Marcum LX-7 in shallow water

My LX7 will not mark anything closer that about 5′ from my transducer. Anybody else notice this?

Supposedly there is new software upgrade coming this winter to address this issue that some people have.
LX6 too….

I would think this would be a matter of allowing the transducer to recieve the pulses in this range. Long range transducers do not often function well at close range. But software holefully can tweak this problem to work better.

Mudshark is right-on. I checked with Marcum and this is one of the improvements planned for the digital series units this upcoming season.

Joel

That is good to hear it is on the priority list for updates. Looking forward to it.

Happy to hear I love my lx-7 for everything below 10ft now I won’t have to bring the lx-5 every time now

Good to hear, that has been one of my issues with it since I got it the first season they came out, gonna make an awesome unit even better now with the update. Any idea when it may get released? If memory serves me the 2 updates we’ve had have been released about mid season.

This is great news! But it sure would be nice to see the upgrade early. Alot of my shallow fishing is done early.

X2

Drumshooter wrote:

This is great news! But it sure would be nice to see the upgrade early. Alot of my shallow fishing is done early.

Got to see this for the first time today trying out my new (to me) LX7 fishing on a dock in 6 FOW.

Any updates on time expectancy of the update?

Talked to a pro staff member this weekend and was talking on this issue. He said to go to the sonar settings and set the ping rate to 2 or 3 in shallow water. 4 is best to use in everything 10′ and deeper. 4 is probably where everyones is set to since it is misleading that this is most sensitive. Shallow water is the exception.

Thanks, I’ll have to give that a try.

I have seen several posts around the web about and update this season for the issue.

I sold my 7 for this reason alone, I use to be on a shallow lake my buddy lived on almost every weekend and he would whoop me because i’d loose sight of my jig and the fish when they started coming up chasing the bait. Hope everyone get’s this taken care of with the update. The new lx5’s look pretty cool btw.

Is this an issue on the LX-6 also? Looking at a new flasher and fish a lot of shallow water so this would definitely affect my decision.

I just dont get how it wouldn’t pick it up .if it’s in the range it should pick up a signal shouldn’t it ? My buddie has had the lx7 for a few years now and loves it so I just picked up one a few days ago can’t wait to get out on the ice 🎣

Kfactor wrote:

I just dont get how it wouldn’t pick it up .if it’s in the range it should pick up a signal shouldn’t it ? My buddie has had the lx7 for a few years now and loves it so I just picked up one a few days ago can’t wait to get out on the ice 🎣

I don’t get it either. But the other owners aren’t kidding. First 32 to 36″ under the transducer is a dead zone. My Ice-35 will read up to 6″ from the puck. The LX-6 looks cool on the shelf.

If I remember right my LX3 had the same issue as the 7 I now have. Typically this isn’t a problem for me because I don’t fish that shlow but it would be good to see it fixed.

Joel, have you heard any update on when the new software will be available? Last I heard was January?

Would every flasher have this problem? I fish mostly shallow water and I don’t want to invest in a useless item.

I hope this gets fixed before the season even starts. Selling a product based on always being able to “update” with the times is a great concept, but leads people to assume the unit is already doing the basics other flashers have done for years… I am worried if it hasn’t been fixed by now its not going to be, hopefully we get more news soon or an actual date.

SoDak Fisher Guy wrote:

Joel, have you heard any update on when the new software will be available? Last I heard was January?

The new update will fix this issue and I don’t have a specific date it but it will be out in January.

Will

Will Roseberg wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Clint_hay wrote:</div>
Joel, have you heard any update on when the new software will be available? Last I heard was January?

The new update will fix this issue and I don’t have a specific date it but it will be out in January.

Will

awesome!

I wonder why they are waiting for january to fix this? The last update was in january also. Updates should be ready to go for first ice. My LX7 has not seen much time on the ice this season since ive been fishing shallow so far. Kind of funny that my old lx3 is my goto flasher while my $650 LX7 sits.

Drumshooter wrote:

I wonder why they are waiting for january to fix this? The last update was in january also. Updates should be ready to go for first ice. My LX7 has not seen much time on the ice this season since ive been fishing shallow so far. Kind of funny that my old lx3 is my goto flasher while my $650 LX7 sits.

Drum, i picked up a new LX3 tci a few weeks ago, but haven’t had a chance to use it. I’m assuming you don’t see the same issues in shallow water with your LX3, since it sounds like your go to now, but could you confirm.

Drumshooter wrote:

I wonder why they are waiting for january to fix this? The last update was in january also. Updates should be ready to go for first ice.

I believe it’s because no matter how much testing they do on it in the lab they aren’t willing to release it until after having time to put it through the paces under actual on-ice testing and that pushes it to January.

Will

Reed wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Drumshooter wrote:</div>
I wonder why they are waiting for january to fix this? The last update was in january also. Updates should be ready to go for first ice. My LX7 has not seen much time on the ice this season since ive been fishing shallow so far. Kind of funny that my old lx3 is my goto flasher while my $650 LX7 sits.

Drum, i picked up a new LX3 tci a few weeks ago, but haven’t had a chance to use it. I’m assuming you don’t see the same issues in shallow water with your LX3, since it sounds like your go to now, but could you confirm.

Correct. The lx3 will see a target very close. The old lx3 anyway.

Drumshooter wrote:

I wonder why they are waiting for january to fix this? The last update was in january also. Updates should be ready to go for first ice. My LX7 has not seen much time on the ice this season since ive been fishing shallow so far. Kind of funny that my old lx3 is my goto flasher while my $650 LX7 sits.

Same here. I found out this weekend just how much better my backup Elite-4dsi over my LX7 in shallow water.

You can make these work better shallow by tweaking the setup.

I pretty much stopped using my lx7 shallow, or deep, so this might be wrong..

I think it was open water mode, ping set low, transducer high in hole and wide beam? Or, was it narrow beam?

______________ wrote:

You can make these work better shallow by tweaking the setup.

I pretty much stopped using my lx7 shallow, or deep, so this might be wrong..

I think it was open water mode, ping set low, transducer high in hole and wide beam? Or, was it narrow beam?

Setting ping does not help. Someone told me to try and it did not work. I tried all the different ping rates using spoons and a rippin rap. No return closer than 5′.

I believe open water mode was the primary driver of better shallow readings. Adjusting ping alone definitely wasn’t the ticket.

My winter buddy just got back to me, he’s saying the key was open water, 8 degree, manual dynamic mode… clear as mud right?

Anyhow, it does help IMO. I was adamant that mine wouldn’t read closer than 5′ too, but it did. An update is certainly needed, even with the jenky settings it works poorly compared to other units.