Portable fish finder recommendations

I'm new to kayak fishing.  I've decided to turn my sit in old town dirigo into a fishing yak.  I am hesitant on drilling my yak and installing a permanent fish finder (though I'm not opposed to it).  I plan to fish lakes and rivers.  Recommendations on a portable fish finder would be greatly appreciated.

You can do in-hull transducer mount. Look around YouTube, plenty of info on kayak fishfinder installation.

i'm going to assume because it's a 10 foot kayak that you don't intend to use it in the ocean?  You won't need GPS if you're using it on small bodies of water. I would post in this websites wanted to buy section and look for something  $100 or less.  I also might suggest black-and-white and an older model as you're likely to get a bigger screen and it's likely to be very affordable. Then mount that thing forward if your cockpit goop the screw holes and shoot your transducer through hull. The above set up will show you structure  and depth.  Then all you need is a 12 V battery in a box secured somewhere out-of-the-way where it won't move around. You're looking at four small screw holes there are ways to do it without drilling but there's a reason you don't see that very often.

I created one a while ago.  I just got a suction cup transducer mount, then mounted the actual head unit to a battery box, and ran all the wiring inside of the battery box, then bungeed it to my deck (that was on an i9 inflatable).  It worked OK, as suction cup mounts are not the best in the world.  i think you could build your own self contained unit with a transducer arm as well, but you would still need to find a way to mount it.

The thing with portables are they kind of suck.  You can do it yourself pretty easily though with pretty much any fish finder.  Just have to figure out how to mount it, route the wires, mount the transducer somehow and then waterproof your battery (or battery pack).

I googled up some images of your kayak for some ideas on where to mount. Looks like a cup holder and a hatch up front on the ones I saw.  You could make a sort of mount that fits that cup holder with foam like pool noodle.  You could mount directly to that lid of the hatch, or maybe use a piece of wood mounted in the webbing up on the front of your yak.

For mounting the transducer, duct seal is an easy way to do it, can easily be re-done, moved, removed, etc.  Only costs about 3$ for the duct seal. 

For a battery you can use things like a 12v drill battery to start, or get a 10X AA holder, or go with a SLA battery.  Whatever the case you can temporarily protect it from water using just a gallon sized zip lock and some electrical tape.  Or go a step further and use some tupperware to contain it. 

Here is a pic of a camera mount I made once to fit my cup holder for an example:





Here is a link to when I first started using Duct Seal for the transducer:

http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=37264.msg403432#msg403432

Here is a pic of the SLA battery I used in a gallon zip-lock for almost a year:

Thanks everyone.  The responses have been very helpful.  It's allowed me to churn additional ideas on how I should rig a fish finder.  I've also started to read up on fish bluetooth capable fish finders that conncet to a cell phone i.e.the Deeper and Fish Hunter products.  Has anyone had experience with these and are they worth the money?

 Here is a link to a discussion about the Deeper unit not too long ago:

http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=71905.0
Oli,
If you use the search function  on the upper right-hand corner of the forum page you're on now you may get a result for the other unit you mentioned.  I think that the general consensus was that they're cool but just kind of a novelty. I didn't read the whole thread I think a pretty reasonable conclusion was come to pretty quickly.
          Regards, Amos

Lowrance makes a portable unit or you can use aYakAttack mount with an arm over the side.  Super simple.  Don't over think it.

Lowrance makes a portable unit or you can use aYakAttack mount with an arm over the side.  Super simple.  Don't over think it.

this...  Super simple.  Don't over think it.

You mean this thing?  http://www.amazon.com/Lowrance-000-11673-001-Elite-3X-Season-Portable/dp/B00L9N3OCS

Pretty much looks like junk to me. 

There is always the diy scupper hole transducer mount. I'm to scared to try out the portables, or the Bluetooth to the phone fish finders. Don't wanna advertise for brands, but a simple search for 2016 editor's choice:  Top fish finders for kayaks. I am also shopping for one myself. Please keep us posted on what you choose.

There is always the diy scupper hole transducer mount. I'm to scared to try out the portables, or the Bluetooth to the phone fish finders. Don't wanna advertise for brands, but a simple search for 2016 editor's choice:  Top fish finders for kayaks. I am also shopping for one myself. Please keep us posted on what you choose.

problem is his kayak is a sit inside, so no scuppers.  it can be difficult to figure these things out for kayaks that aren't made for fishing.  Also fun though.

Woops! My bad.. OK  a diy portable transducer bracket or one at cabellas for 40 bucks.

Thank you all for all the helpful input.  I'll be staying away from the new bluetooth technologies and leaning toward the already proven brand names in fish finding.  I guess it's a visit to the bass pro shop this weekend to take a look at finders and potential setups for my to be converted sit in kayak.  I'm looking forward to the experience.