How To Put Fish Finder On Kayak

If you're not familiar with fishing electronics and fish finders, mounting a transducer inside your kayak can be a daunting task. Withal, it's like shooting fish in a barrel and unproblematic plenty!

Mounting a transducer inside of your kayak is fine. Clean the expanse thoroughly with alcohol and use waterproof silicone to adhere the transducer to the hull without air bubbles. Transducers can "shoot" through the plastic as long as there isn't an air infinite betwixt the transducer and plastic.

One time you decide to mountain your transducer inside the kayak, the side by side footstep is getting it washed! Here are my simplified steps to gluing a transducer within of your kayak's hull!

Let's get started!

How To Mucilage a Transducer Inside the Kayak Hull

The simplest style to mount your transducer is inside the kayak and accept information technology shoot through the hull. Ane caveat is once information technology's glued in place, you lot tin't motion it from kayak to kayak as easily if you demand or want to.

Photo of Transducer — _{Most transducers tin can exist mounted inside of a kayak}

Exist sure to remove the mounting base of operations or plates before gluing the transducer to the inside of the kayak.

The materials needed are quite simple, and most homes either have them on mitt already or are easily purchased at your local hardware or Home Depot, Menards, or Lowes.

Glue a Transducer Within a Kayak in 9 Easy Steps

Materials Needed: You'll want a pocket-size tube of waterproof silicone, a canteen of isopropyl alcohol or similar cleaner, make clean paper towels, a magic mark, and an optional sponge for rigidness and support.

Locate a spot for your transducer that is out of the mode of your anxiety and gear.
Dry fit your transducer cable to be sure they reach from the unit to the mounting spot.
Thoroughly make clean the mounting expanse with isopropyl alcohol or a similiar cleaner.
Utilise a magic marker to outline your transducer where it will be mounted.
Make full the expanse with a smooth layer of waterproof silicone going 1/4″ past the outline to ensure complete coverage.
Place a smooth layer of silicone onto the lesser of the transducer's surface.
Firmly press transducer into place while slightly rotating to ensure solid adhesion.
Exist extra careful. Practice non let whatever air bubles in silcone or it will interfere with performance!
Optional Step: Cut a hole in a sponge for the transducer to snugly fit in and silicone the sponge and transducer to the kayak hull for increased support and stability.

That'due south the elementary version of installing a transducer inside a kayak, and if you're skilful to go, that should serve you well.

Only in that location are more than to transducers than just sticking them into your kayak or beneath the waterline. Let's take a look at them, shall we?

Will a Transducer Piece of work on a Kayak

Transducers come up in many shapes and sizes. The size of the transducer volition increase once you go into the side-imaging, or fifty-fifty Livescope models and mounting places may become more difficult.

By and large speaking, all transducers volition piece of work on a kayak. Some transducers perform better mounted below or to the side of the kayak. Modest transducers are easier to mountain inside of the kayak. Since transducers can shoot through plastic or be mounted elsewhere, all transducers volition work on a kayak.

If you're looking for a basic fish finder to show you the lesser contours of the water yous're fishing, a small puck-blazon transducer will most likely fit your needs well.

With it, you can decide depth, find channels and old roadbeds that will concord fish, and even marker fish correct on your unit! Puck transducers can easily be mounted both within and exterior of the kayak.

The large side-imaging transducers can exist cumbersome to mount within your kayak. Since they need to shoot downward and to both sides of the kayak, and inside mount will not work every bit practiced every bit other mounts.

Larger-sized transducers are better served to be mounted outside of the kayak's hull, or some kayaks fifty-fifty have larger designed holes to mount them through. My ATAK 120 has a separate scupper hole for very big transducers!

Learn more about scupper holes in my article: What Are Holes in a Kayak For? Should You Plug Them?

What Is a Kayak Transducer

Since most kayaks are slightly smaller than their big-brother line-fishing boats, at that place are fewer places to mount a transducer on a kayak than on a larger boat.

Companies accept been quick, though, to develop specialized transducers and mounts for for kayaks.

A kayak transducer is the working part of a fish finder turning electrical impulses into sound waves and sending them through the water. One time these sound waves hit an object, they are reflected back to the transducer, turned into electrical impulses, and shown as objects below the water.

A kayak transducer is often smaller than other transducers designed for larger boats. Larger transducers generally accept many more than options than what a kayak fisherman needs or uses.

Today'due south mod anglers are opting to employ fish finders with side-imaging, the power to accept mapping SD cards (chips), and likewise chart and map-making abilities.

More stuff costs more money, correct? You can spend quite a bit more on higher-end units with all the bells and whistles, but a bones fish finder and transducer setup will practice you fine!

Where Should a Kayak Transducer Be Placed – 5 Options!

In that location are places a transducer will perform meliorate or need to be mounted to operate the way intended. Always mountain them in a spot they won't exist limited in their function.

The five most popular places to mountain a transducer in a kayak are the following: Through the hull, through the scupper holes, with an attached side-arm mount, with a portable suction cup mount, or a kayak specific mounting system. These mounts will provide excellent results and are easy to install.

I'll give y'all a quick breakdown of each and permit you make up one's mind which method fits your needs and the fish finder'due south transducer the best!

Through the Hull Mount

A popular place to mountain a transducer is through the hull. Nosotros reviewed gluing the transducer inside the kayak's hull with the 9 steps above. But you tin likewise place them through the hull too!

To mount a transducer straight through the hull, you lot are going to take to DRILL A HOLE IN YOUR KAYAK! YIKES!

Drilling holes into your kayak can be terrifying for some, and it doesn't seem like a skillful idea at first. If yous've never done it before, it's not that bad of a thing and tin can open many different modifications for you.

Check out my commodity on how to drill holes into your kayak! Tin Y'all Drill Into a Kayak? The Complete Guide!

When you mount your transducer to the outside of your kayak's hull, y'all volition need to run the transducer cable dorsum through to your fish finder.

The best and easiest way to do this is to attach your bracket to the kayak and run the wires back into it. A through-hull wiring kit comes with the needed parts to do this.

Hobie makes a quality through the hull wiring kit that can be used on well-nigh any kayak. The YakAttacks hull wiring kit is universal and will allow y'all to run wires and cables where you need them as well.

Compare them both on Amazon and cull the ane which fits your kayak best.

Through the Scupper Hole Mount

Transducers tin also be mounted through a scupper hole in your kayak pretty hands. Information technology'south actually a straightforward install.

Keep in heed when a scupper hole mount is used is used a transducer tin elevate along the rocks and sand if you go too shallow. It'south possible to damage the transducer this way.

The Lowrance Kayak Scupper Mount fits into standard scupper holes and does plug the hole.

_{Lowrance Scupper Pigsty Mounting Kit}

The Lowrance Scupper mounting kit works best with picks and skimmer-type transducers.

Side-Arm Mount

If I had to choose the 2nd-all-time way to mount a transducer to my kayak, information technology would be with the Scotty Transducer Mounting Arm!

This kit allows y'all to deck-mount the transducer on an arm that swings up and out of the way when needed. It can also be used with a gear rail that mounts on your kayak so you can run other fishing accessories as well.

_{Scotty Transducer Mounting Arm}

The kayak I currently fish out of has its own way to mount a fish finder and transducer which I adopt. But the side-arm mount is one of the most popular and piece of cake ways to mount a system onto your yak!

Speaking of "systems", Garmin and Scotty have a terrific kayak fish finder combo kit! Everything you'll demand to be out on the water checking depth, finding construction, and seeing fish!

For an inexpensive way to put a fish finder onto your kayak, complete with a mounting organization, the Garmin 4 complete with the Scotty mount is really tough to trounce!

The kit includes the Garmin Striker 4 with Transducer, 3.5″ GPS Fishfinder, and the Chirp transducer. The Scotty kayak transducer mounting arm is included for a elementary installation.

The Chad Hoover Side-arm Setup!

Kayak Bass Line-fishing and Bonafide Kayak Pro Staffer Chad Hoover has a terrific video of a setup he uses with a side-arm mount. Cheque information technology out beneath!

This would be the setup I utilise if I wasn't using a cocky-contained system!

Portable Suction Cup Mount

I wouldn't recommend the suction cup mount for a fishing kayak unless it's the concluding resort for you lot.

Suction cups demand to have a non-porous material to adhere to, and if you lot're dragging your kayak anywhere, y'all're going to take scratches.

These scratches will allow air below the suction loving cup, and you will lose all the suction power, and your transducer volition exist continually falling off.

Kayak Company Specific Mount

Many kayak companies have their own proprietary way of mounting electronics and accessories to customize your fishing experience and make their kayaks unique.

I fish from a Wilderness Sytems ATAK 120, and one of the options which stood out to me was their Flex Pod Organization. Information technology'south basically a large container to mount your fish finder (or other accessories) on superlative, with the bombardment housed within.

_{Wilderness Systems Flex Pod}

The Flex Pod System also held keep water away from the cable and power connections since the battery and cables are inside the Pod reducing the chances of electrical shorts.

More than information on waterproofing fish finders tin be establish in my article: Are Kayak Fish Finders Waterproof? (Yous Better Do This!)

The whole container can be removed from the kayak's hull past unclasping two cam attachments on either side and simply lifting the unit out when needed.

The transducer mounts on the lesser of the Flex Pod and is a totally self-contained arrangement. When I travel, I tin pull information technology from the kayak and shop information technology behind my truck seat to swallow or fuel the truck up when traveling!

Mounting a transducer is an easy task in one case you lot sympathize the options bachelor to you lot.

Have fun and stay safe out at that place!