Question re rail-mounted fish finders

I'm thinking of mounting a fish finder on a rail on the gunwale of a Revolution.  My question: what do you do with the base of the fish finder when you're transporting the kayak?  You can take rod holders off the rails with no problem, but there are wires running to the base.  Do you unplug the plugs from the base and take the base off the rail?  If so, how do you protect or strap down the plugs while transporting the kayak?  Could you leave the plugs plugged into the base and move the base to a short section of rail mounted in the foot well of the kayak, or inside the front hatch of the kayak?  Any ideas and recommendations would be appreciated.

I mount my fishfinder on one of the ram mounts fitted for the sail kit.  I just run the plugs for the finder under the front hatch.  When I'm done, I just throw the cables back in the hull.  I'm sure you could do something similar with a rail, you may just have to sort out some sort of clips to hold the cords.  As for the fish finder itself, I just pop it off and take it inside with me in the evening.

I have my fish finder mounted to some geartrax and used to do what cjb does, but have since switched it around.  I now have my wires running through a water tight fitting located near my hatch.  After I am done fishing I remove my head unit and tuck the wires under the bungee that holds the front hatch down.

I have the wires running out of the side pocket with the Hobie through wire kit. It's definitely the best design I've seen of running wires.

Like Ndoggy, I also have tracks and a ram arm allowing me to take the head unit off, then I tuck the wires just back into the side pocket completely out of the way. For storage of the unit, I currently keep it in a dry bag in the front hatch, but the plan is to get one of those adhesive ram balls to store it upside-down inside the hatch lid.

I run the cables under the front hatch on my Revo, and like others have installed GT90 GearTracs and use a RAM ball mount and arm with a FF base on the top. The FF simply unplugs from the base, I loosen the ball and lay the arm flat.  Cables remain.

Link to the GearTrac install:
http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=10534.msg117277#msg117277

If I were to do it over again, I'd mount the left rail a few inches farther aft.  But, I'm only 5'8" now.

I was just about to post a very similar question, maybe I should start a new thread a not hijack yours…
I am also looking at mounting my new sounder to a trac. Unless what I read is wrong, the TD for the Dragonfly must be in the water.
Has anyone had issues with the transducer being close to the Mirage Drive?
Or mounting the transducer on the same trac the head unit is on?

I cannot seem to find solid info, and will probably need to do my own testing.

My current plan is to adapt a Scotty 274 post mount, which is designed for Piranha fish finders, for my fish finder, and mount the fish finder base on it.  Then I will put the post mount in a Scotty 438 Gearhead Track Adapter which attaches to a Yak Attack wide gear track on the gunwale of my Revolution.  I will mount a four inch long section of gear track inside the cockpit of my kayak, within reach of the wires which run to the base of the fish finder.  At the end of the day I would take fish finder head off its base, and then take the Gearhead track adapter, post mount, and fish finder base off the gunwale and clamp it to the four inch long section of gear track mounted inside the cockpit, still attached to the kayak with the wires.  That would protect the fish finder base while I was transporting and storing the kayak.  If this works out as I have planned, I'll post pictures.

Thanks for your suggestions about how to protect the base of a fish finder when transporting the kayak.  I mount the base of my fish finder on a track on the gunwale of my Revolution, as shown below:



If I had installed my own through-the-hull fittings for the wires which run to the base of my fish finder, I would have installed the fitting in the front of the cockpit, near the front hatch, so I could store the base inside the front hatch when I was transporting the kayak.  However, the through-the-hull fitting installed in my 2014 Revolution in the factory is located in the mesh pocket, so I couldn't protect the base by putting it inside the front hatch unless I left a ridiculous amount of extra wire between the through-the-hull fitting and the base.  So to get the fish finder base off the gunwale when I'm transporting the kayak, I mounted a 4 inch long section of track in the cockpit of the kayak, and move the base of the fish finder down into the cockpit before transporting the kayak. 

 

To protect the plugs and contacts in the base from water and road dirt, I put a nylon bag over the base.