Product: Marcum LX-7li Combo Sonar System
Cheapest Place To Buy: Amazon.com
Product Dimensions: 9.5″ x 9.5″ x 11″; 7.5 pounds
Guarantee: Two-year System Warranty
My Rating: 9.7 out of 10
It can be hard to catch your limit when you are out, ice fishing. Drilling hole after hole until you find the right spot. And a lot of the time you never do find where those elusive fish are hiding. That can all change if you bring along a Marcum ice fishing sonar. This digital sonar system is perfect for finding those fish that don’t want to be found!
This fishfinder comes loaded with exemptional features like real-time graphing and excellent response time. You can easily switch back and forth on the screen to find the features you are looking for. Now that I told you a little about the Marcum LX-7li let’s get into the meat and potatoes of this ice fishing sonar system.
Marcum Ice Fishing Sonar Review
The Features
There are a ton of great features that come with the Marcum LX-7li. It has a customizable display and dashboard with 12 levels of interference rejection. You can adjust the zoom and it has excellent target separation. Comes with dual-beam transducers for extra fish finding capabilities. The following is a shortlist of some of its most important features.
- A dashboard display that keeps you updated with all the information you need while ice fishing.
- It’s protected with a nylon-padded soft pack and a clear shield.
- User-friendly adjustable zoom feature.
- Display up to three different sonar windows at once out of five.
- It’s Quiet
- Has a transport shuttle with a transducer arm that is extendable
- 8 ” LCD monitor
- A dual-beam transducer that you can switch between 8 degrees and 20 degrees
- And has a 2-year warranty on the system itself
With all these features you just can’t go wrong. Anglers from all around just love their Marcum ice fishing sonar and who can blame them! They are the most advanced sonar systems on the market today.
Setting Up Is Easy
Setting this unit up for ice fishing doesn’t get any easier. It comes almost ready to go right out of the package. Not quite but close. Just open the top cover of the soft pack. Then you want to loosen the knobs around the monitor. Mount it to the Marcum Lithium Shuttle. Once that’s complete you can move the screen to where you view it the best. Now that you have the monitor to where you want it, tighten the knobs back down.
Reading Through The Ice
Make sure the ice is clear before reading. To clear the ice for coupling of the transducer just dump a cup of water on the spot your reading. Now place the transducer firmly on the ice where you poured the water. This will show the bottom of the lake and whatever fish might be there on your screen.
Next, you want to drill into the ice about 2” before you take your first reading. This is done if the ice is rough or there are a lot of air bubbles in it.
Tips On Fishing In Shallow Water
If your fishing in the shallow water of 10’ or less you will need to make some adjustments to what you will want to experiment with.
- No matter how thick the ice is manually select the 10’ range.
- Keep the transducer on top of the ice almost holding it in the air. This gives it more room to work with.
- Go to the menu button, select sonar settings, find sonar mode. Highlight that and select open water mode. Although your ice fishing, setting it to open water mode will allow for better fishing if the ice conditions are horrible.
- Change the color palette from SIX-COLOR to one of the four-color palettes.
Like I said you will have to do some experimenting with this. If the ice is clear you might not have any trouble just using the factory settings when fishing in shallow water.
What Comes With The Marcum LX-7li?
- Power Cord
- Universal charging system
- Snow shield – for protection from rain and snow
- Ice Transducer
- Transducer Arm – holds the transducer cable
- Soft Pack – for protection from the elements
- Shuttle – The base your Marcum ice fishing sonar is mounted to.
- Open Water Transducer – This transducer mounts to the transom or trolling motor of your boat.
- Stopper – This suspends your ice-ducer in the hole along with the transducer arm.
- 2 Lithium Polymer batteries are included
Pros
- Dual Use – for hard water and open water fishing
- The battery lasts 10 hours on a full charge
- Ready to use out of the box
- Adjustable night vision backlight
- Multifunctional sonar display
- Sonar footprint technology
- Touchscreen
- Quiet
- 2-year warranty
Cons
- A learning curve for the display
Conclusion
With all these awesome features that come with a Marcum LX-7li, I don’t know what else to say but go out and get yourself one of these beauties. You will spend more time fishing. Less time drilling holes and better yet catching your daily limits of fish. And if the system breaks within two years you can get it replaced with Marcum’s two-year warranty.
One of the best part, of this Marcum ice fishing sonar system, is that you can use it hard water and open water fishing. In the ice shelter or in the boat it’s a year-round use of this fish finder and a solid investment in fishing equipment if you ask me.
If you have any questions or comments please leave them below.
I only saw this type of sonar technology on TV and didn’t know it can be used to aid fishing activity. Look at how technology is applicable in all areas. I am not a person who love fishing but reading your review it seems interesting. Can I know what would you suggest a newbie to get to start fishing?
If your new to the sport of fishing I would recommend just getting out there and start. From there you can expand your fishing gear if you enjoy fishing.
That sonar looks like a wonderful way to see if there is fish there prior to drilling the actual hole. The features look like it would work as intended. I don’t ice fish a whole lot. It looks like this device would work on my boat as well as on the ice. I am looking for a new sonar for my boat as the one I have failed. Have you used this system in that way or just on the ice?
I have used it on both and it works wonders for finding those elusive fish.