not new to fishing, but new to a flasher!!!

I'm wanting to try something new this year, and am wanting to know if it is possible to run a flasher and a regular fishfinder at the same time without running interference with each other. Not going to mention exactly what I am going to be doing quite yet and how I am going to use it, but the transducers will be within inches of each other. Would this work? And, you all can be rest assured that if this works the way I am thinking, I will holler at you all and let you know!

If it doesn't, I'll just quietly chalk it up to experience and not share the embarrassment with anyone!!! LOL

mrwillis

You know, I was wondering the same thing. I put an HDS on the bow but I miss my flasher. I was going to mount it this summer and see what happened. I would have both transducrs on the TM. My guess is they are so vastlydifferent, it just wouldn't matter.

doesn't your HDS have a "flasher" option. I have a Low Mark 5 pro, and it has a flasher option in the screen selection, seems like a high $$ unit would have that as well

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Originally Posted by jimp

doesn't your HDS have a "flasher" option. I have a Low Mark 5 pro, and it has a flasher option in the screen selection, seems like a high $$ unit would have that as well

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Yes, it does. I just like that little red line. I can spot fish on that old flasher in a heart beat. I want other screens on the HDS.

I had a Eagle Silent Sixty that started out as a portable and I mounted it permanently on my trolling motor.I can't remember the exact cone angle but I think it was 20 degrees.I also had a Eagle LCG mounted to my console with a transom mount that was 20 degrees.I never really tested running both at the same time. But I would think that giving the length of boat, depth of water, and cone width that it could overlap and interfere.A little story about how acurate a flasher is, I was fishing a channel bank and saw a signal suspended about 12 ft. over 18 ft. of water.I lowered my jignpig down by my transducer and watched that jig fall to 12ft. and thump a 3 pound bass on the head. He almost pulled the rod out of my hands.I bought that sonar when I was 25 yrs old and It is still on the boat that I sold to a co-worker about 10 yrs. ago and still running without ever having been serviced by Eagle. Sure wish I had it back!!!! They are gold!!!Oh by the way,I'm 59 yrs old and that sonar is still working.
OLD FISHERMEN NEVER DIE, THEY JUST SMELL THAT WAY!!

I know how you feel. I still have my Silent 60 and it stll works fine. I can't remember when I bought it and I'm 60 yrs old.
I think I like it so much because that's what I learned on.

Crappiemax, You're exactly right. That's what I learned on.They are great for marking dropoffs with marker bouys. As soon as that bottom signal moves at all, you know you're over the drop. Turn up the sensetivity and it would mark anything between top and bottom.My Mark 5x has split screen with a flasher and it does ok but it's a new unit and I haven't put enough hours on it yet Wonder why the new flashers are so expensive? Like most technology, you would think as they get older that they would be way cheap.Not so. I found 2 on E-Bay once that a guy wanted $125 for. They were brand new in the box. I kick myself everytime I think about not buying them. The guys son didn't fish and didn't know what he had. The original owner had passed away and never installed them.They were on the top shelf of his closet.
OLD FISHERMEN NEVER DIE, THEY JUST SMELL THAT WAY!!

I have a '94 Ranger that has a built in flasher in the dash. It works but I've never been around a flasher that much so I havent bothered trying to learn anything from it. Maybe I should start watching it some beside my console graph and see what it shows.

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Originally Posted by gabowman

I have a '94 Ranger that has a built in flasher in the dash. It works but I've never been around a flasher that much so I havent bothered trying to learn anything from it. Maybe I should start watching it some beside my console graph and see what it shows.

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x2 i have one in my dash as well it is just something there to me because i havent the foggyest idea how to read or set it

What I like is that the readings are instant. Just turn up the power enough to get a 2nd bottom reading (echo)and it will mark fish. The fish signals are or can be faint and most people just don't understand what they are looking at.

jbornhop...try this.
If you are in 10 fow, turn up power until you see a 2nd reading @ 20'. Now any blips or signals between 0' & 10' are fish. Pretty simple really. Simple formula is 2x depth will give you enough power to show fish.

I had a Silent 30 I gave to one of the guys I work with last year. He saw my flasher and liked it. He has kids/wife/mortgage so money is a little tight for him.
The new units are expensive but so is everything. I think a 65 Mustang sold for less than $3000, look a the prices now. It's all relative I suppose. Most of us could catch a fish with a hook and a cheap Zebco but most of us choose other options.
I sometimes look at the new Vexilar's. They are way too cool. Color and a flasher all in one. That would be fun. I watched a guy using one ice fishing. You could see the fish rising to the jig.

Don't get me wrong, I like my HDS a lot and have fun with it. Both units have a purpose.

Well I first learned to find fish using soley a flasher. I still have one in my console dash as my old stand by in case my other electronics go down. With that said and to answer your question they will not interfer with eachother unless you have two seperate transducers side by side, depending on the frequency range of the two different units. Some will and some wont based on the freq's. A flasher is simple and once you get use to it and know what your looking at you can make it just as effective as a 2d fish finder that most have on their boats today.

There are good ones and bad ones as well so do your homework first on flashers. Once you get use to one you will enjoy it and be glad you got it, also very little ever goes wrong with one, usually the transducer is the only issue I have ever had with one. And personally I rely and trust my flasher more than other types of finders, just from experience.

Look forward to hearing your experiment results.

mrwillis,
Whether you would get sonar-to-sonar interference would depend on whether the flasher and regular fishfinder are using the same frequency and also what cone angle the transducers are using and whether they are pointed in the same direction or not.


A word about the update speed of flashers; the update speed of a motorized flasher is tied back to the RPM speed of the motor which is fixed. This is about 30 updates per second. Humminbird LCD units are capable of up to 40 updates per second when using the Flasher View or the viewing at the sonar information in the RTS Window, plus the color LCD units can also show you a relative returned sonar signal strength which only a flasher that can display in multiple colors can do.

I cut my ‘sonar teeth’ on the ole’ Humminbird WPS60 Super 60 Flasher.

There is nothing like fishing a single jig or minnow under a flasher. I have a Vexilar on my boat for the times that I do single pole and it is very helpful at locating actual fish and watching both your jig and fish in real time. If a dedicated flasher is what you are in the market for I have owned three Vexilar units and when I travel to Minnesota to fish they are all I ever see. Pricey new but if you shop around you can find really good used units for a fair price.

Vexilar flashers usually operate on the 200kHz band and the newer models have an interference rejection feature. If the locator operates on a different frequency you might be in luck. If you are going to mount them within inches on the same frequency though you would probably have problems. Spreading the transducers out and using a narrower cone transducer on the flasher would probably work.

Most sonar units operate with the 200kHz frequency. That is one of the reasons that Humminbird chose to use the 240kHz and 455kHz frequencies in the ICE Flashers that we build, so that there is zero interference.