The Showdown

Well I did it. I used a Showdown on a recent trip to North Central Minnesota. I liked it. In fact my whole party kept on wanting to take it from me so they could use it.

Prior to this trip I was using an LX5 this Winter. I just had to find out what the Showdown had to offer.

We set up in a large bay and decided to do some hole hopping to pick up the somewhat scatterd Crappies.

The unit was easy to read and understand. The 4 level gray scale worked fine. The Zoom feature gave great resolution. The auto sensitivity worked fine too for my needs. It was able to pick up my small diamond jig just fine. A size 6 Genz Worm certainly showed up as a wider and darker line.

It was fun to watch the Crappies swim up to check out the jig and then gently take it.

Many of the folks I were with were somewhat new to ice fishing. Some of then had never ice fished with out using a bobber. Most of them had little experience using sonar while ice fishing. It was fun to see them quickly learn how to interpret the signals and use the unit to catch more fish.

The unit was reliable and trouble free. I think its an excellent sonar regardless of price. The feature I missed compared to my LX5 was the dual beam transducer.

I’m having trouble getting pictures posted. I’d like to show you some shots of the unit in action. I’ll forward some photos out of my Mac to a PC to see if that is my problem.

Regards,

BlueSmoke

Thanks for the review, I have been curious about this unit myself. Sounds like you had a good trip! Hopefully your pics work out I would be interested to see them

Blue Smoke…you forgot one thing…did you catch any fish?

I’ll shoot you a pm Re: posting photos…sometimes if they are really big they won’t up load.

Oh Yeah….

We caught lots of fish. Crappie, Bluegill, Northern Pike, Largemouth Bass, Perch, and even a Rock Bass. It was definately a fun day on the ice.

A few of the Crappies were in the 13″ range. I forgot how big a 13″ Crappie really is. It was awesome.

Regards,

BlueSmoke

I persoally haven’t gotten the chance to use the showdown yet but I’ve heard nothing but posititve things about them and I’m glad you like your unit.

What is a showdown?

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What is a showdown?

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http://www.naturevisioninc.com/ice_fishing/ShowDownSonar.shtml

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I persoally haven’t gotten the chance to use the showdown yet but I’ve heard nothing but posititve things about them and I’m glad you like your unit.

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My experience is exactly opposite. I have used the Showdown (which is a vertical column sonar flasher) and have heard little to nothing postive about them when considering other available options.

The two biggest complaints I hear of is the units issue with interfernce. That is a fairly amazing experience to to able to fish the showdown next to Vexilar and MarCum and not be bombarded with interference.

The other issue is determining signal strength. Instead of having three colors to determine the strength, it is limiting only using grayscale.

The other issue is simply just getting the unit to stand up while hole hopping. Its fairly top heavy and difficult to stand next to the hole.

I don’t want anyone to be lead stray on this. But I will be honest in that it is the first positive review I’ve heard of this unit.

Thanks now I know. As a techinician I would also think that you’d have problems witht the liquid crystal display when it is real cold.

From my understanding the lcd is supposed to be heated while the unit is on, but I have never used one before.

Mark it does have a heated LCD screeen but, you have to wait for it to warm up. As a technician, I’m sure you know that heating resistors absorb a lot of power. again

Thanks

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The other issue is determining signal strength. Instead of having three colors to determine the strength, it is limiting only using grayscale.

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Matt;
how is determining signal strength here any different than using a graph in open water?

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Matt;
how is determining signal strength here any different than using a graph in open water?

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Well, I’d say that there isn’t really. Just because an open water graph is most comparable to this Showdown. I’m most accustomed to the Three color flasher units which give me a very good indication of where a target is, is reference to my cone. The Showdown has various levels of grayscale intensity which is supposed to let its user know the intensity of its signal, just like a higher end graph will. However I must say this feature is “near the rear of the hog” in terms of any flasher technology. I’m sure that spending enough time with it in various scenarios may produce a user capable of being comfortable with the unit.

I haven’t used one yet, but my friend owns one and is not very happy. He actually asked me to keep my eyes open for an LX-5 or FL-20 at a good price. I’ll be fishing with him in a couple weeks and I’ll post a review.

I did not run the Showdown next to a Marcum or Vexilar on my trip. Only next to an older Eagle Flasher. I do not know about the interference issue. The Eagle did not offer any problems. I know it’s not apples to apples, the Eagle I’m sure is low power compared to a newer Vexilar or Marcum.

I felt the 4 level gray scale gave me enough info. I was fishing outside. Plenty of ambient light to see the contrast changes.

Regards,

BlueSmoke

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Mark it does have a heated LCD screeen but, you have to wait for it to warm up. As a technician, I’m sure you know that heating resistors absorb a lot of power. again

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Matt after rereading your post you are right this would be a battery eater. I’ve went 2 full day’s use on my fl-8 without charging the battery.

I’ve lurked here in the shadows for several years, learned a lot and don’t recall ever posting, but I thought I finally had something to offer. I fished with a guy the other day using a Showdown and I used my Vexilar FL12. We had absolutely no interference problems. Out of curiosity we dropped both transducers down the same hole and both units worked great, to my surprise. We were fishing over a brush pile in 12 fow. The Vex did a much better job separating the brush from the bottom, the Showdown just showed a solid gray bar from 8′ to the bottom no matter how much he played with the sensitivity.

Very good information and glad to see you signed up and your first post making you a member hib

Hope to see you posting more often now that you have the first one out of the way

Welcome to the posting side of IDO Hib!

Thanks for joining!

Welcome to the site Hib and Bluesmoke, always nice to have a lurker turn into an active member

The Showdown is the same product that was released last ice season under the name VPG or Verticle Pixel Graph. You can do a search on this site for info on the product. I did a review on the product in November of 2006.

it good to hear good news about the showdown. have been lookin at them. i am also one that has never used a flasher b4 and would like to start. thanks for the info

wilddawg, we’ll have to get on the ice together some time. I have an LX5 you can check out!

Ed

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it good to hear good news about the showdown. have been lookin at them. i am also one that has never used a flasher b4 and would like to start. thanks for the info

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Where was the good news?

When someone shares stuff like this quote below I know it sure doesn’t sound good to me.

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The Vex did a much better job separating the brush from the bottom, the Showdown just showed a solid gray bar from 8′ to the bottom no matter how much he played with the sensitivity.

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This is telling me the showdown has horrible target separation. A good flasher would be able to deal with the branches on a bush easily.