Noob sonar question

Is there any trick to using flashers in the weeds? My buddy and i were in 14′ of water with about 5′ of tall stringy weeds and all I could get on my LX-5 was a mess of blinking yellow and green on the bottom 5. Tinkering with the gain, zoom, or narrow beam didn’t help to differentiate fish from bait from weeds – it was just a flickering mess. The fish were all suspended in the weeds (which we saw through a camera). My buddy just stopped looking at his FL-20 and I eventually turned mine off cause it wasn’t helping at all.

Is there some way to use them in the thick weeds or is that hoping for too much?

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Is there any trick to using flashers in the weeds? My buddy and i were in 14′ of water with about 5′ of tall stringy weeds and all I could get on my LX-5 was a mess of blinking yellow and green on the bottom 5. Tinkering with the gain, zoom, or narrow beam didn’t help to differentiate fish from bait from weeds – it was just a flickering mess. The fish were all suspended in the weeds (which we saw through a camera). My buddy just stopped looking at his FL-20 and I eventually turned mine off cause it wasn’t helping at all.

Is there some way to use them in the thick weeds or is that hoping for too much?

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If you’re smack dab in the middle of thick weeds, there’s really nothing that can be done with any brand of sonar. The sonar pulse is going to return a signal from an object in the water column… no way around it. Sounds like you used all the tools available to you… sensitivity adjustments, narrow beam, etc. This particular scenario is tailor made for the camera.

I believe Dave Genz did a video on this situation either last year or the year before. He was able to use a flasher in weeds, I do not remember what brand flasher he used or how he did it because I did not own a flasher at the time. I just remembering being impressed. It may not have been the same fishing conditions you had there but might be worth looking at.

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I believe Dave Genz did a video on this situation either last year or the year before. He was able to use a flasher in weeds, I do not remember what brand flasher he used or how he did it because I did not own a flasher at the time. I just remembering being impressed. It may not have been the same fishing conditions you had there but might be worth looking at.

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Genz= Vexilar……

The original poster was fishing two different kinds of flasher, including a 20. Neither would do what he wanted. This is not a situation where one brand will have an advantage over another.

If the weeds return a stronger signal than the lure being fished, nothing can be done. As you turn down the sensitivity the jig disappears before the weeds. It is a basic limitation of sonar and no sonar brand can overcome the limitations.

After I gave it more thought… One thing you could do is upsize the lure being fished so that the lure returns a stronger signal than the weeds you’re fishing around. This would allow you to turn your gain down with the weeds disappearing before the lure. But that assumes the fish will want the new presentation. Not all lures return signals in the same way with lures with a thin profile (small spoons for example) typically requiring more “gain” than a jig of the same weight. Basically lures with more horizontal profile will reflect more of the sonar pulse back to the receiver. You might give that a try the next time you encounter the situation to see if you can find a work around.

James, wasnt throwing a cheap vex shot in, just saying genz is a vex user from the post above that didnt know what brand he used…..

Now, On my fl22 I can fish in super thick weeds in the 10 ft scale in low power mode and not have any issues at all seeing my jig…Just the other day I was in 7 feet of water with 4 foot weeds catching gills less than a foot off the bottom…. I think alot of it is just dialing in a flasher and learning how to decipher your jig out of the weeds.

another issue his buddy may have had using the vex was the marcum cs. vex interference issue.

Another thought is what james was talking about with a vertical vs horizontal jig. Try a jig like the Hexi fly or gill getter from northland, lindy bug and toad, or the lindy worm….all are horizontal type lures. Go with a size 12 or bigger and see if you can see it on the dial…..

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James, wasnt throwing a cheap vex shot in, just saying genz is a vex user from the post above that didnt know what brand he used…..

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Completely understood. And I definitely didn’t take it as a cheap shot or anything like that. Just good info. The original poster titled this as a “noob question” when in fact it gets at a fairly high level of understanding of how flashers work.

We’ve had similar problems fishing at night and getting thick readings of plankton in the water. To eliminate the interference, my buddy and I were able to turn our FL22 to low power and mark/fish out jigs in 28 FOW.

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We’ve had similar problems fishing at night and getting thick readings of plankton in the water. To eliminate the interference, my buddy and I were able to turn our FL22 to low power and mark/fish out jigs in 28 FOW.

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A “low power” mode comes into play on units that don’t allow sensitivity adjustments to “zero.” On a Vex the gain setting doesn’t allow for adjustment on the low sensitivity end. Hence the low power setting. Other units allow for adjustments on the low end that will eliminate all targets if desired. One method isn’t better than the other necessarily as both allow tuning to the same degree. Just pointing that out because a low power setting isn’t the answer as it is a feature on a Vex that allows those units to get to the same place others get without a dedicated setting for low power.

I’m sure I was still able to adjust my gain on my 20 in lp mode. That is what I did a few weeks ago on URL to cut down some interference.

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A “low power” mode comes into play on units that don’t allow sensitivity adjustments to “zero.” On a Vex the gain setting doesn’t allow for adjustment on the low sensitivity end. Hence the low power setting. Other units allow for adjustments on the low end that will eliminate all targets if desired. One method isn’t better than the other necessarily as both allow tuning to the same degree. Just pointing that out because a low power setting isn’t the answer as it is a feature on a Vex that allows those units to get to the same place others get without a dedicated setting for low power.

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Thanks, I think my initial question is answered. However, concerning the above quote: are you saying (or intentionally not saying to avoid a sonar flame war) that my marcum with the gain cranked down does the same thing as the vex “low power mode”? I did a fair amount of research before choosing the lx-5 but I did have some second thoughts when I realized I had overlooked the low power mode aspect of the vexs.

Also for the record, our marcum and vex were playing together just fine and not interfering. We were on opposite corners of a quickfish 3, so not all that far apart.

One more question I guess: if in theory I put a bigger lure on and was able to gain the weeds out, would it still pick up the fish (they were mostly panfish)? Is there something special about the density or makeup of the fish that blips on the sonar as opposed to a clup of weeds?

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are you saying (or intentionally not saying to avoid a sonar flame war) that my marcum with the gain cranked down does the same thing as the vex “low power mode”?

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That is correct. Each unit allows fine tune adjust-ability on the “small end.” They just arrive at the same place taking different routes.

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Is there something special about the density or makeup of the fish that blips on the sonar as opposed to a clup of weeds?

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Darn good question. The sonar “pings” off the air bladder in a fish’s body cavity far more effectively than it does off weeds, etc. That’s why they show up so well and why sonar units are able to differentiate by size so effectively. Small fish have a smaller air bladder and return less signal than a large fish with a larger bladder. Weeds don’t typically provide a signal return as strong as even a small fish so adjusting your gain to eliminate the weeds while retaining the marks representing the fish is typically straight forward. Now things get trickier when you introduce a small jig or spoon into the works. The intensity of the signal return from the small lure can often times be same / similar to the signal returned by weeds…. as you turn down your gain to eliminate the weeds (fish will often still display due to the stronger return off the air bladder even at very low gain settings) some lures will also be lost. Hence the suggestion to up-size your lure or fish with a lure that offers a more prominent horizontal profile that will return a stronger signal to the receiver.