Kayak Fishfinder Side Imaging (Side Scan)

[Choporoz]

I'm in the early stages of planning to upgrade my fishfinder and I'm looking for wisdom and lessons learned.

I'm working on a Hobie Compass.  (This kayak has a sonar pod/plate built into the hull.)  I'm upgrading from 5" down scan; increasing to 7" side scan, downscan, gps.  I understand that I cannot use current sonar mount with side scan.  I've found just three options: 'fixed' transom/hulll mount, arm mount, or Berley Pro mod to my existing sonar mount. 

 I'm leaning heavily towards a Helix 7, but open to discussion of alternatives.

 

Mostly, I'm looking for lessons learned related to: 

 

-Transducer mounting issues - arm vs. some sort of hull mount; if arm, where do you prefer it....fore, aft, transom, etc; scotty vs ram vs diy....I'm currently torn about 50/50 between Berley Pro mount/cover at existing location and using an arm

-Display mounting - what worked best for you?

-Features - Lowrance vs Garmin vs Humminbird vs Raymarine, etc -- $50 for Navionics worth it?  Do you use visor?  Screen protector, etc.?

-Battery - My 9ah SLA have served me quite well -- but, I have doubts they'll do 10 hours once I add larger screen, SI, GPS, etc.  What size batteries do you use?  Do you have battery box?  COTS? DIY?  

-Pics would be most welcome

 

[J Francho]

I have a 5 and a 7, and a Compass.  I use the 5 more often than the 7.  It's just less clutter for me.  I opted for the arm from Yakattack.  I keep the battery in a dry bag under the seat. 

 

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-zzWV7q6/0/X2/i-zzWV7q6-X2.jpg

 

 

[CountryboyinDC]

This is with a 7 inch Lowrance Carbon HDS and a Totalscan transducer.  The best part about it is it comes off and goes on as one piece, using a box Yakattack sells.  I wouldn't want to tell you the benefits of this particular graph - I went into Cabelas wanting something like what you have and somehow walked out with this thing (it was on clearance, great deal I keep telling myself).  If you want the details, I can get those for you.

[Choporoz]

18 hours ago, CountryboyinDC said:

This is with a 7 inch Lowrance Carbon HDS and a Totalscan transducer.  The best part about it is it comes off and goes on as one piece, using a box Yakattack sells.  I wouldn't want to tell you the benefits of this particular graph - I went into Cabelas wanting something like what you have and somehow walked out with this thing (it was on clearance, great deal I keep telling myself).  If you want the details, I can get those for you.

I certainly love the all-in-one aspect of that.  Do you feel like you've compromised balance and stability by having the battery so high, and by having the ducer, cable, battery and graph all on one side?

[Hook2Jaw]

I run a Humminbird Helix 7 MSI G3, @Choporoz.  I have a Berleypro transducer cover and highly recommend it.  It's a balanced, space saving, and streamlined method of making the Lowrance ready system into a transducer setup capable of sidescan.

[Smalls]

My kayak has a sonar pod that everything fits nicely into. But if I didn’t have that, I’d for sure go with the cellblock route. It basically makes your graph/battery/transducer arm one easily removable piece.

 

I’d probably buy a camera bag or something similar to store/carry it while not on the kayak. 

[CountryboyinDC]

3 hours ago, Choporoz said:

Do you feel like you've compromised balance and stability by having the battery so high, and by having the ducer, cable, battery and graph all on one side?

On my Coosa HD, this is not a great setup, and the listing to one side is one of the reasons.  I have a light battery (the larger capacity Nocqua), and I think this setup might still be around 15 lbs.  On the Coosa HD, this setup also gets in the way of my paddlestroke unless I put the seat way back.

On my pedal drive, the listing is no issue.  It's a Predator, and the stability is significantly greater than on the Coosa HD.  On neither did I feel like the stability was compromised to the point I'd worry about it, but the Coosa has a tendency to "carve" when it's leaned (I put that in quotes, because I know what carving is, and calling what the Coosa does on edge carving would be stretching things bit), so it also veers off to the side as well.

I had a setup in mind much more like @J Francho has, but due to the combination of getting a more complex graph and transducer and finding that my transducer scupper would not accommodate most transducers (the cutout is tiny), this became the best solution for me.

If I were in your position, the option to use the Berley Pro might be be something I took into consideration before committing to a solution like I used.  That's a really good solution for side scan transducers.  If it were available for my kayak, I would probably rig mine so the battery and head unit came off separately and the rest stayed with the kayak.  There would be tradeoffs either way.

This is long, so I'll end with saying I think side scan is worth the expense as is GPS/plotting capability.  I think that you'll really find that you make a lot of use of it once you have it.