Fish Finder Help

http://www.lowrance.com/Products/Marine/Mark-Elite-Series/Elite-5/

Jason,

That may be a better choice over the M68 or the cuda's as they don't have interchangeable chart chips and their built in charts may not include Lower California.

And if you do do the Elite-5 ff/gps make sure he gets the right chartcards to go with it.

he's new to yak fishing, but he's doen plenty of regualr fishing. I wouldn't call him a junky or anything or else I'm sure he'd have a FF in mind.

can't really figure him out honestly. He's doing a self guided baja kayak fishing trip, which leads me to believe he has some know how, be it kayaking or fishing, but it doesn't really appear that way.

all I know is that he's willing to pay someone quite a bit to get him all set up....and I can work with that.

who does a self-guided trip to Baja but has someone they don't even know set up their yak?  By no means is it someone who is really "into" fishing.  In the hunting realm, that would be like letting someone else buy your boots and sight in your rifle

Welcome to my world. I just try to provide the best info I can and ask "what color would you like?"

Is he fishing the Sea of Cortez or the Salt?
Will he be mother-shipping or beach launching?
How many rods is he taking?
How much gear will he be toting?

I'd love to take a crack at pimping this ride if I just knew where he was going.

Come to think of it, this would have been a great opportunity for the PDX crew to go ape $#!T on the pimping if there was more time, we knew how he was going to use it and we had an unlimited budget.  We could do our own version of Orange County Choppers.   

dude if we only had more time. that would be fun to do with a group over many beers. I'm not 100% sure exactly what/how he's doing things. I basically just took a list o' stuff he wanted on his boat, briefly discussed set up etc.

every detail I try and pry is basically met with: "I don't know it's up to you."

Since I don't really know what he's doing, I'm setting it up standard angler addition style. nothing super creative going on here, just a basic set up.

don't laugh, but I'm putting a ram 5 rod holder up front with 1xfly holder 1x caster, one cup holder, one cell phone holder. FF on it's own mount up fron & center, and an anchor trolley on the side w/ a cleat. he's got a tackle bag behind the seat w/ 4 tube holders, so no flushmounts on back. It's pretty basic, I just don't have any experience with FF or installing them, but I guess we have that covered through other guys here.

I'm pretty sure with that set up he's not going for 250# marlin or anything. and really, I think if he's able to get out and cast his fly it will be good enough, he's just like a kid in a candy store right now, and I don't have time really to do anything any different than what he wants.

as I'm sure most of you guys know, normally I have no problem "suggesting" other/better ways to do things, but this one is a unique case.

http://www.lowrance.com/Products/Marine/Mark-Elite-Series/Elite-5/

that looks like something he would like. I'll tout that one for fancy-pantsness, and the cuda 350 for user friendliness.

thanks fellas!

Speaking as the original kayak pimp,   (ahhh, have you seen my flush mounted fish finder circa 1996?) you really ought to fit him to the boat. In fact, it really would not be a bad idea to have him come in for a fitting. Your laughing (or at least you should be) but good mounts vary a lot according to the fisherman's height.

Sit him in the boat and check his reach and his stroke swing to get the optimal mounting positions. You should also get him moving around on the boat to make sure that cleat does not stab him as its raked over his body when the boat passes him in the surf. Same for the varied and sundry fittings for the anchor trolley etc.

You never mentioned what boat you sold him, but if he's not 6'1"+ that fancy schmancy FF/GPS may be out of reach and with all those features, you gotta be able to push buttons.
(sounds like you might be going a tad overboard with 5 rodholders up front though)

I am aware of the challenges with this one. He's getting a OK torque (what else?!), and after I pick the boat up for him in Washington and get it back to the shop, he's bringing in all the hardware at which point I will be installing things per his fit.

I've done tons of installs, just not the FF. What I've learned with my own limited rod holder use is that, the swivel extender is a must for anything mounted forward of the cockpit. being able to move it out of the way while paddling...pedaling...or motoring I guess and then move it closer to fish with is a must. I hear ya on that one for sure.

The price you pay, besides $55/hour labor, for someone else rigging your boat is that you don't get to figure out where things work best for you before you install.

Trust me, I do everything I can to dissuade people from having me customize your kayak, because in the end, it turns out the way I like it, but maybe not the way you like it! Mostly I just don't like to do it though drilling/cutting holes in other peoples boats is always a little stressful.

He's getting a OK torque (what else?!), and after I pick the boat up for him in Washington and get it back to the shop, he's bringing in all the hardware at which point I will be installing things per his fit.

Seems like he should have just bought a panga.

Just make sure you get him one of these:

 


That way he can just push a button and it'll make it a lot easier to find the body.

HA HA HA HA. Oh that's great. almost peed myself.

I should install an On-Star button for a direct link to the CC.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.

Come to think of it, this would have been a great opportunity for the PDX crew to go ape $#!T on the pimping if there was more time, we knew how he was going to use it and we had an unlimited budget.  We could do our own version of Orange County Choppers.   

I think I smell a wonderful activity for our Thursday PDX crew meet up! 
INSAYN, bring some tools!   
Let's all grab some pizza, head on down to Alder Creek and put together a fish-killin' machine!
 

It would be much less stressful cutting holes in another persons boat after several beers.

It would be fun. I'll talk to him tomorrow and see if I can get a better grasp of what he's doing.

I'm pretty sure it's fly fishing & light gear type stuff, maybe some top water trolling. but I don't think anything is real serious or specific. Sounds to me like whatever he does is going to be low key, and I don't think the focus of his trip is fishing.

I think these are more for entertainment value/something to do while in Baja. Now that I look at my notes, he's staying at a resort, rather than yakfishcamping like I said earlier.

I chose the 5 piece rod holder because it's just one forward mount for all that crazy stuff he wants up there. I figured since he doesn't really know what he wants, and I don't really know how serious he's into kayak fishing, that would be the easiest thing to do so he could change it up later. Don't like the 5 piece holder? pop it out and put in a one piece, and mount the other stuff where you see fit.

Really it's pretty simple, but I got confused by the tons of RAM products and what worked with what and whatever, and I've never used RAM, and the fish finder is new to me and will gladly accept help/advice/suggestions.

So all I have to do is one base mount up front, one anchor trolley on the side, and......the fishfinder. Shouldn't be bad.

Pimping a yak would be a pretty fun thing to do as a group event. I'll try and think of a way to convince the boss to let us have our way with a yak. Maybe a donation of some kind to a charitable org.

have a customer looking for a Fish Finder for his baja trip.
Specifically "the best money can buy" for kayak fishing.

As I've never used one, I have no idea what to recommend. Using a chart and your noodle sisn't seem appealing to him

I need your suggestions ASAP! From what I've gleened here on old posts, hummingbird 383c might be a good choice.

He is shipping a kayak to Baja?!  Guy is willing to spend some bucks to get what he wants. 

If he really is of the "best money can buy" mindset, then perhaps an Humminbird 787ci or some such?  FF/GPS, internal GPS antenna, dual beam FF with various views, all the basic GPS functions and more, accepts Navionics' chips if he wants to spring for one.  Don't know if this is true of the OK Torque, but the transducer fits in an OK T13A scupper, OK supplies a battery bag with T13A, both of which make the installation easier.  

I have some photos and description of using RAM products with a Scotty mount to mount a FF at: http://www.demonick.com/kayak/FF.GPS/mount.html

Some ideas for you:

- Add a solar trickle charger to the deck for recharging the batteries so he won't have to pull it out each night.
- Mount the transducer with Epoxy so he doesn't have to think about it at all while on vacation.
- Consider using an articulated arm for the FF so he can play with the pretty buttons easily while on the water.
- Install a seperate 7amp hour battery for the FF (don't use the one for the motor as this could created some unwated visual noise)
- Install an "Oh shit" switch (preferably with a cap) that will switch the fish finder batter over to the motor in case he finds himself "stranded" 100yds offshore with a dead drive battery.

-Spot-

already sold him everything I have in the shop, but appearantly if you spend enough money at alder creek, you get me as a personal shopper

He's out of town, and I've got to get his boat completely set up for a baja fish trip, boats getting trucked down from PDX to Baja on the 10th of feb.

It's up to me to get EVERYTHING dialed on his boat....and I no nothing about FF.

It's all me on this one, and I need a FF recommendation!

I'd just put an Eagle Cuda 350 on it and call it a day.  You can get more high tech and spend more money for color, chart-plotter and more Watts but in the hands of a novice angler its a lot like putting hubcaps on a tractor.

I guess ram doesn't make a mount for the cuda 350....just the 250.....what's the difference?

I guess ram doesn't make a mount for the cuda 350....just the 250.....what's the difference?

Same base, shouldn't be a problem.

after lots of phone calls to ram, I got it all worked out. he went cuda 350.

Thanks everyone for the input.