Two weekends ago I spent the weekend on the ice trying out some of the new ice equipment that you will see on the ice this year. I spent two days getting familiar with the Vexilar FL-20, the Aqua-Vu VPG (Vertical Pixel Graph) and comparing them with the MarCum LX-5. The VPG is not a 3-color flasher but since it is new and getting a lot of marketing attention, I wanted to check it out.
The Aqua-Vu VPG was a nice concept but that is the last good thing I have to say about it. Upon first examination the case for the unit is nice but getting it to stand up on an uneven surface is tough to say the least. The unit is shaped like a cone that tips over easily. The battery on my unit had a small wood block taped to it to hold the battery in place. After doing some checking, this is how they all come. Well, my tape lasted one day and my battery was moving all over and I had to fix the power connector that is inside the battery box. This is a terrible design.
As for the function of the unit, well, it functions but not well around any other units. The VPG has a “Noise” button that is supposed to make the unit work around other units, but it does not. Whether it is the Vexilar or the MarCum, both units locked the VPG up and it was worthless. Using the Noise button seemed to limit the gain so bad you get a trailing signal that made it almost impossible to use. When you bring another unit close to the VPG the Auto Range jumps all over and it cannot find bottom. You had to restart the unit to get it to work again.
One other problem I had was after I left all 3 units outside over night, the next day the VPG heater took 2 minutes to heat up the unit enough where it would work but it was still very slow. In addition, when you put the unit into Ice Mode, the 0-5ft scale is gone and the scale starts at 5ft. I am not sure why, but it would not make a good shallow water unit. I was not impressed with this unit one bit; the design needs a lot of work!
The Vexilar FL-20 is pretty similar to the FL-18 in my opinion. The unit has a slightly larger screen, which is nice. I also felt the FL-20 was better at tuning out other units when compared to old FL-18. I was able to test both the MarCum and the Vexilar side by side without an issue. The FL-20 still appears to blend LED lights to get their 3 colors, but they are brighter this year and include a dimmer feature so you can turn down the amount of light given off by the display. This should be nice for fishing at night. However, the blended lights still give you that big blurry feel when compared to the MarCum LX-5.
The Vexilar Fl-20 still seems to be as loud as the FL-18 was. The Fl-20 was by far the loudest of the 3 units. The new flat screen design to the FL-20 is a nice concept but gave off a lot of glare in direct sunlight and made the screen tough to look at without turning out of the sun. The FL-20 was the hardest screen to read in direct sunlight. In addition, the gain still seems to be set to high at “0”. I like to be able to fine-tune the flasher and when you turn the gain to zero, you still get a full bottom reading. This has been the case since I first ran a FL-8.
The unit still has a lot of plastic in it, but seems to be better built than the previous Fl-18 units. It is still plastic, but seemd to be a little stronger plastic. Maybe they have all changed, I don’t know. A nice padded soft pack would be a good addition to the FL-20, for the price the should include one.
I am very familiar with the MarCum LX-5, as I have been using this unit for 2 years. I still think it is the best flasher on the Market. The 3 separate LED light colors really seem to separate the unit from the others. The Tru-Color display on the LX-5 is so crisp and clear, the Vexilar FL-20 really didn’t compare. The padded soft pack, and push button controls really stand out as nice features. There is no doubt in my mind it is still the best flasher on the market. I am not going to go through all the feature of the LX-5 because that has been covered plenty.
I am not expert on flashers and am certainly not an engineer. I know what features I like in a unit, and how I need them to function on the ice. This is what I based my comparisons on. There was not enough ice to give the units a real “day fishing” test, but that will come soon enough.
