Question for vexilar owners

the combo really lets you work both extremely shallow and deep water at the same time. the 19 degree shines in shallow water letting the cone "open" up more before it hits bottom. the 9 degree stays tighter for those longer echos to the bottom. for example at 20 feet your 19 opens to 6.7 feet across the bottom but with a 9 degree you would need to go 40 feet to get similar readings. also when fishing sharp drop offs a 9 really shines because it lessens your deadspots. so i guess yes its worth the extra. how to choose a ducer angle

I have the 9/19degr. transducer. I use 19 degr. probably 90% of the time because the lakes I fish are generally shallow. Up to 20 FOW. But its there if I ever go to a deeper lake or simply want to use it. Awfully hard to use it if you don't have it available.

I have the fl-18 and I have no clue as to the cone or anything on it. Don't really care either. When the little light turns red I whack em.

I have the 12 degree on my FL-18 and find it to be a good all-around producer. I have fished it in waters from 6' to 45' and it has done the job for me. If I had the 9/19 I would probably say the same thing about it too. But for the water that I fish, I don't really need it. I'd rather spend the money on tackle LOL!!....Patch

I have the 9/19 on my FL-18 also and like WalleyeMike said, hard to use it if ya dont have it. The 19 degree works great for water depths up to 25-30' and the 19 degree covers anything deeper. I'd say it is well worth the extra to have dual cone.

I had the 19 , and the 9 for my fl8, and then when I bought the fl18 it came with the 12. I use the 19 now on my fl18. If I was fishing higgins or somewhere deep I would use the 9, but most of the water I cover is 36ft or less, usually way less.

Thanks for all the responses. Looks like the 9/19 is probably the way to go.

I went with the 9/19. I have only use it one time and the water was 9' and I use the 19degree. I agree with Mike " if you don't have it you can't use it".

I can give you an example of the area you will be looking at 30ft. of water. 9 degree 4.72 ft at 19 degree 10.04ft. You get all the info by going to www.vexilar.com.

I used my FL-18 for the first time this weekend. Either I don't know what I'm doing or its not working right. I was fishing in about 8' of water and it was working great at the 9 degree setting, but when I switched it to 19 degree I could no longer see my lure on the flasher. ?? Do you have to change the gain when you change the degree??? Outside of that, I felt like I was cheating it was so easy and worked so well. Now I understand the guys that say they won't go on the ice without it.

Yes frank you do need to adjust the gain. Effectively the 9degree beam is a lot stronger and more concentrated than the 19degree. When you switch to 19 you see everything dissappear because you just took the same amount of kHz and dilluted it a bunch.......short answer..you must increase the gain quite a bit when you go up to 19....and when you come back down to 9 you must lessen the gain....just play with it and you'll see what I mean.

Also in less than 15fow be sure to use the LP (low power) setting so you can get a clearer picture. Vex doesnt need its full power in waters that shallow. There are situations for every setting....its mostly feel and preference which takes time to gain have fun.

In no time at all you'll be doing things like: reading 'through' the weeds, looking down holes in the weeds with 9degree, ...and the ultimate...being able to read into the 2nd and 3rd echo to see things outside your traditional view.

Scotty is right.
I found out the same thing a couple days ago. I took out my new dual transducer for the first time observed the same phenomenon.

It makes sense if you think about the same amount of power being spread out over a larger area and the receiver needing more gain to see the same strength echo.

Scotty, can you elaborate on what to do in tall weeds with narrow cone. I cannot see fish or jig. I have fl8 with S-cable and dual cone transducer but cannot seem to figure how to make them work. I hope you can help.

Thanks,
Phil

well for a simple fix you could try just moving the transducer to different side of the hole, or another hole just inches off the the side. For reading through them...you'll need enough gain so that stuff below the weed top will show up...this means your going to have to put up with the weeds being a good strong red, but hopefully there will be at least a small area of weaker signal below the weed top but above the bottom. This is your window....you will need to watch below the weed top for any flicker that doesn't look normal. Some jigs show up better on a flasher and these will let you lessen the gain and see more jig with less weeds. Every hole you fish the weeds are gonna be a little different....the biggest thing I think is being able to see the flickers within the flickers.....if that makes sense. Also if you can see the 2nd echo any major flickers here are probably fish near you too.

Thanks,
I'll try the second echo and deepersetting to see if that shows anything useful.
I'm fishing for 'gills in weeds that are one to three feet high in water that is usually less than 12 feet deep. so in gets pretty red down there if I try to see my jig and fish too.

I've tried my son's fl18 with zoom and it doesn't seem to help because the unit thinks the weed tops is the bottom and it won't look below that for other blips.

Thanks again
Phil