Marcum LX7l

[old dog]

Any one have one of these, looking at there pros and cons. Thanks in advance

[SNAPFisher]

Pros:
Nice big screen
Can use if in shallow and deep - a joy on cold lake
Light weight

Cons:
Cheep plastic construction
Touchy on battery connection - lot of disconnects but can customize
Buggy - at least mine was
Not that well made for the $$$


If you are largely driving out then it will be fine. I use a sled a lot and it could not stand up to a few bumps. Great when it worked but lots of times I had issues. Not for me again for sure.

[-JR-]

con Hard to see screen outside the tent on a sunny day.

[Jims83cj5]

Mine quit working after 10 hrs of use, TFH guys did an up date and said it would fix it but never went out again, guess I’ll find out soon

[splake0]

Like mine. Never had an issue. I use inside a tent so don’t have the issue JR was talking about.
I also have a Vexilar FL 18. Haven’t used it since I got my LX7

[old dog]

Thanks for the input. If anyone has any other pros or cons please poste

[OL_JR]

I had one for a bit, as mentioned harder to see outside but other than that performance wise to my flx 28 it was pretty good. Good target seperation, no lag, and quiet. Way more battery hungry though but never had a lithium shuttle with it just a regular l.a. battery it came with. Buddy still has it and it hasn't given any issues. Another buddy bought one as well and it's been good from what I understand although by reputation not the sturdiest.

One of the biggest things they tried to sell as a plus over other units at the time was the dynamic zoom but for my fishing not really relevant.
Haven't looked at them at all in a while but I'd be pretty hard pressed to get another one over a Helix or similar which has GPS and better suited to use in the summer as well. As a stand alone flasher the Marcum was definitely better though. Quite a bit sharper/smoother return and easier to look at all day. If I'm just getting a stand alone flasher though probably not getting either and getting another vex lol.

[pinelakeperch]

I've had mine for about five years. No big complaints. I find that it can be a bit finicky in shallow water, but no cons other than that.

[PlayDoh]

I had one once. TBH with it beside my HB ice 35 the difference was pretty insignificant. I / we get caught up on Target separation, but in all reality knowing if there’s 2 fish or 1 fish isn’t worth hundreds of bucks. If you watch the bottom, and the fish is practically crawling on bottom, you will see it there, since the bottom will rise. You don’t have to actually see a separate bar to know there’s a fish there.

I have a Garmin ultra with Livescope which was around $5000, so I’m not too cheap to buy gear when it’s useful. I used Livescope last winter, and while it was quite the rig to have on ice, being able to see what was 50 ft in any direction was awesome. Yet with that said, I didn’t have much success in spotting fish 50-75 ft away and then moving there to target them. I only went out a couple times mins you.

IMHO, the cheapest sonar does what the best flasher does, for what and where we fish. I have a 15 year old HB that has a flasher mode. There’s no way a guy would miss out on fish by using it vs an LX-7. I think people get caught up on having a nice red bag on the ice and looking like they’re a serious fisherman. I was guilty, so no shaming.

Save your money and get a cheap flasher, or better yet, grab a cheap boat sonar, bolt the ducer to a broom handle and spend the money on gas for more trips. Ask yourself how useful is “target separation” really? If a sonar tells you there’s a fish below, and roughly how close it is to your lure, than flasher / sonar mission accomplished.
Save up and get Livescope. Now that will change everything.