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Great rods built right here less than 150 miles away.Glad Dean sells a great product made close by,its a win win for everybody and something you feel good about owning,I have 2 and they are sweet rods.

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Actually that’s not true. The eyecons, triumphs and mojos are all built overseas. The new eyecon rods everyone is so hung on are made in mexico and st,croix now sells more rods made overseas than in the usa by volume. MExi-junk!!!!! I used to be a st.croix supporter and talked to one the st.croix high command at a sports show where he told me the only rod that would ever be made overseas was the triumph. Lies all lies. Do not support this company’s move to making rods overseas. Every time you buy one you’re moving potential jobs offshore and showing this company that they can pad their bottom line and drink the koolaid anglers will line up with wallets open to make it happen. They could have expanded capacity in the USA!!!!!

Yes I’m upset bout this. I saw this coming. Asked about it at the sports shows and was told not to worry. Keep buying our rods. We’re proud to be a made in america product line. blah-blah-blah. If you want overseas rods just go to cabelas. You can get a better rod than the eyecon for less money. Trust me now that I’m off the Stcroix bandwagon I’ve fund other rods that are actually better rods for less money.

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Will the eyecon rods be made in USA or will they be yet another example of St. Croix moving more production out of the country like the Triumph and Mojo rods? I’ve heard both answers and it is hard for me to get excited about new rods that are made in China or Mexico.

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The eye-cons will be built in St Croix’s plant in Mexico.The initial year of the triumph production was in China, St Croix was not happy with that either.Premier’s,Avids,Tourney,and Elites are all mft in Park Falls WI.

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Give an inch and take a mile. The guys at st croix told me at a sports show the only rods that would ever be made out of the country would be the triumphs. Now the mojos and eyecons. I just lost my reason for buying croix.

Will the eyecon rods be made in USA or will they be yet another example of St. Croix moving more production out of the country like the Triumph and Mojo rods? I’ve heard both answers and it is hard for me to get excited about new rods that are made in China or Mexico.

What did you say?

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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.

I was out earlier this week and we didn’t do so hot. Smaller perch, a couple eater walleyes and a bunch of shorts. The ice was in great shape before the storm with most holes showing at least 12″ of ice. I wish I had more for you but I don’t fish the lake often and we didn’t have a hot hand. If you make it out please report back as I’d love to get back out and try to reclaim a little of my pride.

I think you can bring them offf the ice as long as you still have them in baitshop water.

I haven’t run one of these augers yet but I heard one drilling holes this weekend and they sound mean.

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Trouble I had with “toss and go” is after eighteen miles I had a bunch of “toss and buy new” equipment. I made it so everything is cradled in its own litle spot with foam padding…except my thermos, that thing is an escape artist.

When I hit the ice tommorow I will take a pic of my jigsaw puzzle.

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I’d like to see this too as I’m in a similar situation. I just bought a new to me used portable and I’m thinking about building some type of dividers inside the tub to keep everything organized. Pics please!

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Too bad about your experience. I tried switching to Marcum a long time ago. I had similar experiences as you. I exchanged 6 LX-5’s to Cabelas and when #7 went down I went right back to Vexilar. The thing that really burned me was how the internet and websites really had me believe that Marcum’s were better. I now know not to trust the internet from now on. Simply buy a unit that has the features you want. Sorry I’m a Vexilar guy and this might sound commercial but I love everything Vexilar has to offer. The Low Power feature is amazing for fishing in weeds or in areas where there are tons of small fish around. The Flat Screen kicks butt as well when it comes to fishing outside or when I’m pounding fish and they splach around the hole filling the old cone style flashers. The Night View is another fantastic feature that kicks tail when it gets closer to evening and well into the dark hours. The lights don’t blow my eyes away. I also have had excellent performance with my Vexilar(s) which is why I’m sticking with what works.

Good luck and I hope Marcum’s customer service takes care of you.

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

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I almost didn’t post this as I don’t see the usefulness of a back and forth of bad experiences with flashers as I know most flashers from all companies are very reliable. At some point we’re just highlighting the exception rather than the rule and making a big deal out of the negatives. I had a nearly identical experience as you that lead me to switch exc ept I had multiple vex transducers go bad on an 18, one head unit replaced under warrnaty on the same unit and the last straw was a short in the power harness wiring. I’d never go back to vex and I LOVE my lx3. So yeah they all go bad. Its what happens when you call customer service that matters.

I call that over and above customer service. My hats off to you Randy.

that’s not funny. at all.

I shot my deer and now I’m ready to hit the ice. WHERE’S THE ICE? I’ll go nuts if ?I can’t get out after thanksgiving on some of the little lakes around aitkin.

PS- the weather is way too warm to be talking about ice. I’m spending all my time up in trees getting spotted by does. Ice will come just give me enough time to find a deer worth shooting then the ice gear comes out.

I watched it last night at 10 on fox and I didn’t care for it. The hole show is a 30 minute commercial. I switched it after a couple minutes then came back and they were still going on about vex flasdhers and for as many times as they talked about how more power is a bad thing they must be awful worried about marcum. Let’s see lowrance, humminbird and marcum all use way more power and offer better performance stats. when a company has to resort to 30 minute shows pushing their stuff things miust be bad!

Informative article. I didn’t even know that product was out there. I’m not going to miss the banging of my plastic minnow bucket against the hull of my boat that’s for sure. And since my boat doesn’t have all that much storage the fact that they collapse is awesome!!!!

Sounds to me like you should never have let your kids drink and then left them alone at night in a park. Seems pretty irresponsible if you ask me. My dad let me have some beers in the house and in the back yard before I was 21 but he didn’t let me leave the property after I had had the beers and he definitely stuck around where he could see me. In my opinion the blame is yours. Now get over it!

And where are the fish biting?! My ice is hosed unless we get some cold weather and fast. It is way too early for the ice to be falling apart.

What’s a good price on the 798? I think that side finding deal would be great for bass fishing weed edges.

No extensions needed north of aitkin this past weekend.

Same here with the humminbird I used for a couple weeks back in december and january. in the end we took it back as the wide beam is useless. I did like the big screen but the sensitivity is nowhere near as good as a marcum or vex.

Once Al left that show wasn’t worth a darn. As for the showdown there no comparison to a real flasher. No color. Bad design. And IF will promote anything if the $$ is right. You bought it hook, line and sinker.

I’ve got the frabill with the floor storage. I like the house but the storage is a bad idea unless you like to have your rods frozen into the floor of your house. Water from the minnows spills in the shack or snow accumulates in the shack and the heater melts it. Then you move and everything freezes hard as a rock. I don’t put anything in there any more after learning the hard way.

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I agree with linedrive. If you are fishing in 10 feet or less you need to be using the wide beam. If you are fishing in 10 feet or deeper you need to be using the narrow beam.

Joby

Humminbird

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Why is that? You’re not limited to the narrow beam in deep water on other units? I can see jigs just fine with my marcum in deep water on my lx3 which has a wide beam transducer. Wha tgives?

The connections are good as we’ve checked everything a hundred times. the gain way over 20 to see the jig at all and it would blink in and out like it was losing the jig which was a large diamond jig and a waxie. My flasher was set at 2 on my gain and I could see it no problem. My buddy just needs to take the thing back and get a different unit so he stops bitching about it cuz I’m sick of listening to it.

I get them online as it is way easier than trying to find what I want in the stores. The diamond jigs with a waxie have been awesome for me so far on the crappies. Ive not found much of a bluegill bit yet but I haven’t been hitting my gill lake with how good the crappies have been so far.

I have used these for a couple years so they can[‘t be all that new. I like them for the most part although icing can be an issue outside. But that can be said for all spring bobbers I think. I’ve never used a st.croix rod with the spring but they do look pretty sweet.

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The biggest key is make sure transducer is level for you to see your jig. If it is tilted in any way to the left or the right your jig may be out of the beam.

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My buddy kept his hb for another week and we fished with it again yesterday. Flat out this thing just does not work right. How are you supposed to know if the transducer is level? We threw out the support cable so that isn’t the issue. The transducer is hanging from the float in the middle of the hole so I just don;t see how thats the issue. His hb has a heck of a time seeing small jigs in deep water that my flahser sees no problem????

My buddy and I fished saturday and we both took turns fishing his Ice55. The flat screen is nice but the target separation and sensitivity is not good. We had a hard time seeing small jigs and when we could see them we had the gain settings nearly wide open. Like 22 out of 25 which is the max. What’s up with that? We thought maybe he got a bad unit and he was looking it getting a replacement but if yours was doing the same thing thats not good.

Thanks guys. Sounds like Garrison is out of the question. Anyone catching anything in the bays on the south end? Perch or pike?

DJ

thanks luke. I’ve been lurking for a long time and decided it was finally time to get registered and post.