Canoe Transducer Mount

[AZfishrman01]

How do you all mount your transducers to the canoe neatly and efficiently? I want the transducer to be mounted similar to that of an ocean kayak (wires tucked away and out of site). I've seen how guys just clamp the transducer on a stick to the side of the canoe, but that looks bush-league and has the potential of getting ripped off/cracked if I bump into anything by accident.

Can you mount the transducer onto the bottom of the canoe like you can in a yak? How does the electronic read in terms of clarity and accuracy?

Thanks in advance, fellas. Tight lines.

[moguy1973]

What kind of canoe is it? If it's polyethylene or fiberglass (actually anything but metal or wood) you can mount it inside as a shoot-through-hull with some kind of marine putty or marine glue. You won't get temp settings but it works as a depth/fish finder still. Humminbird actually makes a kayak shoot through hull mounting kit with the glue you need http://www.amazon.co...g/dp/B001I7SMJK There are instructions on youtube too...

My kayak is a SOT so it has scupper holes that I ran the transducer down.

[Goose52]

I have an aluminum canoe so I use the "stick" (Slidetrax Transducer Deployment Arm). With a traditional sonar, or with Down Imaging only, you can keep the transducer at, or slightly above, the bottom of the hull. So, you will ground the canoe before before you hit the transducer. The deployment arm is hinged so I fold it up out of the water when the sonar is off.

When I went to Side Imaging, I had to lower the transducer below the bottom of the hull so I have to be a bit more careful now. However, the deployment arm is somewhat flexible, and will help cushion any shock if I do drag the transducer on the bottom. Also, the arm will pivot/rotate around it's mounting bolt under impact, adding to the cushioning effect.

The deployment arm, and the sonar unit itself, are mounted on the wood dashboard that you see in the photo. One-stop shopping - all of the sonar components are mounted together - so no dangling cables. I run it off the TM battery, but I also have an 8ah sealed battery that I can use as well.

The only downside of this mounting, for me, is that if you are trying to get through some heavy slop, pads, etc. the deployment arm will foul on that stuff. Since you're usually in shallow water in those cases, I usually just turn the sonar off and fold up the deployment arm.

[Glenn]

Have you seen this?

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/lowrance-video.html

[moguy1973]

Have you seen this?

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/lowrance-video.html

That's only for kayaks that have scuppers. It's what I used to mount my transducer in my kayak.

[lavbasser]

I have an aluminum canoe so I use the "stick" (Slidetrax Transducer Deployment Arm). With a traditional sonar, or with Down Imaging only, you can keep the transducer at, or slightly above, the bottom of the hull. So, you will ground the canoe before before you hit the transducer. The deployment arm is hinged so I fold it up out of the water when the sonar is off.

When I went to Side Imaging, I had to lower the transducer below the bottom of the hull so I have to be a bit more careful now. However, the deployment arm is somewhat flexible, and will help cushion any shock if I do drag the transducer on the bottom. Also, the arm will pivot/rotate around it's mounting bolt under impact, adding to the cushioning effect.

The deployment arm, and the sonar unit itself, are mounted on the wood dashboard that you see in the photo. One-stop shopping - all of the sonar components are mounted together - so no dangling cables. I run it off the TM battery, but I also have an 8ah sealed battery that I can use as well.

The only downside of this mounting, for me, is that if you are trying to get through some heavy slop, pads, etc. the deployment arm will foul on that stuff. Since you're usually in shallow water in those cases, I usually just turn the sonar off and fold up the deployment arm.

Goose,

How is that secured to your canoe?

[Goose52]

Goose,

How is that secured to your canoe?

The Radisson canoes have sockets for oarlocks - I have bolts (that really just act as locating pins) that extend down from the dashboard into the sockets. I cut the holes in the oak dashboard so these bolts would be pre-loaded a bit (you have to pull the gunwales together a bit to get the locating pins/bolts to engage the sockets). In the photo, the bolt on that side of the dashboard is hidden from view by the mounting portion of the slidetrax arm.

On another canoe without these sockets, I would have made a clamping mechanism to lock the dashboard to the gunwales (similar to what's used on canoe TM brackets.

[lavbasser]

Thanks Goose.

[Zeebyrd]

How do you all mount your transducers to the canoe neatly and efficiently? I want the transducer to be mounted similar to that of an ocean kayak (wires tucked away and out of site). I've seen how guys just clamp the transducer on a stick to the side of the canoe, but that looks bush-league and has the potential of getting ripped off/cracked if I bump into anything by accident.

Can you mount the transducer onto the bottom of the canoe like you can in a yak? How does the electronic read in terms of clarity and accuracy?

Thanks in advance, fellas. Tight lines.

I have a Coleman Scanoe. I have a Humminbird PiranhaMAX 160PT that came with the external transducer. I used the fish finder a total of three times and something nicked the external tranducer cable to the point of being beyond repair.

From the start, I had a hard time keeping the transducer attached with the suction cup that I was told would hold on to anything and would be difficult to remove. Wrong. It wouldn't stay attached to my Scanoe for more than 15 minutes (polyethylene hull). I had to keep reattaching it time and time again. I later talked to someone who had the same problem and he said he made an attachment to his boat or canoe (can't remember which) out of plexiglas as that is the only thing he could get the suction cup to stay attached to.

Once the cable was nicked, I replaced it with the Humminbird XP 9 20 T Puck Transducer. This mounts inside the hull of the canoe. It comes with a slow cure epoxy to permanently attach it to the hull. However, since I am not sure if this will be my only boat, I use a putty that I found laying around the house to mount it temporarily and it works quite well. You just have to keep the area around the puck clear so that nothing knocks the putty and puck out of place.

The Puck Transducer has a temperature probe, that can be mounted to the transom with small "clamps" that are included so it extends into the water. I am not always concerned about water temps - and if I am, I manually lower it into the water. To me, its just another cable that can get nicked by whatever did in the last transducer.

According to what I have read, reading through the hull is not as accurate as if the transducer were in the water. It seems to work o.k. on a lake that I frequent. However, when I was on the Potomac River this past weekend, I had mixed results. At one location, which was fairly weed/grass free, I got excellent results (the water was clear enough for me to compare finder readings to what I could see). On another location of the Potomac, there was so much weed/grass that I was not getting accurate readings. I am not sure if it would have done any better if it had been an in-water transducer. The weeds/grass were very thick and probably caused the inaccurate readings.

I hope this helps a little.

Laura (aka Zeebyrd)