Portable Fish Finder for Native 14.5 solo

Looking for some advice here. I looked in the the drilling and cutting section and didn't see anything that made sense for me...I have 2 yaks, one here and one on the east coast, both Native 14.5 solo's...

I tried clamping my old fishing buddy 2 to the side of my yak in the Willamette the other day and the long shank wobbled like crazy in the current.

I hope to not drill or cut anything since I would like to shuttle this unit back and forth in my carry on also...

So is there possibly one decent product you could recommend that either clamps to the side of my yak, I have skinny rails like a canoe, or mounts into a scotty rod holder receiver. In a perfect world the transducer would suction cup to the side of the yak below the water line?

Any thoughts would be appreciated, oh and it does go in the salt...

thanks
JT

I'm partial to RAM mounts myself.  They have a ball that mounts into a scotty receiver and you could use that with a B or C length arm (all 1" ball) and that would make your sonar very portable and adjustable.  To go along with this, I would suggest a foam puck style mount for your 'ducer.

Just my $.02

This site might offer some alternatives:

http://www.madfroggear.com/

Yakinitup's idea would be a good solution for fast interchangability.

doug

Thanks for the advice and links. I have the Scotty receiver attached already to my front round bar (not installed in earlier picture) and did see a nice looking portable fish finder on the mad frog videos, although they didn't name the brand or model, it'll still help. I'll look up the foam puck you spoke of but not sure it would pop on and off the side of the yak, that mad frog arm looks cook but not sure it'll attach easily to my yak...thoughts?

hmm maybe I just didn't google the correct scotty ball mount, will research some more thx

do some searches on this site  using transducer  as the search word and you will find some info on the foam puck. Zee posted this :  http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,4506.msg46147.html#msg46147

the puck he is talking about would be permanently gooped to the INSIDE of your kayak. The transducer would snugly fit in and be easy to remove and switched to another kayak.
  
The search on this site should give you lots of ideas and pics.

doug

I think this is the RAM ball that fits into the Scotty mounts that I mentioned earlier.

http://kayakfishinggear.com/ramadapterpostforscottymounts.aspx

I think this is the RAM ball that fits into the Scotty mounts that I mentioned earlier.

http://kayakfishinggear.com/ramadapterpostforscottymounts.aspx

I have that RAM adapter and it fits very loosely in the Scotty.  Maybe the wedgie would be a better choice, but I don't know.

http://kayakfishinggear.com/rap-354-ramwedgemountwith112ball-fitsscottyandhobie.aspx

Hey JT, I have an older Piranha portable unit, and i ditched the suction cup transducer mount in favor of a foam donut and shooting thru the hull. The donut mount (one in each boat) is a much better way to move a portable unit from one boat to the next!
I have never liked the suction cup mount, anyway. It worked OK on the rear of my old square stern aluminum canoe, though. The suction cup seems to work best when attached to the stern. They are a pain in the arse to use on a power boat, as they come off at cruising speed.

On my Ultimate 12, I installed the donut right under the thwart behind the seat. It is out of the way there.

oh I thought the donut puck thing was only for yaks that are self baling? it seems like the puck would leak if the transducer wasn't always in place, maybe I'm mistaken why don't ya e mail me aobut your used unit?
JT

I looked at all kinds of portable units the last few days and still haven't decided, the batteries for those things are still either 8 d cells or a small motorcycle battery. my goal was to have a small finder slip into one of my scotty rod holders but now seems like it'll at least have to have a battery pack of battery with it...

The foam puck/doughnut is glued to the bottom inside of the boat so that the transducer is shooting through the hull. There's no hole made in the hull, just a little water in the puck before placing the 'ducer to allow the sonar to penetrate. It can work just as well in your boat, or a SINK, as a SOT. The only problem would be in a hull that has air trapped in it.

I've been working on a PVC transducer wand to attach to the end of a mounting bar on a Revo and hang over the side.  The design and implementation seems to be working well, but the performance may have issues.  I am particularly concerned with vibration and excessive drag-induced torque.  If you are interested I have photos and descriptions.  PM me.  Eventually it will be posted to my kayak website, http://www.demonick.com/kayak/  (always under construction).

I am also pre-mounting a foam doughnut inside the hull to compare the FF/GPS performance with both systems.

Right now I have a transducer mounting bracket I made for the rear end of my Tarpon. I didn't like the idea of a transducer bracket hanging off one side and causing drag there. It uses the rudder attachment mounting screws that came on the yak. I set it up for quick attachment/removal, and run the transducer cable up to the portable unit which is bungied to my Scotty rod holder mounted front-center of my cockpit.

I am soon to be ditching this temporary system in favor of a sonar/gps unit which I will mount on a slide track mounting plate and go with the "shoot-thru/donut" transducer mount. I am getting a rudder kit, but only because I am going to be sailing. Wouldn't need one otherwise.