I can read bait much better with a flasher. A flasher is a great compliment to any boat. Like stated above, you can really break new ground if you can learn to effectively read bottom transition with a flasher.