Lowrance Ice Machines-LX-3 and Vexilar

I just used my 332C for the first time yesterday on the ice. I had some mixed opinions on it. First it seemed pretty easy to read. My 8 year old was using my Marcum LX-3 and wanted to use the Lowrance because he felt it was easier to read. I also notice the Marcum could not filter out the interference from the Lowrance which may have been the reason he could not read it. My uncle however did not seem to have a problem with his FL 18 filtering out the interference. Not sure how impressed I am with the Marcum.
One problem I did have with the Lowrance was locating my jig when it appeared that we had a lot of activity with suspended fish. It seemed that fish would move in suspended. We were fishing in 38’ of water and the fish would move in at depths of 27’-35’. I had the split screen view with bottom zoom. How do you adjust the setting to find your jig in all the clutter. The real time sonar on the side is B&W so I knew I could not use that, but I had a nest to impossible time finding my jig in the suspended fish and on the zoom portion I would lose my jig when I pulled it up quickly. Any advice from those of you using these systems?

Sorry Roddy,

I don’t have an answer to your question, but wanted to say welcome to IDA. One of the electronics geniuses on here will point you in the right direction

Personally from the limited use I’ve had with lowrances, I think the flasher mode is about worthless, somewhat usable if you do not have any other units around you, but the interference is a problem, tried to get both an ice machine and a 337 to work with a fl-18 and a couple lx3, no dice. Dissapointing I may end up putting my lx3 back on my boat and selling my 337 now. We’ll see what summer holds.

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I also notice the Marcum could not filter out the interference from the Lowrance which may have been the reason he could not read it.

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Something is wrong here. What are you running your gain at on your LX-3. Is it and LX-3 or LX-3tc? How old is your transducer?

Switch to flasher mode on the Lowrance if that many fish are suspending. You can also zoom the flasher or graph mode to whatever depth range you want which will increase to definition. Flasher info is real time and works just like the Marcum flasher but with more colors. For those with interfernce problems you need to tweak you unit by using the menu system – there isn’t just one button like the Marcum. Turn off auto sensivity and auto range, set chart speed to high, noise rejection to max, surface clarity to high and sensivity to somewhere around 90. Should do the trick. I haven’t had any issues with Vex or Marcum interference with those settings. I also did not mess up any one else’s flasher.

I actully found I could get rid of the interference between any of the 2 units I had, but I couldn’t get them perfect with 3 different units running (lx3, fl-18, 337/68)

I think I may have to send in one of my lx3’s though I convinced something is up with it, I tried a different transducer on it, but no matter what I do, I cannot get one of my lx3 to work with any other unit near by, no idea how new or old it is since I bought it used. The one I bought new works great around other units.

How many fish are we talking about. I have a X67c and when there are a bajillion crappies I can have a hard time picking out my lure. I usually pick off the top fish, though. I don’t usually have problems seeing a jig with several fish on the screen, though.

I am not sure how many fish were suspended. I had a lot of clutter from 28-35 feett. It may even have been baitfish. I will probably have to play with the Lowrance a little more. I really liked the lowrance, especailly in graph mode, in fact my 8 year old wanted the Lowrance rather than the Marcum. After having a conversation with Marcum this afternoon, they are convinced I have been extremely unlucky and have had two defective units. I will be exchanging this one also. I had no interference issues with the Lowrance. The Marcum was the only one of the three that had an issue.
Thanks to all who have responded to my post

See my questions above. That is kind of what I was getting at. Something is wrong with your MarCum. What was your gain set at??

Scott,
The Gain was set between 5 and 6 at times. This was a brand new unit, first time beign used. I exchanged it tonight at the retailer. I hope the new one works. I am heading up to LOTW on Thursday.

A brand new LX-3tc should never need the Gain set above 3. The Gain settings on MarCum are very sensative and is the key to getting your unit set up to “work” with other units. You want to use enough gain on all the units in your house to see your jig. Usually that is between 2-3 on a MarCum.

Like I said, something was wrong with your MarCum, especially if it was a new unit. Make sure you put the unit on the charger until the DCS stops blinking and reads 100%. You should be good for the weekend then. Let us know how it goes for you.

If you ever have to turn your gain above 6 something is wrong with your unit or transducer.