Which Vexilar?

I know that this subject has been discussed before but regardless of how much I read up on it I still find myself confused by all of the options that Vexilar has. I am considering making a jump to Vexilar and I was wondering which unit would work for me. I fish almost exclusively for crappie and walleye in the winter. For crappie im usually fishing in basin areas between 25-35 ft of water. Walleyes can range anywhere from 15-45 ft of water. I might sprinkle in some shallow fishing for gills here and there too. So which unit would serve these purposes best? Also, important would be to identify the right transducer as they have many different options with those too. Thanks for your input

It depends on how big of boat you need to anchor up .
The FL18 works pretty good but if you have a bigger fishing boat I’d go with the FL21

The big differences between the FLX-28 and 20 is that the 28 has 5 color display and and a deeper range.

20 – 120′
28 – 300′

Otherwise I think they are very similar.

I have had the proview ducer and the dual beam and I would prefer the dual or tri-beam oet the proview. The Proview isn’t bad, I just prefer the option to select a very narrow beam when I want and a wide beam if I want.

I really like my FLX-28, but it was a learning curve for shallow water and the proview transducer. I have a suppression cable installed and still use low power mode in shallow water to achieve the results I wanted.

I miss my FL-22HD and if I were you, I would look at a reconditioned one if they still have them on their site. It’s unfortunate they discontinued the model, it was a real winner for shallow water fishing.

At the end of the day, I’ve learned to love my FLX-28 but I do know it could be a little better in shallow water (under 10′). I attribute most of my shallow water shortcomings to the transducer, not the unit itself. Unfortunately they only sell them with the proview ducer. However, any Vex transducer works with it. I feel the new Tri-beam transducers would be a real knockout on the 28, I’ve just yet to invest in one.

Find a deal on a fl 18 or go up to the fl 20 or flx 20 if flat screen is important to you.

If and when I do upgrade ever, I would like to have a unit that has a movable zoom for fishing suspended crappies.

mark-bruzek wrote:

If and when I do upgrade ever, I would like to have a unit that has a movable zoom for fishing suspended crappies.

Pretty much every brand but vex.

Personally, I have not found much need for this but then again I don’t fish crappies all that much. I can do this with my Lowrance if I needed to.

I have been with Vexilar since before the name Vexilar. I have had the FL8, Fl18, Fl20 and now the FLX28 for the past two seasons. I loved them all but the best by far is the FLX28 with the tribeam ducer. I hated the Proview ducer. I fish mainly eyes in 5-35′ and crappies suspended in open basins.

Fl18

Humminbird ice55!

biggill wrote:

The big differences between the FLX-28 and 20 is that the 28 has 5 color display and and a deeper range.
20 – 120′
28 – 300′

The FLX-20 actually has depth ranges up to 300′ as well. The only real difference is the 5 color mode. I have a good friend who is a tech at vex and he will only fish the FLX-20 (which he has had for over a year). Told me some technical jargon on why the flx-20 over the flx-28 but I can’t and don’t really care to remember why.

If the 100 dollar more cost is worth it for you to have the 5 color, go for it I guess.

Evan Pheneger wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>biggill wrote:</div>
The big differences between the FLX-28 and 20 is that the 28 has 5 color display and and a deeper range.
20 – 120′
28 – 300′

The FLX-20 actually has depth ranges up to 300′ as well. The only real difference is the 5 color mode. I have a good friend who is a tech at vex and he will only fish the FLX-20 (which he has had for over a year). Told me some technical jargon on why the flx-20 over the flx-28 but I can’t and don’t really care to remember why.

If the 100 dollar more cost is worth it for you to have the 5 color, go for it I guess.

you are forgetting the FLX 28 has the weed mode and the auto depth setting where as the FLX 20 does not have that. this is where part of the $100 difference is too.

I hate it when people do this, but I’m going to anyway I guess. If you fish a lot of suspended crappies Vexilar wouldn’t be my first choice. Having the ability to zoom in to any depth of the water column is a very handy feature. I can do this with my old Lowrance 520c and more easily with my Marcum LX7. I believe other units have the ability too. My fl8 can’t do it and I much prefer fishing suspended fish with my units that have zoom capability.

You’ll surely still catch suspended fish with any unit, but being able to zoom anywhere the fish are hanging is sweet.

Tucker

My FL-20 works just fine. I know it has out fished Eelpoutguy’s Marcum quite a few times.

I like my fl 20 but I mostly fish outside in the sun and the screen is hard to see. Should I go down to the 18-or jump up to a version with the brighter leds?

31lifer wrote:

My FL-20 works just fine. I know it has out fished Eelpoutguy’s Marcum quite a few times.

LIE!