fishfinder mounting

Hi All,

I have read through all the posts I can find regarding fishfinder mounting and I can not find the information I want to hear/read.  I just purchased a Humminbird Matrix fishfinder.  I can find no good way to mount it on my Prowler 13 ... there are no flat surfaces that are large enough for the standard Matrix mount.  The best option at this stage looks like getting a Scotty fishfinder post bracket and somehow making an adaptor plate of some sort.

Any suggestions?

Thanks, Sean

There is not great way to do it, eveyone doesn't different. If you mount it too close to you, you can't scoot up to get into a forward hatch. If you mount it too far forward it's hard to adjust, easily.

I would mount it to a mounting bracket that comes in and out of a mount on the kayak. I use a scotty and they have external mounts and flush mounts. There are lots of other systems. I saw one, on one of these forums, a guy called a ghetto mount. It was a board that went across his cockpit (closer to his feet) that attached to some pad eyes on both sides. You could even put aluminum or stainless slider rails to move it back and forth.

http://www.rhynobar.com

This product kicks ass.



MolBasser

I use my Hummingbird Pirhana 1 in its portable configuration.  That entire mounting is secured to the forward cupholder.  
sb

This 2x4 kicks ass and only costs $1

Nice!

Now go to Frys an get youself a rechargable 12v battery and save a ton of money over those lantern batteries.  They cost about $25

MolBasser

$5/pair isn't bad.  I've got it down to 1 lantern battery and a DC/DC converter now.  Already lost one pair to a bad landing too...

$5 a pair?

Where do you get that deal?  They're like 5 each where I shop.

MolBasser

Josh has the GhettoBar...  

and from the looks of it he also has the matching ghetto paddle and rod leash set

I saw one, on one of these forums, a guy called a ghetto mount. It was a board that went across his cockpit (closer to his feet) that attached to some pad eyes on both sides. You could even put aluminum or stainless slider rails to move it back and forth.

Duane (fishingmasterbaiter) has a nice plastic bar that slides.  Very nice set up.

They're behind the fishing section at my wal-mart.  They're something like $4.50 singly, but there's a twopack for about 5 bucks  I just ripped off the top of the twopack and taped it between 4 6" deck screws into my ghettobar...  Often the two-packs are sold out though.  

IME, the ocean tries to take or kill anything it touches, so I try to keep stuff simple and cheap, then replace as needed without anguish.  A nicer paddle is on my wish-list though, but it's one level down from a dive-light and a marine radio on the priority list.

One suggestion from Charles at the Seattle West Marine (who hopefully will join here shortly as he's an avid kayak fisherman) is to buy a marine flashlight that has a rechargeable 12V battery inside.  You get a charger built into the flashlight, a battery that can be remove to power your electronics, and you can plug the battery back into your flashlight if you ever need light.  But you can't get light AND power your electronics at the same time as you physically have to remove the battery, although I'm sure someone here would be industrious to enough to figure out how to make that work.

Note that I didn't go this route as I wasn't sure if the built in battery was large enough to power my electronics for a full day.  He claimed it could power a FF/GPS unit for ~5-6 hours.

-Allen

Sounds cool Allen, you have a link to a model like you described?

I also have a wind up led flashlight that I try to pack when I go out.

I wasn't paying much attention as he lost me once I starting thinking there wasn't enough juice.  A quick search on the West Marine site found this ... http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=10001&productId=232817&catalogId=10001&classNum=586&subdeptNum=235&storeNum=9

$27 ... not bad.  But it isn't waterproof.  The battery was probably half the size of the 7Ah battery I picked up.  I'm guessing it was 3-4 Ah.

-Allen