Fish finder advice

[Drjay168]

I have a 2002 sea doo utopia. Looking to install a fish finder. Reading back and forth between in the haul or outside transducer. would like your input on your expieriences and recomendations of fish finder and transducer. I dont know where to start i guess. I hear stories of in haul transducers being inaccurate, but would rather not drill holes. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[biffdotorg]

Test it. That's all there is to it. Most of us that were looking for a thru-hull location tested the transducer on a bag of water in the ski locker.

You put down a ziplock bag of water, set the transducer on the bag upright and put something heavy on top. Or get a friend to hold it.

Then fire up the boat and see how fast you can go before you lose signal. Mine works up to about 45-48mph indicated. And when fishing, it's very accurate and can detect bottom structure as well. Once the location was determined, you put down a small pool of marine epoxy and place it in there carefully as to no get bubbles between the transducer and the epoxy on the hull.

Keep in mind, this is not thru-hull in the true sense. This is shoot-thru-hull. A true thru-hull is drilling through and using epoxy to seal. The transducer is still outside the hull.

Good luck,

 

[Drjay168]

Test it. That's all there is to it. Most of us that were looking for a thru-hull location tested the transducer on a bag of water in the ski locker.

You put down a ziplock bag of water, set the transducer on the bag upright and put something heavy on top. Or get a friend to hold it.

Then fire up the boat and see how fast you can go before you lose signal. Mine works up to about 45-48mph indicated. And when fishing, it's very accurate and can detect bottom structure as well. Once the location was determined, you put down a small pool of marine epoxy and place it in there carefully as to no get bubbles between the transducer and the epoxy on the hull.

Keep in mind, this is not thru-hull in the true sense. This is shoot-thru-hull. A true thru-hull is drilling through and using epoxy to seal. The transducer is still outside the hull.

Good luck,

I appreciate you taking your time to respond. What model finder and transducer are you using.

 

[biffdotorg]

I use a Lowrance X-4 Pro. I wanted a DSI model, as they were just getting affordable when I bought mine years ago. But when I found out I would loose Downward scan and temp if I used shoot-thru-hull, I gave up on that idea and bought a nice sonar only model.

Honestly, I could not justify a $100 digital Hawkeye gauge in the dash, when this lowrance was within $10 of it. In fact, I think I got it on sale at Fleet Farm for under $100. And i can see bottom structure and fish.

On my next boat, I will take the time to mount the transducer outside and be able to utilize temp/DSI. GPS would be nice as well on new lakes. I use the Navionics app on my phone constantly when fishing walleyes. I am usually searching for breaks that I can drift on the map as like most, I have no trolling motor.

Good luck!

 

[kimber_shaye]

Hey, I wanted to testify that you really don't lose much performance in the downward scan and temperature when using the in hull mount because the fiber glass on these boats are high performance and thin.

I installed my fish finder in my Jet-Ski and have great results. My brother is a semi-pro bass fisher and marine mechanic. He helped me install it and he personally installs all his fish finders In-Hull.

He and I co-wrote a blog post detailing why in-hull is preferable in small boats and how to complete the installation on a PWC. Depth Finder Mount on 2016 Yamaha VX Deluxe WaveRunner

 

[RON@COMMONWEALTHUSA.NET]

will in hull work with Garmin 93SV that uses side view as well as down view?