Flasher Reccomendations for Shallow Water

I am used to fishing with an underwater camera and have never used a flasher. After my camera stopped working, I am thinking of getting a flasher instead of buying a new camera. I am mostly fishing perch. Over half of my fishing is done it water depths from 4-10 ft. The rest of the time, I’m in about 25ft. There is so much information to sort through and I can’t find much on shallow water flashers.

What flashers work best in shallow water? Would an entry level unit such as Marcum vx1pro be all that I need or should I be looking at the higher end models? Not sure of what I should be looking for in shallow water flashers but I don’t want to spend extra money on features that I don’t need or will only work in deeper water.

The VX-1 is a great unit, 4 ft is tough for any flasher, that’s about as shallow as you can go. The bottom zoom is great in deeper water 10 ft and over. There are a lot of used VX-1 and LX-3/5 units out there right now.

I wouldn’t stress too much on electronics in shallow water (8ft and under), I’m sure I’ll get flak for saying this but I’ve never felt under equipped fishing without one, I had a vex and a hunmingbird but after the bird died I never bought another, using one now feels like an anchor, get what works for ya but try fishing blind a few times it’s rough at first but with my long rod and some ambition I smoke almost all the guys hovering over a graph working possibly inactive fish, I work from the hole to the bottom and up to the ice twice a hole if nothing next hole and so on, also if clarity allows sight fishing is wayyyy more effective than camera or vex

I have been using the LX-5 for years now.. I love it for the back waters on the Mississippi River.. Under 10 feet of water… I have used it with 18″ of ice and 2 feet of water when you would bet that the big crappies were coming in sideways under the ice,,,,

My nod get the LX-5 every time !!!

I would suggest a flasher with zoom for fishing deeper water. I do agree that site fishing is a blast but I feel blind without a flasher when not site fishing.

It sucks at first but I honestly feel like I was handicapping myself here’s some argument for longrods and sight fishing, old school is new school again!!!! Actually all my perch over 14 last winter were handlining jiggin raps laying on my belly talk about exciting

Vexilar is probably going to work best in shallow water. Some of the units have a low power mode that is specifically for shallow water. It also helps penetrate thick weeds to know exactly what depth you are fishing.

I own 3 vexs from 5-20 years old. Never had the slightest problem with any of them.

Vx-1P is a great unit, I run one myself… but for perch I would suggest a unit with a little better target separation. LX5 or 6 would be a great choice! 7 if you can swing it.

Vex low power mode is compensating, marcums don’t need it. I can run my vx-1p in down to about 3.25′ and see my jig. I do 99.9% of my fishing in 6-10 FOW and it does very well.. especially in the brush piles where vex’s are all one big red line.

I use a vx1 pro and I love it. As for catching perch well thats pretty much what we do here in CNY on Oneida Lake is catch perch and Walleye. The target separation is great. It has a zoom feature for the bottom 5 feet of water and it has interference rejection. Im sure there are better machines with more bells and whistles but if you’re not into deep water fishing too often this machine works really well. However if you do get deeper this machine handles that too. Oneida lake has a few deeper spots 40-50′ that Ive benn into and the vx1 pro had no problems. You won’t be disappointed.

I recommend the Lowrance Elite 4x ice machine mostly because I have one for sale. Check the classifieds. Seriously though, any flasher you can see your bait with will do and I have never fished with a flasher that can’t do that with.

I can contest the lx 5 is great in 3 ft love mine Ecnook sold me

I would also have to say the lx5! The 20 degree cone angle really helps in shallow water but one of my favorite things with the lx5 is the 3/4″ target separation. This is awesome when you get around schools of fish or when fishing brush or cribs, or when fish are tight to the bottom.

Anything with a transducer with a wide cone angle somewhere around 20 degrees would probably be what your looking for.

For clarification I use a LX-5

I use my Showdown all the time in shallow water.

I have a Humminbird ICE35 and it works just fine for any of my fishing from 3ft to 35ft. The the only thing about shallow water with it is that the area it sees under the hole is relatively small in diameter becasue of the cone angle and depth of the water. I would guess that they are all like that in shallow water though.

Quote:

---

The the only thing about shallow water with it is that the area it sees under the hole is relatively small in diameter becasue of the cone angle and depth of the water.

---

That’s when Cal’s transducer swinging technique comes in handy. Make sure that transducer is just past the bottom of the hole.

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

The the only thing about shallow water with it is that the area it sees under the hole is relatively small in diameter becasue of the cone angle and depth of the water.

---

That’s when Cal’s transducer swinging technique comes in handy. Make sure that transducer is just past the bottom of the hole.

---

x2

I like to make slow circles with the ducer to see what is just to the sides of my holes.

FDR

Quote:

---

That’s when Cal’s transducer swinging technique comes in handy. Make sure that transducer is just past the bottom of the hole.

---

Swinging the ducer back and forth allows a person to see which way the fish are moving or you can also swing the ducer in any direction to see if you mark fish, this gives away which direction a person needs to start drilling.
Doing this in shallow water will work, but is sometimes more difficult to see fish as you have less water to work with.

Wow, I learned something today. I’ve never thought of that I guess. Thanks for the tip, I’ll give it a shot… as soon as we have ice

Hands down for me the LX-7 gives me a huge advantage in shallow water… The digital screen allows shallower water depth settings as well as for a dynamic depth setting which in turn sizes your flasher dial according to depth. Because your dial is sized specifically for very shallow wayer you are able to use all 360 degrees of of your dial and will notice slight movements that you couldnt see if only looking at half or one quarter of your dial like on most traditional flashers. This might not seem like much but on days when they’re finicky being able to get a larger view of what’s happening makes a huge difference.

Watching a show this morning I heard a couple tips. Make sure to use the low power or shallow water settings on you unit if it has one. On dual and multi bean units, set it to the largest degree cone.

Then I thought of something I haven’t tried that people might have to experiment with to see if it is effective. Maybe keep your transducer as high up the hole as possible and adjust the gain up so you still see your jig. The ducer should be able to read through the ice on the edges of your hole a little bit. I’ve always made sure my ducer is past the bottom of the hole fishing all depths, but you might be able to get away with having it up the hole a little bit without losing effectiveness. That way you give yourself a bigger cone. In deeper water though, you might want to get it down and actually shrink your cone. Thoughts?

I have owned the LP flashers in the past will take my LX-7 anyday in the shallow weeds…

Hi Dave! How are you positioning your transducer? I just got the M5, upgraded from Ice35, and an having a hard time getting good readings above three ft in 7 ft of water. My ducer is just under the ice. You mentioned using yours in 18 to 24in of water. Please share!

Dave Koonce wrote:

I have been using the LX-5 for years now.. I love it for the back waters on the Mississippi River.. Under 10 feet of water… I have used it with 18″ of ice and 2 feet of water when you would bet that the big crappies were coming in sideways under the ice,,,,

My nod get the LX-5 every time !!!

Hi Dave! How are you positioning your transducer? I just got the M5, upgraded from Ice35, and an having a hard time getting good readings above three ft in 7 ft of water. My ducer is just under the ice. You mentioned using yours in 18 to 24in of water. Please share!