I have a MN Lakemaster chip here in the classified for 45 OBO – make me an offer.

I like the seats too. Take one out if its just me, easier to get at stuff around the sled, rather than getting up and digging under the seat.

The bench is nice if you like to put things next to you and use it as a ‘workbench’, or if you like to bring your SO out and snuggle and drink hot cocoa together.

Wool is by far the best base layer material. Lots of good options – smart wool, ibex, heley hanson, patagonia, etc. Midweight is good for ice fishing — breathable, you dont get too sweaty getting out and getting set up, and you stay warmer sitting too. I usually wear my baselayer, some sort of hoody, and maybe a fleece jacket depending on the cold and if Im going to be out and about or hunkered down on a spot.

For socks, wool all the way. I think people put too much on their feet and they get sweaty/cold. I like the basic midweight ‘light hiking’ style socks. I’m a big fan of Wigwam or REI, but smartwool etc. The cold sneaks up from the bottom, so a nice felt insole will go a long way in keeping your feet warm. Plus anything you can do to get your feet off the ice if youre going to be out there for a while — small mat or whatever.

Wool isn’t cheap, but its far superior to even the best synthetics. Nice thing is that wool doesnt get smelly like the synthetics too — so you can get one nice set and wear it all weekend… Best place I have found for prices/service is Midwest Mountaineering when they’re having their monthly sales. Go for a ‘pint night’ and get a pint glass (with beer) and get a good deal.

Wool is by far the best base layer material. Lots of good options – smart wool, ibex, heley hanson, patagonia, etc. Midweight is good for ice fishing — breathable, you dont get too sweaty getting out and getting set up, and you stay warmer sitting too. I usually wear my baselayer, some sort of hoody, and maybe a fleece jacket depending on the cold and if Im going to be out and about or hunkered down on a spot.

For socks, wool all the way. I think people put too much on their feet and they get sweaty/cold. I like the basic midweight ‘light hiking’ style socks. I’m a big fan of Wigwam or REI, but smartwool etc. The cold sneaks up from the bottom, so a nice felt insole will go a long way in keeping your feet warm. Plus anything you can do to get your feet off the ice if youre going to be out there for a while — small mat or whatever.

Wool isn’t cheap, but its far superior to even the best synthetics. Nice thing is that wool doesnt get smelly like the synthetics too — so you can get one nice set and wear it all weekend… Best place I have found for prices/service is Midwest Mountaineering when they’re having their monthly sales. Go for a ‘pint night’ and get a pint glass (with beer) and get a good deal.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I’ve sent Marcum a list several years ago, here’s a few off the top of my head

1) Ability to turn off the transducer ping (I use the camera in the summer months, no need to have the transducer ticking constantly)
2) Improved overlay setup, the camera/flasher combo views are not optimal in terms of screen usage.
3) Clean up the camera/recorder settings menu, put the most common features first in the list, reduce the amount of needless navigation in the menu.
4) Fix the DVR playback bugs, several times video would just lock up when trying to exit out of a playing video..

From what’s been shown of the RT-9 interface, the sonar/camera overlay format they use would work great on the LX-9

My worry is the limited programers they have will now just focus on the RT-9 instead of the LX lineup. This last update will be 3 years in the making, how long will the wait be until the next one?

There is a lot that Marcum should be doing as far as basic usability enhancements. The machine is great, but clunky to use. From navigating the menus, to dumb stuff like the full chart not lining up with the showdown view. it is so painful to use compared to lowrance and humminbird — not to mention any mainstream consumer electronics like my tablet or phone. Sonar is great, but its like putting a ferarri engine in a ford pinto.

Marcum – please, I do UX for a living, please PM me I would be happy to provide you some free suggestions and input on ways to make your product much more usable and enjoyable.

Looks like one of those infant sleds to the left in the photo. You pull your stuff out in that? I know some guys like their glide lites or small otter sled, but this is the first time I have seen that.

How does that work for you? Bucket fit in the seat?

Nice fish BTW.

Hopefully it is a software UI re-do. I can tolerate the poor UI on the ice as I’m sitting in one spot, but I don’t think the LX-7 would last long on the front of my boat given the PITB it is to use and adjust.

Its a beautiful screen, great sonar, but such a poorly designed interface. Marcum should take a page from HB, ironically that is now on the front of my boat — couldnt be happier.

JD, were you able to find anything? I’m in the west metro and looking for someone too. Let me/us know your experience.

I would get a self adhesive LED light strip off amazon or eBay, a few feet of 20 gauge wire, and some alligator clips.

They come in 16 ft sections, and I cut a section long enough for the bar across the top of my portable. Super awesome, energy efficient, and for 20 bucks in parts were were able to make lights for our 3 portables.

I like the soft white LEDs as they are a bit easier on the eyes, and get the brighter 5630s or whatever they are. Match the wire colors, and get a couple butt splicers and you’re in business.

Thanks guys. Thats kind of what I was thinking, but wanted to see if I was being too conservative with my equipment.

Here in the metro you want to get there early before the sun is up and concentrate on weedlines that are adjacent to deeper waters.

In the morning and evening they will come up to feed on perch and other small fish up shallow, and are the most active at that dusk/dawn time. In the day they often move deeper. I usallly have found the evening bite better here in the metro, but thats me (and probably when I get out more…)

Find a good solid weedline, or some openings up in the weeds where the weeds aren’t growing.

Hope that helps.

Link: http://www.gandermountain.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?pdesc=Gander-Mountain-Premium-Ice-Gear-Case&i=795104

http://clamoutdoors.com/store/rod-locker-single-double-1489.html

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Fishing/Ice-Fishing/Ice-Tackle-Storage%7C/pc/104793480/c/104735880/sc/111204180/Cabelas-Double-Sided-Tundra-Ice-Rod-Case/1910388.uts?destination=%2Fcategory%2FIce-Tackle-Storage%2F111204180.uts&WTz_l=DirectLoad%3Bcat111204180

I had a 334 (older version of what became a HDS 5) that I used on ice for years, sold it with the boat and now have an LX-7.

Lowrance:
Pros: Easy to use, GPS, ice pack fits in a bucket, easy to use on boat in summer
Cons: Target separation is 2 inches, so things can get a bit blobby, interference rejection

LX-7:
Pros: Great target separation, great battery life, great screen
Cons: interface is clunky, big and heavy, not compatible with MinnKota Universal Sonar

Both are great ice units. Overall, if the Lowrance had better target separation and IR rejection I would take that over the Marcum in a heartbeat.

The Marcum is a specialized ice machine with the nice transducer, IR rejection and .25″ target separation. You can tell that Marcum is new to the whole user interface/experience thing as it is a clunky machine to operate and there are some really weird design choices that were made that make it confusing to use (if you have the vertical zoom and depth, the scale doesnt line up etc).

let me know if you have other questions.

Check the ice. I know from experience that those deep lakes take a lot longer to freeze up, and you can go from 7″ to about 2″ really quickly.

Youre right on where you want to set up. Find a good spot on the weedline, especially if you can find some clumps of weeds or some irregularity on it. I’ll even fish in the weeds if I can find a good pocket in there.

The active bite is pretty short after dark, but you can maybe get another 1 later in the night.

Subtle is key, I usually never fish these city lakes with a rattle spoon as its too much for them. Plenty of fish on the deadstick too.

Be careful out there though, as the ice can be pretty inconsistent.

without a flasher, it will be pretty tough to get on those suspended crappie bites (which is where you see a lot of those ‘shantytowns’ set up inthe middle of the lake).

I would try to fish shallow weed edges or pockets in the weeds, depending on the lake you will probably be able to see the weeds when you drill your holes.

A good lake map (or navionics on your smart phone) will be a really great $10 investment and help you find the right spots on the lake and give you a good estimation of the depth.

I would either fish small jigging spoons (my favorite are the frostee spoons, or the forage minnow) with just a crappie minnow head, or small jigs with plastics or eurolarve.

We’ve all been in your position, and I remember what a revolutionary day it was when I took my first flasher out on the ice. If you’re going to be serious about ice fishing, I would be saving my money for a flasher – likely finding a good used FL-8 or 18, VX-1, or HB-35 or Lowrance too (my first was a lowrance ice machine that I loved, I just bought an ice-ducer and blue box for a unit I already had – ~$100 invested. I have an LX-7 now, and love the bigger screen and the better separation; but there are a lot of things my ice machine does better).

Phil Bauerly wrote:

Reed’s in Walker still has them listed for $549. I’m not sure about shipping though. They will usually match any price.

These are great houses, I just picked up a second one.

Phil Bauerly wrote:

Reed’s in Walker still has them listed for $549. I’m not sure about shipping though. They will usually match any price.

These are great houses, I just picked up a second one.

Reeds will also give you a ‘phone only’ price if you give them a call too. Plus, to your point, they do $49 shipping to most of the upper midwest here. I’ve got a cabin on its way from Walker right now.

Man, sounds like a good business opportunity to put these older videos up on itunes or amazon.

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I’ll let you make that call for yourself. To me this issue is however annoying and makes the read out jumpy.

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Annoying seems to be the key word here
Myself…I hate being annoyed so I’ll just leave it off…

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Its confirmed that if you email Marcum and request it, they will provide you the LX7 v4.06 update. There are others who have posted the .bin file for download already. Update at your own risk and follow the proper install instructions. Failure to do so will render your LX7 useless.

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I’m REALLY not that annoyed….

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Annoying or not, this shouldn’t be acceptable quality for any consumer electronics. apple and google get crucified for a lot less.

Put it this way, if some computer science student turned in software that had this obvious a defect or bug they would be lucky to get a C.

Love my Marcum, but its clear they’re having growing pains with software development.

Its too bad they’re still fixing bugs this late in the lifecycle of the LX-7 as I really was hoping they would optimize the software and add some more/better controls that would make this an appealing option to put on my boat in the summer too.

Yep. Ive driven over almost every bridge from Fridley to Hastings over the past few days and its all iced over. Was surprised to see it iced over in downtown st paul – you don’t see that too often.

Its going to be an interesting 5-7 years in consumer fishing electronics thats for sure. Its good to see ‘smaller’ players like Vexilar and Aquavu really push the innovation envelope and do some things that the larger guys (who are sitting on cash cows – namely Lowrance and HB) wouldn’t.

I am also surprised that Marcum isn’t jumping too fast into this game – given their history over the past decade and their rise out of nowhere. There core value proposition is based on innovative feature sets that the other guys (Vex) didn’t offer in a flasher. Maybe the hardware margins are just too good?

I really want a camera for scouting too. The AV micro isn’t a good enough quality product, and a full sized marcum is too much to lug around.

I also think there is an untapped market for using these in boats too.

But it is really exciting to see wireless finally coming, and the use of commodity off the shelf displays. Guy could make a fortune designing ice fishing gloves that can operate an iPad, or custom ice fishing iPad protectors/covers.

If you want to get as much lead on the reel as possible, just put some athletic tape on the spool. That will stop the slip, and you won’t have to take up space on the spool with mono backing.

On the river, you’ll probably be fishing under 30 ft, so the 5 colors should work just fine for you, but the 832 lead is a good option.

The key with trolling set ups is consistency, so be sure you use the same line on each set up, and even if the counter isn’t 100% accurate – they’ll both read the same. Thats the key. Its not that you have exactly 100ft out vs 106 or 94, its that you have a way to repeat.

I also like to use the small spro swivel. You wont get the line twist if your plug fouls, and its easy to tie the leadcore and then the leader to it without any fancy knots.

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This weather alone should make a person want to get out on the water. Throw in the bonus of catching fish and its fantastic. Not all of our fish where walleyes but you know, this time of year Im happy with just about anything that gives a good pull on the line. For Saturday afternoon I would guess Jon and I caught a dozen or so walleyes. With that we probably caught 30 other fish to that all gave good action. Might not be considered lighting up the walleyes but it is good fishing action.

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I know. We were out on Saturday, and the weather was so nice we just anchored and enjoyed the weather. I never even wet a line.

Thats a great pic. Thanks for the update.

So which ramps are open, and what are the best places to launch in the high water?

Welcome. As I’m sure you already know these boards are filled with some of the most knowledgeable and friendly river fisherman around.

We’re all here to help each other, make a few jokes, and have a bit of fun.

Thanks guys, this is all incredibly helpful. Man, I can’t wait to get out there. I’ll be sure to post any results.

According to Watergate’s FB page yestreday: They’re open, but the water covers the breakwall by the gas dock at 10 ft. So it will be 3-4 ft underwater by the weekend.

I run a Eyecon 70MMH ‘bouncer’ rod as my all purpose trolling, bottom bouncing, crank bait rod.

Its got the moderate action that Dean talks about, but is a bit stouter and can handle trolling and bottom bouncing too.

Its also the same blank that St. Croix sells as their ‘graphite crank bait rod’ so it works great for casting cranks too

This is probably one of the most versatile rods I own and I use it for almost all of my crank bait activities.

Thank you gentlemen!

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I was out on the upper end of 2 yesterday. Slow, slow, and slow. Between our boat and the others, saw 4 fish landed in about 4.5 hours.

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I saw 4 or 5 boats up by the dam when I drove over today. Sounds like one of them was probably you. It looked like a beautiful day to be out.

Water looked really clear and low.