Vexilar fl 18-20 vs. humminbird ice 45

I was wondering if someone has compared these two products and could give me the pros and cons of each. I am looking to purchase one or the other. Any info would be appreciated.

I currently have the FL-20 love the flat sreeen,my only complaint is there are alot of depth scales which take some getting use to.Once your fishing it is not a issue

I have used an FL 8 that is my dads and it works great. I am a little curious as to how useful the zoom feature is and how the interferance is between the two as well. If he uses his vexilar and i were to use a humminbird in close proximity would they affect one another.

The zoom takes 1/2 the screen and can show the bottom 6 or 12 feet.The other 1/2 shows the whole depth range.I really like the bright screen and durability of the Vexilars.
Just my 2 cents

I just got the Humminbird ice 45 a few weeks ago and love it. The guy at Scheels said they are sell a boat load of the Humminbirds this year. The flat screen and the depth read out is nice. It’s very easy to use. Both products are good flashers.

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I was wondering if someone has compared these two products and could give me the pros and cons of each. I am looking to purchase one or the other. Any info would be appreciated.

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Any reason you’ve eliminated The MarCum line of flashers. Its well worth your time to compare price to feature; and a ton of other things for that matter.

I can give you a review of the ice 45 and Fl-18/20, but its nowhere near complete until you atleast see MarCum’s features along side.

How does the marcum compare to these others? I just was lookin at the ones that easily found in my area.

Where would your area be?

You will not get interference between a Vexilar and Humminbird unit or MarCum for that matter. I ran all three units last year. The Humminbird ICE 45 is a great unit and with a dual beam transducer, 1800 watts of power and Auto Zoom it will meet or exceed your needs on the ice. I would recommend getting the soft pack for the ICE 45 if you decide to go that route. When you compare functionality to price the Hummibird ICE 45 is an excellent buy right now.

Scott

Did Humminbird ever address the wide angle so an angler could see small jigs in water deeper than 22′ +/- a couple feet? I know last year they ran the wide and narrow beams off one transducer crystal with the wide using the secondary frequency and the wide struggled to produce a useable return in water deeper than 22′ or so when fishing pannies or other species where small jigs are the norm.

I have a friend that bought a Hummingbird 45 and he wasn’t thrilled. Needless to say it’s up for sale. I’d go with either a Vexilar or a Marcum. I used a Vexilar for almost 20 years but after using a Marcum the last few weeks I think the Marcum is a better unit. Good luck in your decision.

Scott
I have the ice 55 model. I use it up here at Selkirk, Manitoba in the Red River. It works great but the cold really does in the batteries. I have to take 2 of them to fish a 10 hour day. Have you had any issues with the battery fishing outside a shack?

Jack

I’d have to throw a huge one of these… for Vexilar.

The reason(s) for the FL-20 are as follows…

1) Night View. Amazing in low light conditions or after dark. This feature rocked tonight when I was fishing.

2) Low Power setting. I find myself fishing in shallow water (less than 20′) a lot. There are fish in the weeds and this feature makes chasing those fish possible.

3) Durability. I am on my 5th Ice season with my FL-20 and it gets used in the boat as well. This is a great unit to have right next to my Lowrance. I trust my Vexilar to help me find fish year round!

4) Zoom at the bottom. I like to be able to turn a knob and have the bottom 6′ or 12′ zoomed. Having to move around a zoom is a pain. Most often the fish that need a zoom are at the bottom anyways.

Hope this helps you.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

I don’t know much about flashers. I can say the Marcum line of cameras blows the competition out of the water…but wait! There isn’t any competition in cameras!

I have an Lx-5.

What I like about the 5 is the “crispness” of the colors. In reading the guys posts here on Ido, that’s from the “True Color” display that uses difference color LED’s for each of the colors in the display. Using separate colors makes sense to me to get a crisp, clean, fish line on the flasher.

I’ve always wondered about target separation. Why is 3/4 inch target separation important to me?

As far as adjustable or fixed zooms…Never need adjustable zooms if you don’t have it!

I believe all companies that make flashers will have adjustable zooms in the future. I know I’ve used it on channel cat that come into my hole high.

Good luck with whatever flasher you buy. They are fun and as most have said, an essential part of ice fishing now-a-days!

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Having to move around a zoom is a pain. Most often the fish that need a zoom are at the bottom anyways.

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This is what guys say about features they don’t have.

Pain to move a zoom? Come on now. I mean… seriously, its a button you push. You don’t even have to push it multiple times. You can just hold it down for the 2 seconds it takes to position your zoom window anywhere in the water column.

As soon as they can train crappies, lakers, etc. to suspend no higher than 12′ off the bottom then a moveable zoom doesn’t matter. Until then…

Please forgive me for wading in here and potentially throwing a little fuel on a fire that should be left to smolder and likely go out and go away….

A “low power” function is NOT a feature. Its what a manufacturer would do to compensate for artificially advancing the gain on their units.

A manufacturer would do this to keep people from realizing how much gain they would actually need to use to get a good return if they were able to actually turn down their gain to “zero.” That is, turn the gain down until their jig disappeared and then adjust back upwards accordingly. Call it what it is… a work around. Does it work? Yup. But it wouldn’t even be needed if the gain hadn’t been artificially advanced to mask some of the short comings of the sensitivity of the receiver.

While you are comparing prices and function, make sure to compare the dependability of each company’s units. I continue to be a Vexilar user just for this very reason.

My guess is the % of Vex units breaking down a season are similar to Marcums % also. I have owned 4 Vex’s 2 had problems, currently own 2 LX-5’s 1 has had a problem. Way I look at it 50-50 either way.

Thanks for all of the information you guys have posted. It has definately helped. I can get a Hunninbird at the new Bass Pro in altoona iowa. Scheels has the vexilars and I think sportsmans has the marcum. I will just have to go in and view them all to really make my choice.

Scheels has the LX-5 for $399 if they have them in stock. Between the LX-5 and FL-20 the LX winds hands down, no advice on a bird yet, havent seen one on the ice yet. Honestly the FL-20 is more along the lines of Marcums entry level unit the VX-1p

Thanks I may have to go and try to get me a marcum at scheels after christmas is over.

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Thanks for all of the information you guys have posted. It has definately helped. I can get a Hunninbird at the new Bass Pro in altoona iowa. Scheels has the vexilars and I think sportsmans has the marcum. I will just have to go in and view them all to really make my choice.

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Sportmans in Ankeny doesn’t carry marcums. You won’t find many places in central Iowa that carry marcums because of the number of returned units. If you want to see a FL-20 on the ice I can meet you out on Big Creek and let you try it out for yourself.

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You won’t find many places in central Iowa that carry marcums because of the number of returned units.

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Complete BS. Marcum has an incredibly low failure rate. The “my flasher brand never breaks and Marcums are unreliable” post is a hollow attempt to have a leg to stand on since they can’t compare on price, performance or features. A MarCum guy will tell you over and over… try ’em side by side where it matters… out on the ice then make your decision. The “other” guys will go to great lengths to make sure that side-by-side never happens. Wonder why?

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because of the number of returned units

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What in the world are you talking about? Do you have facts to back that up?

Additionally, have you ever used or even seen a Marcum next to a Vex? I have owned both. There is only one thing I like better about the Vex, over the Marcum, and that is the float. Otherwise, I wouldn’t go back to a Vex. I liked my Vex, but to me there is no comparison.

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2) Low Power setting. I find myself fishing in shallow water (less than 20′) a lot. There are fish in the weeds and this feature makes chasing those fish possible.

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Thank you MarCum for letting me be able to adjust the Gain on my unit so I can also see fish and my jig in weedy conditions. And the SFL feature helps tweak the separation factor to the point, I’m positive my bait is right in front of the eyeballs of my target whether in weeds or wide open water

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Thanks for all of the information you guys have posted. It has definately helped. I can get a Hunninbird at the new Bass Pro in altoona iowa. Scheels has the vexilars and I think sportsmans has the marcum. I will just have to go in and view them all to really make my choice.

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Sportmans in Ankeny doesn’t carry marcums. You won’t find many places in central Iowa that carry marcums because of the number of returned units. If you want to see a FL-20 on the ice I can meet you out on Big Creek and let you try it out for yourself.

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Dude if youre just pulling this out of your hinder you better be careful or you could easily find yourself on the bad side of a libel suit. It would be very easy to prove how many returns a store had on a product. I’ve had a Lx3 for awhile now after switching from a vex and couldn;t be happier. It just flat out works better in my opinion. The advice to try a couple units side by side is the best you’re going to get as that’s how you’ll know what works for you.

Took me less than 5 minutes to decide to switch from a Vex to a Marcum once I seen the Marcum next to my Vex. I to never understood the reason for the low power setting. I got my wife a FL-18 to use last year since she didn’t want me to spend the extra for another LX-5 saying a flashers a flasher, 15 minutes into using it she said I was right get me an LX. Situation was 8′ weedy water, she called it watching a blob where my LX was crisp and clear where she could understand it. My partner runs a FL-20, but when he fishes with me always seems to need to borrow my spare LX.

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because of the number of returned units

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What in the world are you talking about? Do you have facts to back that up?

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Just what I was told when I inquired about why they did not have or carry any marcums at the following stores. What other reason would they have not to carry them if they were the best flasher on the market?? Seems silly to me that if they were indeed the “best” that they would want to carry them since they would be flying off the shelf.

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My partner runs a FL-20, but when he fishes with me always seems to need to borrow my spare LX.

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I’ve seen you post this 100 times….If he dislikes the FL-20 so much, why doesn’t he sell it and get a lx-5?? He would have no problems getting his money out of the Vexilar.

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Additionally, have you ever used or even seen a Marcum next to a Vex?

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CSP88,

The fact that you never answered this question speaks volumes for your credibility when it comes to first-hand knowledge of the product. ‘Nuff said…