With what Humminbird and Garmin are doing with ice units you think Marcum and Vexilar are falling off fast? With the option of mapping/GPS in the two makes it hard for someone buying a new unit not to look at bird and Garmin over Marcum and Vex. I wonder if the two companies will catch up?
Marcum has the RT-9.
Lot of people like just the flasher function. Keeps it simple. Both my sons and son in law are going with the FL28 Vex this year over any of the lcd stuff. I just picked up the Humminbird Helix Ice 7 Gen 3 a couple weeks ago. I like my gps and 2d sonar. See a lot of Marcum’s for sale on CL and Facebook. Personally I think Marcum’s biggest problem is quality.
Most ice anglers have a hard enough time paying ~$300 for an fl-18 or an m1. A vast majority of ice anglers don’t even need mapping or gps and couldn’t care less about either, myself included. Not to mention almost everyone already has free gps and mapping on their phones. Most ice anglers are just looking for a depth readout and a traditional flasher style display. Nothing fancy. Why pay $500-$1000 more for unneeded features? A brushless motor and a lithium battery are the only features I need…..and bottom zoom.
I understand the appeal of the newer units but there is just something wonderful and nostalgic and a flasher. I’ll keep mine
Fishing with panoptix is so head and shoulders above anything else. When it becomes more affordable is the question. Both marcum and vex are behind the ball on this one
Hahaha!!
No
Glad some still like the dial, I still have a vex and love it but the options out there are pretty cool. If I was rich that is.
I am a big fan of a normal flasher read out still. I have navionics on my phone so theres no need for me to pony up the money for one that does both gps and depth finding. Really enjoy watching the big red blips come up and reject my bait 
Vexilar is coming out with a new model next year.
I know some people in the industry and got a sneak peak at the prototype 
The new model has green lighting bolts on the rear legs.
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You can get a Garmin Echomap 73cv Plus ice bundle for $550.
A new Vexilar Flx-28 is $650.
If I was shopping for a new unit I know what I would get 
The new Garmin units are too cumbersome right now, once they start to shrink down in size, weight and parts i’ll think hard about upgrading my LX-6s…
That being said Marcum is likely paying the price for the failed RT-9 and that has lead to their lack of any innovation the past 3+ years…Vex will stay loyal to the tried and true flasher design…
both will be history once the newer Garmin tech becomes cheaper…I suspect Humminbird and Lowrance will become bigger players in the ice fishing industry in the near future as well as they adopt their tech to ice applications…
I agree with those who stick with the classic flasher. As stated there is GPS on your phone. I just need depth and a flasher. You can get an idea of bottom content if you know what to look for. Not saying that newer units aren’t great; just not everybody wants/needs/can afford the features.
I think Vexilar stays with the classic tech but it’s not necessarily a death knell. What I don’t understand is buying anything but an FL-8SE if you’re sticking with a classic flasher. If better target separation and bottom zoom are important to you, why wouldn’t you go with a Humminbird or Garmin for comparable $?
, why wouldn’t you go with a Humminbird or Garmin for comparable $?
Maybe they fish deeper than 120′? Ease of setup and reliability? A low powered vexilar with a modest battery is very portable and packable for back country trips.
Sure seems like marcum is on the ropes. No updates, no new products…. don’t know.
With each rt9 they need to unload, they dilute the brand further. Slow death by rt9.
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Maybe they fish deeper than 120′? Ease of setup and reliability? A low powered vexilar with a modest battery is very portable and packable for back country trips.
Battery life makes sense. I’ve found portability to be comparable when fishing with others who have the fancy units, but I understand if you’re worried about ruggedness. I was unaware that these graphs topped out at 120′? Is that true? Disregard this; I realize now that you’re comparing Vexilar units…
I like hauling around the FL-8 and not worrying about throwing it around or running out of battery. To each their own. If batteries get better and graphs/screens get more durable I think Vexilar is the only strictly flasher left in 10-15 years but who knows?
I get the gps using Navionics on your phone but I hate messing with my phone in a ice house or outdoors on the ice with holes anywhere near. Even if they are covered. One phone down the hole pays for that Bird or Garmin even if you got insurance the hassle of losing everything sux big time! I’ve never done it but have been with people who have and they spend the rest of the time fishing bummed out thinking about what they have to go through and spend to replace their phone.
Looking at Navionics on a small screen like a phone was also a pita to me at least. Plus my Helix Ice is a year around unit and to me that’s worth the extra $$ right there.
I get the gps using Navionics on your phone but I hate messing with my phone in a ice house or outdoors on the ice with holes anywhere near. Even if they are covered. One phone down the hole pays for that Bird or Garmin even if you got insurance the hassle of losing everything sux big time! I’ve never done it but have been with people who have and they spend the rest of the time fishing bummed out thinking about what they have to go through and spend to replace their phone.
Looking at Navionics on a small screen like a phone was also a pita to me at least. Plus my Helix Ice is a year around unit and to me that’s worth the extra $$ right there.
Running Navionics off an Ipad or smart phones is 1,000 times faster than a Helix unit. I own both a helix and an Fl-28 and I’ll still grab the 28 and run Navionics from my phone every single time over the helix.
Just like everything else though, its good to have options..
quite frankly, hauling around the garmin monstrocity is laughable. I’ll do it because of the technology but its like home base. once fish are located, a mechanical flasher still has a ton of use. the lx6-7 units by marcum are still really good. garmin has panoptix and gps which a bundle still costs upwards of 2 grand. and humminbird has gps. gps is doable in many other methods.
I think marcum pushed ice fishing finder tech to pretty awesome limits. out pacing vexilar in tech improvements at a pretty great rate. when bird and garmin stepped into the ring, obviously it put them somewhat behind the 8ball but the reality is that the majority of ice fisherman a mechanical flasher still suits them in 90% of fishing situations.
the gps/lcd product has existed for years. they are just now slapping ice kits on them.
To those who think it’s a rich mans game it really doesn’t have to be.
I have an elite 5hdi that I just got the soft pack for and called it good. Works for both the boat and ice for minimal money. Nav on the phone so no chip needed either.
Plenty of Helix users who use both as well.
I don’t hold it against any flasher people out there, I could really care less about ice fishing honestly. I think it’s actually pretty cool some people want to keep it simple, and or have those memories with perhaps Gramps, their dad, etc fishing back when and the dial gives em that good feeling again.
To each their own. 
When you get 25+years out of your flasher, I don’t think you fall behind the others.
thats a pretty regular thing the flasher people (mind you i use my lx5 90% of the time) will say. I just want to turn it on and fish. I don’t know what they are doing to their normal boat finders but when i used my lowrance lcd and now i also occasionally use my 798hD on the ice when the kids want my flashers, i just turn it on and its good to go.
I’ve always fished with flashers and have had my LX5 for years. I also bought a icepack for my Humminbird 597. BUT, my 30 year old wanted the Marcum and my 22 year old likes the 597 so I am upgrading to the Helix 7 with GPS and a camera. I could never say one is better than the other but I will miss the subtle hum of the mechanical flasher!
The new Garmin units are too cumbersome right now, once they start to shrink down in size, weight and parts i’ll think hard about upgrading my LX-6s…
A 73 ice bundle is not cumbersome.
Adding panoptics of course is, but having a 73 with an ice ducer isn’t much different than a Vexilar when it comes to size.
Like I said before, if I had to buy a new unit today, hands down it would be a Garmin ice bundle for $550.
They are better than a Helix (not to mention $150 cheaper), and decades ahead of flashers that go for the same price or more.
I can see arguments for both. I’m still of the age where I don’t fish from wheelhouses or in crowded areas. I enjoy long hikes in backwaters areas hundreds of yards from places that have been fished. This involves dragging a 1-man sled over logs on islands, down banks, through brush, and other places where a side by side or snowmobile aren’t going. My FL-12 hasn’t failed me yet and takes a beating in the bottom of a sled or in a fishing backpack. It’s helped me catch more quality fish than I can count from panfish and walleyes to cats and pike. I’ve never felt that I’ve “missed” a single fish from using my flasher.
If I sat in a wheelhouse or skid shack that I drove to, waiting for fish to come to me… I’d probably go with a newer set-up with a big screen in 2d. On second thought, if that was the style of ice fishing I did I probably wouldn’t enjoy it and would just find a new winter hobby. To each their own.
Last winter I took both my Marcum M5 and my Humminbird Helix 5 G2/DI/GPS with ice bundle out on the ice everytime I went. There were a few scenarious I preferred the M5 to the Helix; mainly a quick check of depths for setting tip ups or setlines, or when both units were extremely cold, the M5 worked better. My first choice will always be to grab the helix for fishing inside a shack or wheel house though.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JoeMX1825 wrote:</div>
The new Garmin units are too cumbersome right now, once they start to shrink down in size, weight and parts i’ll think hard about upgrading my LX-6s…A 73 ice bundle is not cumbersome.
Adding panoptics of course is, but having a 73 with an ice ducer isn’t much different than a Vexilar when it comes to size.
Like I said before, if I had to buy a new unit today, hands down it would be a Garmin ice bundle for $550.
They are better than a Helix (not to mention $150 cheaper), and decades ahead of flashers that go for the same price or more.
The only reason I would move to a Garmin unit would be for Panotopix/Livescope, their regular iceunits are no different than what Lowrance offers and behind Humminbird imo, I look at Marcum and Vex as different units due to lack of mapping, but their flasher tech is better imo…
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