Kayak Fish Finder question

[UBkevy]

I have never mounted a fish finder to a kayak so I have a few questions and was hoping for some expert opinions.

Can you mount a transducer on the interior and have it be effective?
Any does and don'ts in regards to fishfinder size. I used to have a lowrance Elite 4 on the boat and it was ok, but I was looking to have an upgrade on the kayak.
Id like to keep the weight to a minimum so a lithium battery seems best. Any suggestions?

[john from md]

You can mount a standard dual frequency fish finder inside the hull but you must put the side scan type in the water. As for size, I use a Humminbird five inch on my `4 foot yak and a Piranahmax on my 9 foot yak. Some guys who have Hobies, have big seven inch models.

Remember, the bigger the model, the more the power draw. My five inch model is powered off a 7AH battery and it will give me 6 hours if I don't turn the light up all the way. The piranah max uses 8 AA cells and gives me at least 4 hours which is more than I need.

Lithium batteries are light but expensive. My big yak will hold 350 pounds and I'm only 170 so I don't sweat it.

[brianisoutside]

Yes thru Hull will work. Most people mount it by kind of sticking it in place with duct seal. It’s kind of like a sticky play doh. Home Depot and Lowe’s sell it in blocks.
I have a hook 5 mounted in my Hobie this way with a lithium motorcycle battery


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[M_Duong60]

I mounted my Lowrance x4 FF on the inside and it works fine, I used silicone just because I didnt want to mess around with the wet well style with duct seal like brian said. You have to fill it with water each time which became a pain personally.

In my opinion the only downside would be not knowing the water temp if you care about that. Its just really convenient to not have to worry about anything besides connecting the battery, less prep time more time on the water

[john from md]

On my Trident, I have the transducer mounted inside the hull using duct seal and incorporating a small well. I carry a small syringe and, using water from my drinking supply, fill the well through the mod pod hatch. This gives me temp which is usually spot on after the kayak has been on the water for a while. I have confirmed it with a digital thermometer so using a water well does work.

[hookmeup]

As long as there are no bubbles it’s okay to directly mount in duct seal. Temperature will be off a few degrees until everything stabilized. Caveats about side scan apply. Don’t know about down scan or chirp. Maybe one of the other guys will chime in.

[Yakman35]

If you have a down imaging type I don’t believe it will work. I have a garmin striker4cv mounted on mine with a Scotty mount transducer arm mounted on my rails and the wiring ran using hobie thru hull wiring kit into a 7ah battery. The battery I have housed in a waterproof box. If you go to YouTube look up channel paulbrooks35 I have a video of my kayak it will show you how I did mine


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[Mark]

If you have a down imaging type I don’t believe it will work...

I no longer use a fish finder. I had a Lowrance Elite-5 HDI unit on my previous Hobie Revo with downscan capability. My transducer was mounted through-the-hull with duct seal -- no well. I wasn't concerned with water temperature and I turned that data display off of my screen. Both the sonar and downscan functions worked fine. I don't know if downscan is the same as "down imaging" but the downscan function I had offered a much higher level of detail than sonar.

[mikelreidd]

Garmin actually makes a foam mount(sticky back) for in hull mounting. I've had mine in for probably 6 years with no issue.images.jpgdownload.jpg