Sassafras River & Transducer Upgrade

[FRED driver]

Hit the Sassafras for the first time this morning for about 2.5 hours. It turned into a whirlwind since I mostly tried to cover as much water as I could to see what was around. Hard to tell if I was marking mostly debris or fish, but there were definite returns, just nothing to show for it in fish. Worked a big circle around the mouth before repacking the car and relocating further inland to a very deep (50+ ft) channel area that looked promising on the charts. Definite thermocline could be seen but nothing else--first skunk of the year, ouch. Anyone else fished this area?

I also just got my transducer into the water finally. I never enjoyed having to refill the little duct putty reservoir with water every time in and out of the water, getting everything wet when I would flip it on the car, inaccurate water temps, and often sketchy returns. I bought RAM's new transducer arm on a diamond base and it's working perfectly. Ran all the power and transducer cables through one of the rear drains and retro-fitted it with a hole-drilled and razor-slit rubber cork, sealed to make it watertight (checked after my 5 miles on the water today and bone-dry). This way I keep my battery stored safely inside the yak, xducer directly in the water, and single connection point for the FF where I can reach it easily.

The diamond base is bolted into the right rear storage tray near the seat on the Outback. When moving from water to water, I simply disconnect it from the base and twist it into the elastic storage cords in the back to keep it safe/suspended and flush for car-topping

[wfauby]

Fred - did you find the RAM transducer arm stayed fairly stable while paddling or did it "fold" back as you moved forward, vibrant with each stroke? i did a similar rigging with a piece of pvc, running lines thru pipe and hanging it over the side, very functional, but the RAM arm is a nicer look. i like the returns i get on my sonar directly in the water better than shooting thru the hull. Thanks in advance for your reply. W

[FRED driver]

Fred - did you find the RAM transducer arm stayed fairly stable while paddling or did it "fold" back as you moved forward, vibrant with each stroke? i did a similar rigging with a piece of pvc, running lines thru pipe and hanging it over the side, very functional, but the RAM arm is a nicer look. i like the returns i get on my sonar directly in the water better than shooting thru the hull. Thanks in advance for your reply. W

Solid as a rock. will not move. Interestingly inside that corrugated black sheating is a metal rod that looks like a piece of 3/4" solid steel, but it's oddly flexible. Perhaps aluminum or something. But once you've worked it into the right shape and tightened it down on the ram ball, it isnt going anywhere

[Memory Maker]

Glad to hear it works great .......... I rigged something similar to the side of my PA and it vibrated alot, pulled backward when I ran the Torqeedo at high speed and pulled so hard to that side at high speed that the rudder would only turn in that direction and go almost straight if I pushed the rudder handle all the way to the opposite direction. That was when I had the Torqeedo locked down straight. I had to go with the bung hole adapter to eliminate the drag. It would probably work ok now since I rigged the Torqeedo to the steering drum.

Glad it works and you like it.

[FRED driver]

I tell you what man I'm envious of the torqeedo, which, is pretty ridiculous of me given how awesome the mirage drive is, haha. But it would certainly be nice to just power 5-7 miles out while rigging or whatever, shut it off, and use the mirage drive to fish and hold position. Was it worth the cost to you or did you get it discounted? Tough to justify 2k more but I see myself pulling the trigger eventually.