Accessory Bar for Fish Finder/Best Setup for Fish Finder Transducer

[ACGOG]

Morning!

 

My DIY trolling motor on my Coosa HD came out pretty awesome but I have a ton of extra stuff everywhere that I'd like to clean up, the primary culprit being my fish finder. Currently I'm running it in my center gear track utilizing the transducer scupper hole that's built into the Coosa.

Not shown is the transducer cable, which is what, 10ft long to go a whopping foot down. I moved my seat up to deal with the steering pedals better (might move it back, need to do more testing) and the FF has become very cumbersome in that spot as a result.

 

Because of the DIY nature of the trolling motor I've been getting recommended a lot of YT videos of people's tournament setups and a lot of them have this bar or mounting system or something that goes across their bow right before the hatch for their fish finders that I can't seem to find anywhere. On top of that, it doesn't seem like a single one of them has any issues with a huge transducer cable or location (they may just be running them into the hatch, but then where's the transducer?):

I'm not sure if this is specific to a certain brand of kayak though.

 

The FF is a tripleshot as well so the transducer doesn't sit completely in the dedicated hole. I have to be very cognizant of how shallow the water is so I don't rip it off, which is another issue as a lot of the rivers here in TX are very low and I have to drag the yak across rocks sometimes. Hobie has dedicated covers for them but Jackson currently doesn't for the Coosa that I can see. As of now I don't get a ton of value out of the side-scan and figured I could buy the smaller transducer, but then I'm losing out on one of the benefits of having a tripleshot. I've seen some transducer mounts for trolling motors but I'm not using the motor all the time and would like to avoid that if possible. I also get in and out of my kayak quite a bit and don't want anything mounted to the side, especially since the next thing I'm doing is adding a small track so the PWM will be mounted directly next to my seat.

 

I've looked around and I don't see a transducer with a shorter cable, and all the research I've done says that cutting the cable and crimping/soldering it back together to make it shorter is a very bad idea. Putting it into the hull itself won't work for the tripleshot either, and if I were to do that I might as well just use the dedicated scupper hole to get more accurate temp readings since I'd need to buy the smaller, flat transducer anyways.

 

Sorry for the long winded post. I'm pretty happy with how everything is turning out and I'm very close to finishing up my kayak and this is the next problem to solve.

 

TL;DR: What is the bar mounted system for fish finders some anglers are using? What do I do with the extra transducer cabling?

[Jig Man]

The electronics guys that I use coil the wire and zip tie it.

[MN Fisher]

^ Being an electrical/electronics guy - that's exactly what to do. Coil the excess up and zip-tie it...make sure to leave it loose...don't make it tight.

[Bankc]

You can theoretically cut it and shorten the length of the transducer cable, but it's not an easy job to do without messing it up.  There's some shielding and impedance issues to worry about.  So most people recommend not doing that and just coiling the cable and tying it up with a zip tie. 

 

As for the mounting bar, that looks like a Hobie H-Rail.  I believe you can buy one that's too long and then cut it down to size.  It looks like the side mounting pieces are secured to the cross bar with screws, so I don't see why you couldn't shorten one down with a hacksaw and redrill the screw hole.  You might have to tap the hole as well.  You'll also need access to the inside of your kayak to mount the H-rail.  

[Boomstick]

On 12/4/2023 at 6:54 AM, Jig Man said:

The electronics guys that I use coil the wire and zip tie it.

That’s what I did with mine. You can stuff the excess cable in a dry bag under tour seat or in the hull