[OptiMystic]

So my little 10' SIK has this bottle holder up front:

Kind of a waste of space to hold only one little water bottle. I unstrung the elastic:

And now I have 4 holes that I can attach something to.

I cut a piece of 1/2" ACX ply roughly to shape. Skipping a step or two, this is it flipped over with some short strap ends screwed into the bottom (will become obvious why shortly):

And here is why - it is flipped over and screwed (with tapping screws with big flat heads) on from the underside. The two caribbeaners fit to the D rings of my portable Hummingbird. It has a hard flat bottom; it doesn't need to be super tight, just not too much slack. The other strap goes through a rod holder I had been strapping down on the front between the cleats. I still want it removable for hauling the boat.

One other small thing I got this Christmas is a Crappie Bag. It is a small soft tackle with 4 removable plastic cases in the middle, plus decent size pockets on the end. It will carry as much tackle as I generally take in a day. It's tight to set it up there also but it will fit:

Yeah it will kind of be in the way of the FF but not completely blocking it. But I just want to be able to set it up there sometimes to get it out of my way.

Why that is a big deal is that I usually have this soft cooler with all my tackle and whatnot between my knees. I will not take that anymore; just this stuff and a lunch bag type cooler on the back. I already have a rod holder in back. Nothing has to be in the cockpit with me. This little boat is actually stable enough for me to move around in a little bit if the cockpit is clear. Unfortunately, on most of my trips it hasn't been. Now it will be.

 

[EvBlue]

It will be nice having the cockpit clear. How does the transducer mount?

 

[OptiMystic]

It will be nice having the cockpit clear. How does the transducer mount?

The included one in the pack has a long cord and suction cup. Having seen the way I drag the boat up river banks, you are probably aware that the likelihood of a good seal on my boat is pretty low. The suction cup attaches to the mount with a screw:

So I can pretty easily attach it to something else. I just have to figure out what that is; I have a couple of ideas but certainly open to hearing more...

I also have a second transducer from another project that I need to get a cable end for that I will probably mount inside the boat I am building.

EDIT - But I may be surprised about where it might stick; I should try on the side near the water line. Not having it face forward isn't a big deal at speeds < 5 MPH.

 

[OptiMystic]

Another thought just hit me; if I try to suction it the side right below my paddle keeper (elastic cord on the side) I can probably rig something very simple to help keep it from slipping loose... Hmmm...

 

[Frudaddy]

I have never used one, but something like this could work for you:
[video=youtube_share;tAzy5mLXhBc]http://youtu.be/tAzy5mLXhBc[/video]

 

[sundrop]

put a little trim about those edges and it will make a good flat place when not holding the bag, and things will not roll/slide off of it easily.

 

[sundrop]

keep in mind turning the transducer sideways, etc. will change how you view your screen.

 

[OptiMystic]

FruDaddy,

Thanks! That helps a lot. Not ordering their $68 adapter, but this:

http://www.amazon.com/CMS-Magnetics®-Holding-Neodymium-Countersunk/dp/B008H40TK2/ref=pd_sim_indust_3

will be here Friday (love me some Amazon Prime! ). 39# should be enough.

I just have to attach one of them instead of the suction cup, and I think I just need a big fender washer or something inside the hull. I may need them as a pair to get the full power though; not sure.

 

[OptiMystic]

keep in mind turning the transducer sideways, etc. will change how you view your screen.

Are you sure? This is not a side finder. It is a low res cone. The display is not a picture of the bottom, it is a series of vertical lines, each drawn to show you what the transponder reported at that point in time and then scrolled over so the next line can be drawn. The "smart" features in cheap single cone fish finders work by looking over the historical data and spotting patterns (a strong echo part way down reported in multiple echoes becomes a fish). I did some work with a low res cone transponder for a robotics project. It sends out a pulse and senses the return - when it gets some weak echoes and when it gets the strongest. How strong the weak echoes are determine how big an object is between you and the bottom is and how strong the strongest echo is determines how hard the bottom is. How quickly it gets the various echoes determines depth. I don't think moving sideways will change any of that. It may be that the tech in some FFs is far more advanced than this, but this one is just single cone.

EDIT - Here is a discussion of this on another forum:
http://www.kfdu.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=21218
Note that "Bayside Kayak Angler" even mentions one manufacturer recommends backward facing transducer mounts for through hull.

 

[OptiMystic]

put a little trim about those edges and it will make a good flat place when not holding the bag, and things will not roll/slide off of it easily.

I may do that. I thinking about making an "upper deck". That small deck fits between small ridges on the yak's deck. If I mounted a second board on top of that one, it would be above the ridges and could extend a little further out. I might add trim also.

At the very least, this is coming off to get sanded and painted. The corners are too sharp right now. It's ACX, so it will hold up a good while unpainted but I will give it a good coat after I decide I am happy with it.

 

[sundrop]

if you look down, you see the floor below you, if you turn to the left and look down you see the floor below you. If your eyes can turn left but your body stayed in place, wouldn't that change your perception of what you see? I think that's how the cone of sonar would work as well. I may be wrong. To me it would show ledges drops etc out of "square" with the screens perception/orientation.

 

[OptiMystic]

if you look down, you see the floor below you, if you turn to the left and look down you see the floor below you. If your eyes can turn left but your body stayed in place, wouldn't that change your perception of what you see? I think that's how the cone of sonar would work as well. I may be wrong. To me it would show ledges drops etc out of "square" with the screens perception/orientation.

You are comparing stereoscopic vision to sonar which actually illustrates exactly why it doesn't matter to sonar; there is no second point of reference and there is no rich map of varying wavelengths (colors) to differentiate where things are in you range of "vision". There is something reflecting some or all of the waves at a given distance inside the cone. Not much to work with. It's pretty amazing what they come up with but on the advanced ones they use more than one pulse and/or more than one cone (at least that is my understanding; my knowledge from actually programming the technology is limited to single cone).

 

[Frudaddy]

I wasn't sure if you would buy the adapter in the video, but I expected that you could get a few mounting ideas from it at the least.
If the wood doesn't work out for you, perhaps a plastic cutting board could serve as a nice platform.

 

[EvBlue]

"At the very least, this is coming off to get sanded and painted"

Once you get the bugs worked out you could also make one out of a plastic cutting board. Target has some black ones that are cheap and look great. That's what I used for the deck I made for my Loon. Bolt Scotty mounts or slide track to it to mount the fish finder and rod holder, plus bungies to hold the deck bag.

 

[Neilslure]

keep in mind turning the transducer sideways, etc. will change how you view your screen.

A basic sonar transducer does nothing more than measure time and distance and then draws a graph (hence the name "graph") on the screen that appears as a picture. It doesnt work like a camera lens, where it shows you a picture of what it is pointing at. The transducer emits a signal that goes straight down and bounces back. If the boat sits stationary that signal will just bounce off the same spot over and over which will produce a flat line on the screen even if that bottom were at a 45 degree angle, the line would not change until the distance the signal traveled changes.

My transducer is mounted on the foot of my trolling motor and spins every which way work fine.

 

[OptiMystic]

I considered the cutting board idea. My concern is that they are soft. They flex if you tighten a strap across them and screws strip out under less pressure than in ply. Not a big concern; probably still adequate. Might do that. I am trying to make it quick on/off without stuff on the deck I have to worry about much when hauling it. If space is tight for boats in the bed, it can be the one on bottom. Those D rings are standard on the Hummingbird pack and all I need are clips about the right distance apart that keeps it from shifting much, so I am happy with that. I may mount the rod holder mount permanently; that would not be in the way very much. The bag I will often have in my lap, but I want a place to set it out of the way sometimes.

I have fished out of it enough to be fairly sure that will cover me. I usually only have as much tackle as will fit in the little bag. That soft cooler I carry is just packed really poorly. Because I will be able to move around better, I should be able to put a little lunch bag cooler on top of my back hatch and be able to get at it. Hope to do some testing in 10 or 11 days...

 

[sundrop]

I "assumed" that picture was relayed in relation to the direction the transducer was turned and relocating the "front" of the transducer would change that image. now that I think about it it makes sense your way because people mount transducers on trolling motors which are always turning, yet the image does not.

 

[OptiMystic]

So I got my amazing strong little magnets. One of them will easily hold a transducer in place; if the magnet is directly against the metal surface. Through the hull, the magnet isn't quite strong enough. Odd; tremendous holding power for their size but very limited range. I have other unrelated uses for them and I came up with another option to try.