Another Marcum LX5 question

Just started using a new LX5 last month. For panfishing it has been great. I can see very small jigs and even my sinker. It picked up suspended crappies great.

However, on my first trip to LOW, my jigging spoon/jig/minnow seemed to blend into the bottom signal (23ft, flat sand) when about 8-10 inches above bottom. This happened in zoom mode and to a lesser extent in SFL in 40 foot scale.

There were walleyes biting right on the bottom for 2 days, I never saw my bottom signal change. I tried turning gain up and down, NB, standard beam, SFL the entire deal. No other flashers around me.

Is this typical for an LX5? For any flasher? Do I have a bad unit? Any help is appreciated. At this point my 334i provides better display of bottom hugging fish and lures close to bottom than the LX5 and I am close to taking it back.

Thanks

I would say that’s typical of most flashers, but very a-typical of a Marcum one.

My guess is that you were fishing in a wheelhouse, or thicker ice on LOW than you’re used to. If the bottom of the ducer isn’t below the ice, sometimes it’ll lean up against the ice hole edge, effectively pointing away from the center.

Did you use the zoom mode? This feature will allow you the very best ability to see bottom-hugging fish. Also, adjusting gain settings will help see fish to the edge of the cone if it doesn’t give you interference issues with other units.

While this is only speculation, anytime I’ve had less than pristine bottom readings or couldn’t see bottom hugging fish, I’ve either had snow/ice on the bottom of my ducer, or the ducer wasn’t far enough down the hole.

Be assured, that isn’t typical performance from the LX-5, and something wasn’t quite right. The guys at marcum might have some additional advice for you, I’d shoot them a ring:

Marcum Customer Service

Joel

There’s a couple possibilities here.

1) you had a subtle rise out towards the edge of your cone causing a dead spot. If you’re not familiar with the concept of a “dead spot” think of it like this… the highest point inside your cone will be displayed as the bottom on any unit regardless of brand. So if you’re in 30′ of water your transducer cone is approximately 10′ across. If you have a 1′ rise anywhere at the edge of your cone and your jig is setting down into a depression… you can’t see the jig. With any unit. The use of a narrow beam transducer helps immensely and makes this scenario less likely. But still very possible.

2) You have an issue with the unit.

You should be able to see your jig down to within a “gnats hinder” above the bottom with the LX5. You didn’t say how often you moved around to know if this was happening in all holes fished or just the one location. If you only really tried it in the one location, give it another shot. The chances of the dead spot scenario biting you repeatedly when fishing relatively flat ground is slim. If you did a bunch of hole hopping and saw the same issue in all holes, time to give MarCum a shout.

Thanks to you guys for the quick feedback. I was in two different locations about 200yds apart so I don’t think it was a bottom variation issue. I did check the ducer multiple times to make sure it was not iced up and I am almost sure that I had it deep enough. The cable may have been touching the side of the hole but I wouldn’t think that would have changed ducer angle.

I have sent an email to Marcum with this question too.

Just got a call from Marcum only about 15min after sending an email. That is what I call good response time.

Quote:

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Just got a call from Marcum only about 15min after sending an email. That is what I call good response time.

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Let us know what the solution was in case we here of this issue again in the future.

The “gnats hinder” is correct with the LX-5. You should be able to raise it off the bottom ever so slightly and see it immediately.

Another issue not already discussed may be how you have the zoom set. You may not have had it set deep enough? I like to adjust it down (on 5 or 10 ft zoom scale) until the red line at 6 o’clock widens and kicks left once towards 7 o’clock. That way I know that I have zoomed it all the way to the bottom but that’s just me.

This is a follow-up on my Marcum LX5 issues.

Marcum customer service responded to me with a phone call within 15 minutes of my email. They gave me a return authorization number and instructions. I shipped the unit back per the instructions along with a letter re-stating what my problem was. The customer service person said that the unit would be checked out and fixed if required.

Six days later I got my unit shipped back to me. There was no indication in the box whether anything was found to be wrong with the unit or not. No indication if the transducer tested fine or was replaced, nothing. I also expected some recogition of my time and expense to send the unit back in, nothing. Neither my email or phone call to customer service 3 business days ago has been answered.

Because I have no idea what is wrong (if anything) on the unit, I ended up returning the unit this last weekend. My 60-day return window was on day 59 and I couldn’t wait any longer for a call back from Marcum.

All in all I have been a bit disapointed in the entire experience. I will keep using my old Lowrance 334i until I can attend an on-ice comparison of flashers like Marcum had last season.

Thanks to all of you that offered suggestions.