Raymarine Dragonfly, Wowed today.

I am due for an upgrade and leaning heavily on the Raymarine Dragonfly.  I had a chance to play with it at my local WM compared to other brands on display and was very impressed.  The controls are simple to use and the screen is about 5 and 3/4 inches diag. I was short on time and could not get the sonar display to come out just like its commercials. One thing that that sticks out is The Raymarine Dragonfly transducer is big but this not a concern since there's plenty of space inside the hull.

I fish 70% saltwater and the rest trying for trout at Bay Area lakes.  I do a lot of surf launches and ruled out an external transducer arm mount.

Does anybody have first hand experience with a water bath/shoot through hull install with its transducer?

Thanks,  Mel

SBD has a post somewhere on how he mounted his. I just read it yesterday.

Yeah but Sean has a Cuda so it was a scupper mount. 
SteveS also has one but I don't know how he has it mounted - arm?

I'm leaning towards the dragonfly but will be doing a scupper mount as well.

SBD has a post somewhere on how he mounted his. I just read it yesterday.

http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=47164.msg524437#msg524437

They look awesome but that seems like a lot of coin to get beat up in the surf zone.

Let us know how it works out for you if you get one.

-Eliot

Sean's post did mention this:

"CGN- I am sure this transducer WILL shoot thru."

FWIW, Raymarine customer service says no, but you'd have to try yourself.

Having the scupper transducer is the primary reason I bought a 2014 Revo 13.  I just wanted to stop messing with all of the goop/water bath/all that other stuff and I didn't want an arm.  Having those items in the hull was a PITA since i like to stash things in there and i kept knocking the transducer out of place.

But Mel, if i do end up getting a dragonfly, I might be able to let you try it out first to see how it does with a shoot thru - just let me know.  I plan to order by end of week but still deciding between dragonfly and elite 5/7.  one of the online distributors sells the dragonfly gold for like $550 with no tax charged.

Looks some folks say shoot through hull works:

https://www.facebook.com/kayakfishingshow/posts/10151722522039019

http://swamppro.blogspot.com/2013/05/raymarine-dragonfly-fishfinderchartplot.html

Looks some folks say shoot through hull works:

https://www.facebook.com/kayakfishingshow/posts/10151722522039019

http://swamppro.blogspot.com/2013/05/raymarine-dragonfly-fishfinderchartplot.html

I called Raymarine Customer Service and was told this unit does not work shoot through hull.  I don't know what to believe now.

The high frequency ranges used for that type of "imaging" are hampered by the hull material.  I can tell a difference running my Lowrance HDI ("imaging" frequency of 455/800) in-hull of my vkayak vs. in the water on my pontoon boat.  It is my understanding that Lowrance will tell you "no" as well for running in-hull because it won't give you the same performance.  I have not, myself, called Lowrance to ask the tech team if it will work "in-hull".  I have not run the Dragonfly in a real-world scenario but I believe there is some test data out there from those who have.

For what its worth....

Looks some folks say shoot through hull works:
https://www.facebook.com/kayakfishingshow/posts/10151722522039019
http://swamppro.blogspot.com/2013/05/raymarine-dragonfly-fishfinderchartplot.html

I called Raymarine Customer Service and was told this unit does not work shoot through hull.  I don't know what to believe now.

Yeah but are they talking about the hull of a boat? Or an eighth-of-an-inch thick plastic?

Looks some folks say shoot through hull works:
https://www.facebook.com/kayakfishingshow/posts/10151722522039019
http://swamppro.blogspot.com/2013/05/raymarine-dragonfly-fishfinderchartplot.html

I called Raymarine Customer Service and was told this unit does not work shoot through hull.  I don't know what to believe now.

Yeah but are they talking about the hull of a boat? Or an eighth-of-an-inch thick plastic?

I installed the unit on my Hurricane Aquasports Skimmer 128 and used a marine silicone to glue the transducer in the hull. The Dragonfly mounted great on my kayak using the supplied swivel mount that the head unit can be easily removed from.

This theiry, though it sounds backwards, does hold up.  Transducers will transmit through water because it can conduct the high frequency signal.  Solid fiberglass hulls transmit this signal well, though thicker than a kayak hull.  Plastic kayak hulls "dampen" the sound & can slightly alter the frequency during this dampening.  I believ eit is also a rule of thumb that transducers have the same issue with wooden hulls (a no-no for in-hull transducers) and foam cored hulls due to the dampening of the signal created by micro air pockets within the foam.  All my understanding of this.  I'll see if I can pull the technical data on this from the Airmar site.

Bill

Here's what I found while researching Airmar 'In-Hull' transducer installation:

CAUTION: The fiberglass hull below the transducer
must be solid. The transducer will not transmit through
coring material such as foam or balsa wood.

Don't mean to bring an old thread back, but I was wondering if anyone had tried mounting this on the RAM transducer arm? I've been looking at picking up a CellBlok and one of these then mounting the transducer on the RAM transducer arm. I don't know if that would work though.