Setting up a canoe for fishing

[Jay S]

I just acquired a 17ft fiberglass canoe and am going to set it up as best I can for fishing.

Anyone have any advice or ideas for ways to rig it up (pics would be great if you have a canoe)?

How big of a trolling motor would be sufficient? I am a big guy and may have a big guy with me the label on the hull says it will float 700 lbs (not that I am going to try.)

[Goose52]

I just finished setting up my 12' canoe - it was covered in this thread: http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1262097737/16#16

Some of the gear on my canoe:

Trolling motor - MK Traxxis digital 45lb thrust

Outriggers

HB 570 sonar and transducer bracket mounted on a "dashboard"

3-rod rack

2 Scotty rod holders

Scotty anchor lock/mount

Folding seat-back

Forward mounted battery with a hard conduit for the 6ga power extension cables

Even with a 17' canoe, I would think any TM 30lb thrust or more would do in a pinch ... but more is probably better if you can afford it - maybe 45lb or larger - since you will have it loaded down a bit. My canoe (which only weighs 34lbs empty, probably about 275-300 lbs fully-rigged and with me in it) really moves out with the 45lb motor. Digital TMs are a bit spendy but will provide considerably more run-time than the 5-speeds. To keep the weight that I have to "manhandle" down - I went with a Group 24 battery instead of the larger Group 27. I've had more than 8 hours of run-time with the G24 and not come close to draining the battery. With your load however, you might want to consider the G27.

Let me know of you have any questions about how I rigged my canoe ...

[Fishing Rhino]

Here's another option.

But, you'll need to make some provision to access gear you might want to stow forward.  I tied a cord to my tackle box, and pushed it forward with the paddle.  The other gear I could reach.

If I had to do it again, I would make a rocket launcher type or rack so that the rods could be "stacked" leaving a space open to access gear.

The main thing to consider is the protection of the rods.  If you work along a shore with brush or overhanging branches, they can snag and easily break fragile rod tips.

In the photo, the tips are safely protected by the fore deck, though it is still possible for a branch to snag the lines in the photo.  Never happened, but within the realm of possibility.

Let your imagination run wild and customize your canoe to suit your tastes.

[shootermcbob]

Fishing Rhino and Goose52, those are two sweet looking rigs. Everytime i see your pics of your rigs, I get canoe ***.

[Goose52]

Fishing Rhino and Goose52, those are two sweet looking rigs. Everytime i see your pics of your rigs, I get canoe ***.

Thanks! "Lardbass" on this board had a nicely rigged Radisson canoe that was the inspiration for mine...

[Jay S]

Those are some nice set ups! I see I have a lot of planning to do.

Has anyone tried the Humminbird portable depth finder with sidescan. It costs a little over $100. Is this suffucient or should I go with a more permanent set up?

[Goose52]

You might want to start a new thread if you need assistence in selecting a sonar. Before you do that though, do a search in this forum - there have been LOTS of threads on sonars.

In general, you might want to consider a portable sonar if you don't plan on running a trolling motor all the time and may not have the TM battery on board. My sonar is an HB 570 portable. It came with a suction-cup transducer and an 8AH battery. I normally run it off the TM battery but have the option of running it off the small battery if I'm not running the TM.

On price ranges, if all you need is something that will give you depth and bottom contour, the lower-priced units will do. If you want more resolution, you'll need to go up a bit in price...

Also, you will need to give some thought to how & where you plan to mount your sonar transducer. Due to the contour of the outer hull of some canoes, sometimes the suction cup mounts may not work well. In my case, I bought a transducer arm that I mounted to my dashboard - this arm pivots and I can rotate the arm/transducer out of the water when I'm getting ready to beach the canoe.

[bassmedic46]

Those are great set ups.

[Goose52]

Those are great set ups.

Thanks!  Another photo...