Vexilar Flasher

Vexilar FL-12 or FL-20. Does anyone run one of these? What are your thoughts? Would you do it again? Different model or brand?
I fish stained water usually 20' or less. Sometimes travel in very shallow water 1' or less with outboard jet. Need to know where I'm going not where I've been.
The Alumiducer sounds interesting!
Thanks for any info. Tom

When you say that you need to see where you are and not where you've been are you implying that there is a dead time with a graph? If so you are sadly mistaken. Unless you are measuring to the nanosecond there is no more dead time with a graph than there is with a flasher. That may have been true 20 years ago but modern graphs are just as fast, or faster, than a Vexilar is.

I have both a FL-20 and FL-18 on my boat. The zoom on the FL-20 doesn't work well because it doesn't have the "bottom lock" feature. Fl-18 has the "BL" Next to both the vexs are lowrance lcx-20's. I know they aren't the highest quality, but they are by no means junk. If I could have only 1 fish finder it would be the FL-18. The FL-20 is a better ice fishing machine than the FL-18, but if your looking for dual purpose, I'd go FL-18.

Ah.....Geeeezzeee......Augie your still crabby that they didn't put the BL feature on the 20.

;)

I love my 20, and the through the hull ducer.....even without the BL.

I think a serious fisherman should have a flasher as well as a LCD sonar.
I learned that flashers can do things that LCD can`t in real time performance. One thing nice about lcd they record what you`ve gone over so you can look away and look back. Flashers pick up instantly what your over faster than LCD. I have to get a flasher too, soon.
Vexilar in my opinion has Lowrance beat by far in sonars.

I don't know about other manufactures but the Lowrance 500 series on up are just as fast as any Vex or Marcum flasher. If you don't believe me use on ice fishing. When I lift my ice rod it shows the ice jig moving instantly. If, and that's a big if, the Vex or Marcum is any faster I don't think that a person can tell the difference between 2 thousandths of a second and 3 thousandths of a second!

Speed is only part of the equation to a flashers performance verses a graph dial, true color flasher, or panel LED display.

A flasher, such as a Vexilar, has a multi-color display to clue the operator in on size of the bait/fish/target, the orientation of bait/fish/target in the water column, and the mood of the fish or baitfish present.

The subtleties of the colors or strength of the color tells the operator in real time if the fish is getting closer to the center of the transducer beam, cone or farther away....this relates to mood.

Some criticism has been voiced on Vexilars being "Not as crisp" as in comparison to other flashers and "More fuzzy" a reading on the dial....my response is..Kewl...I like it that way.

Ah...Why....well..because the devil is in the details, and the fussy details at times spells out if your calling fish in or spooking them away.

Example: Did that pesky nuisance sauger just pick your shiner off your 3/8 oz jig in 50' of water...or not? Well...the "fuzzy factor" will tell you this by the multi-color bleed when your gain is properly set. Your green/orange jig...just went orange...Ah-HA!...bait picked...you see it live... even if you did not feel it. A definite Vexilar flasher advantage.

Back to the "Fuzzy Factor". What some claim to be a "True Color Display" in a flasher is in fact by design limiting the operators ability to read the subtleties that a Vexilar flasher will clearly show.

The processors in these "True Color" models have a set mission..paint targets 3 colors...no bleed...no exceptions..it is what it is, it ain't what it ain't...no exceptions...ignore information that does not fit these parameters...this does not compute.

So, in essence it is telling you only what it wants to tell you, not what is available to be told, it wants to think for you....(I hates that...Eh). Most simply put, it averages the info to be X-Y-Z..no exceptions/no subtleties....No-soup for you. ;)

I also have a rant on power too, but I'll try to keep this short. More power/watts does not mean better performance in a flasher...period. It most certainly means more power usage and lessens battery life...that's a fact. A better processor and lower watts paints a cleaner signal in most conditions 40', or less. In open water applications the LP or Low Power mode on the Vexilar is critical to get clean readings and help to fine tune the gain to tune out alga, bubbles, suspended particulates, and bug clutter. More watts just increases/highlights the problem of clutter and diminishes your ability to read fish. For deep water more watts may help at times, but the pulse rate and interval is a more critical factor.

A good flasher on the ice or open water is a extremely handy tool. In bow mount applications, shoot through the hull installations, and especially on US2 trolling motors, it truly excels and enhances your ability's.

I hope this helps clear up some misconceptions, and highlights advantages and disadvantages.

Speed is only part of the equation to a flashers performance verses a graph dial, true color flasher, or panel LED display.

A flasher, such as a Vexilar, has a multi-color display to clue the operator in on size of the bait/fish/target, the orientation of bait/fish/target in the water column, and the mood of the fish or baitfish present.

The subtleties of the colors or strength of the color tells the operator in real time if the fish is getting closer to the center of the transducer beam, cone or farther away....this relates to mood.

Some criticism has been voiced on Vexilars being "Not as crisp" as in comparison to other flashers and "More fuzzy" a reading on the dial....my response is..Kewl...I like it that way.

Ah...Why....well..because the devil is in the details, and the fussy details at times spells out if your calling fish in or spooking them away.

Example: Did that pesky nuisance sauger just pick your shiner off your 3/8 oz jig in 50' of water...or not? Well...the "fuzzy factor" will tell you this by the multi-color bleed when your gain is properly set. Your green/orange jig...just went orange...Ah-HA!...bait picked...you see it live... even if you did not feel it. A definite Vexilar flasher advantage.

Back to the "Fuzzy Factor". What some claim to be a "True Color Display" in a flasher is in fact by design limiting the operators ability to read the subtleties that a Vexilar flasher will clearly show.

The processors in these "True Color" models have a set mission..paint targets 3 colors...no bleed...no exceptions..it is what it is, it ain't what it ain't...no exceptions...ignore information that does not fit these parameters...this does not compute.

So, in essence it is telling you only what it wants to tell you, not what is available to be told, it wants to think for you....(I hates that...Eh). Most simply put, it averages the info to be X-Y-Z..no exceptions/no subtleties....No-soup for you. ;)

I also have a rant on power too, but I'll try to keep this short. More power/watts does not mean better performance in a flasher...period. It most certainly means more power usage and lessens battery life...that's a fact. A better processor and lower watts paints a cleaner signal in most conditions 40', or less. In open water applications the LP or Low Power mode on the Vexilar is critical to get clean readings and help to fine tune the gain to tune out alga, bubbles, suspended particulates, and bug clutter. More watts just increases/highlights the problem of clutter and diminishes your ability to read fish. For deep water more watts may help at times, but the pulse rate and interval is a more critical factor.

A good flasher on the ice or open water is a extremely handy tool. In bow mount applications, shoot through the hull installations, and especially on US2 trolling motors, it truly excels and enhances your ability's.

I hope this helps clear up some misconceptions, and highlights advantages and disadvantages.

For ice fishing I set my graph up on flasher mode so I can now see all the same things you are talking about such as if the fish is in the middle of the cone or not. It has different colors that are just like the Vexilar. The BIG advantage I see is that there is an option to use it as a graph also so you have some "memory" of what you went over.

To justsent's point is he is flying across the shallow water I don't think he is going to be worried or have time to be looking at where the fish are in the cone. All he really will care about when running fast is the depth so that he doesn't run into a sandbar or a rock.

I'm not anti flasher but I think that there are better options and when you look at the price of these new flashers there isn't much difference between them and some of the good graphs that like I say offer both a flasher and graph modes.

Humminbird has come out with some pretty sweet new flashers competitively priced. Do a search.

My lowrance 510c is junk! I just replaced it with a Vexilar LCD Edge2 graph. Shallow water issues with the 510 tired of dealling with Lowrances customer service sent the graph to them twice no fix. Learned on Vexilars web site how flashers work when I bought the Edge from them which works great compared to my Lowrance. Need a flasher next.

Ah.....Geeeezzeee......Augie your still crabby that they didn't put the BL feature on the 20.

;)

I love my 20, and the through the hull ducer.....even without the BL.
Eddy,
Do you feel that the FL-20 is any easier to see than the FL-18 under most conditions in a boat on open water usage. Would you chose the Fl-20 over the FL- 18 for use in a boat?

Don't most new graphs have a flasher option? I know the last couple that I have purchased have. I had two Vexilars on my boat when I got it but I prefer a good graph for open water fishing. I still use my FL-18 for ice fishing and love it, but if I want a flasher I just turn on the flasher option on my graph, then I see the flasher and graph on the same screen. One less piece of electronics cluttering my boat too. I suppose if I did a lot of vertical jigging I would have more use for it, but for rigging I like the "history" of a graph.