Fish finder help

[Capital outdoorsman]

I fish from a canoe mostly and currently use a bottomline fishin buddy. I want to upgrade to something better. How can you set up a more advanced model (usually on regular boats), on a canoe? What do you need?

[sauguy]

several members of our canoe club use hummingbird smartcast models. as far as the permanent type, you will need to mount a transducer, a battery and the unit itself. seems like a lot of work for a small portable craft like a canoe. good luck on your project.

[freyedknot]

cabelas sells a mount that clamps on to your boat for a semi permanent mount.

[Ken G]

I had an extra Eagle 128 that I mounted on my sit on top kayak. I mounted a base from an Atwood rod holder to the kayak and then modified the mounting pin from the rod holder and bolted/glued it to the sonar bracket.

I used Marine "Goop" to glue the transducer to the bottom of the kayak shooting through the plastic hull. For power I use a 12 volt 7 amp hour sealed lead acid battery from Radio Shack but you can also use dry cell batteries connected in series to get enough voltage to power your unit. Plug everything in and you are in business. The sonar unit and battery can be removed in 30 seconds and the wires and transducer stay in the hull.

I didn't want to spend too much money on a high end sonar since their is a good chance it will get wet either from paddle drip or dumping over. I also use the kayak in saltwater so that also shortens the life span of the unit.

[Sleprock]

i lost the bracket off my fishing buddy so i tore it apart and epoxed the transducer to the bottom of my plastic canoe under the built in cooler, it works about as good as it did before.your fishing buddy has all the parts in it you just have to break the plasitic pole. the epoxy worked better than caulk. i eventually just hooked it into my 12 volt tm battery. the transducer shoot thru the hull tough.

the big improvement was being able to leave ff out and on when going thru creeks shallows rocks, and on a lake the fish finder pole added drag shooting thru the plastic it added no drag.

[Capital outdoorsman]

Thanks for the replies.