NorthWest Kayak Anglers
Kayak Fishing => Drillin' & Cuttin' => Topic started by: Tinker on September 25, 2017, 01:13:23 PM
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I had a Lowrance HOOK that I used for my Trident 11, but now that I'm on the trail of a Trident 13, I'm looking for a second fish finder for it, and before I go off half-cocked (as I usually do) I thought I'd ask what fish finders other Trident owners are using.
And are there other manufacturers that offer transducers that fit the Trident 13 transducer scupper pocket?
(The T13 will be my saltwater kayak)
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I'm using a Lowrance 4-elite HDI. I elected to use the magnetic side-mount through the hull. Made a frame out of a piece of bread board with a hole just bigger than the inside magnet and rivited a velcro strap to hold the magnet in place straight below the handle. on the right side. I didn't like the drag of the scotty side mount (have one for sale if anyone wants) and made a thin but strong bracket out of strap steel. Turn on the unit, paddle out and grab the transducer by the magnet and hold it to the side and it snaps into place attached to the inside magnet. If I hook a piece of kelp it flutters off held by the cable and I just put it back If I came to shore a little hot it just knocks it off. I zip the cable to the back of the strap steel and get good pictures.
Just wish I knew what they meant. ???Thinking about starting a tutorial thread of screen shots. WorkHard had some good advice on an earlier post but I don't want to steal the OK 13 placement thread.
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Thanks, T13! I've been watching your posts about that mounting system since your first post about it way back when, and I'm keeping it in mind. But if I can fit a transducer into the molded pocket, that's the way I'd like to go.
I've been tooling around in rivers and lakes and ponds and the ocean all year, and I had to learn a thing or two about adjusting Lowrance finders and what those scrabbly things on the screen display mean. You can play around a lot in simulation mode and get a feel for what changes when you change something. Just FYI.
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I believe westmarine had a good sale going on the Hook4, if that sways you either way. I am in a similar conundrum now in that I have a WS ATAK with a removable pod that I have my Elite4 Chirp, lowrance transducer, power cable, mount, etc permanently attached to. I just purchased a Hobie and plan to keep the ATAK for now, so I either need a new complete unit, or buy a new transducer, power cable and mount. Its pretty close in cost to just buy another complete hook-4 rather than piece together it all.
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If it helps the decision, the combination of a new Lowrance transducer and power cable, so you can move a head unit between kayaks, comes to about $160 - maybe a bit less if you shop carefully.
That makes buying a transducer/power cable close to the cost of a whole new unit.
Thanks for the heads-up.
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This looks pretty interesting and I could see ways to make it more permanent if you needed it:
http://www.unluckyhunter.com/2013/01/how-to-install-fish-finder-in-ocean.html (http://www.unluckyhunter.com/2013/01/how-to-install-fish-finder-in-ocean.html)
I’d use a piece of plastic from a breadboard other than the aluminum but otherwise I might take a hard look myself. One less set of wire to crawl back in over.
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If it helps the decision, the combination of a new Lowrance transducer and power cable, so you can move a head unit between kayaks, comes to about $160 - maybe a bit less if you shop carefully.
That makes buying a transducer/power cable close to the cost of a whole new unit.
Thanks for the heads-up.
Even more so, you could get a Hook-4x with the HDI transducer. It has an MSRP of 170. If you don't need downscan it goes down to 145 MSRP.