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In this article I am going to cover the why’s and how’s of installing a fish finder on your kayak with the aim of enhancing your fishing experience and hopefully success in catching fish. Fish finders are great for understanding what is under your kayak, the depth, the terrain, and maybe even the fish.

Safety First:

Fitting your fish finders involves messing around with electricity and whenever your do this you need to make sure you know what you are doing and how to do it safely. If you are in ANY doubt you should play it safe and seek professional help. The last thing you want is an electrical fault which damages your expensive electronics or turns your kayak into a puddle of molten plastic on the floor of your garage.

So what is available?

Almost any fish finder that has been designed to use on a runabout boat is suitable for use on a kayak. These units are small sealed fish finders that come in various sizes with a huge range of features. You can start off with a basic fish finder with a black and white, small, low resolution screen that will show you the depth, the bottom structure, and hopefully some fish. Or you could go the whole hog and get a high end fish finder that will offer you much much more; an easier to read high resolution colour screen, the bottom structure, the water column in various different ways, the standard 2D, down imaging, and even what’s out to the sides with side imagining technology. Some units also contain GPS and charting

Fishing ElectronicsAdding some electronic help to your fishing kayak. By Jason Walker

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protect yourself from the elements

For the full range go to

www.sharkskin.co.nz

functions which are great for being able to chart your drift so you can paddle back and re-drift along that same line you just picked up those fish on, or use the chart to find the drop offs and features. Of course as with everything the more you spend the more functions you will get on your unit.

Positioning

Where you mount your fish finder will be influenced by several factors; the biggest being the type of kayak you paddle. The latest kayaks all sport centre tackle storage so you can mount your fish finders on the storage covers; older kayaks will most likely have some flat area or areas for you to choose from. Another factor to take into consideration is whether the installed unit is close enough to reach should you wish to make any changes to the settings on your unit whilst you are fishing. Mount it too far away and it may become a matter of having to shuffle forward each time, this is going to quickly become a chore and potentially unsafe. Also make sure it’s easy to see, don’t be tempted to tuck it away somewhere thinking it will be protected then find you have to crank your neck to see it every time. Also think about how the unit may interfere with your working space: is it going to get in the way of rigging you gear, your bait, or even how you land and deal with your fish, also if you choose to mount your fish finder on the side of your kayak be sure it will not interfere with your paddle stroke.

Waterproof

The most important thing when selecting electronics for use on your kayak is that they are waterproof; you should check that they carry a waterproof rating of IP67 or above. IP stands for “Ingress Protection”, the two numbers relate to the level of protection against solids and liquids. A rating of 6 means “Totally protected against dust” and the 7 equals “Protected against water ingress when submerged to a depth of one metre for thirty minutes”. So if your electronics are rated to IP67 you should be safe but note it is only a submersion rating, it doesn’t mean you can blast it with a high pressure hose when you are cleaning down at the end of the day and getting rolled in the surf may exert more than 1m of pressure, so it always pays to put your electronics safely away before heading back in through the surf.

Power Source

Without the ability to simply plug your electronics into the nearest power socket means you need to carry your own power source with you, a battery, specifically an SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) battery. This type of battery operates on the same chemical reaction principals as your car battery but with the safety of the acid being sealed inside the battery’s plastic case making it ideal for use in your kayak as there is no chance of the acid being spilt as the kayak rocks and rolls at sea.

So what size battery? The size will really depend on the current draw of your electronics. Have a look at the specifications and you should find something labelled “current draw” or something similar, it’s normally measured in milliamps (mA) - a thousandth of an amp, 1000mA = 1A. For example an average level fish finder will have a current drain of around 250mA so once you know this you can now look at the battery size you will require. Battery capacity is measured in Ampere Hours (Ah); an Ah is one amp for one hour so a 12Ah battery is capable of supplying 12 amps for one hour, 1 amp for 12 hours, or anything in between. So using our example of the 250mA fish finder it needs one quarter of an amp and if we planned on fishing for six hours then we would need at least a 1.5Ah battery. SLA batteries come in many different sizes but the most common sizes are 7, 12, and 18Ah with 7Ah being the most common and would be more than adequate for our example fish finder. You can normally find a 7Ah SLA battery for around $30-40. Note: you will also need a special charger for an SLA battery, DO NOT use your normal car battery

charger as this will damage your SLA battery very quickly. Another easy way to damage an SLA battery is to completely discharge it; always avoid flattening your battery completely.

Battery Storage

You should, wherever possible, put your battery inside your kayak. You need to keep your battery away from saltwater as it can short out the battery if submerged and the saltwater has a nasty habit of corroding the battery terminals very quickly until they are unusable. Your battery can be secured inside you kayak by using a specifically designed battery tray or a foam block. S imply cut a foam block about twice the size of your battery and cut a hole in the centre to hold the battery then glue the block into the hull of your kayak to keep it secure.

Left: Using the chart plotter to trck your drift.Below: High resolution images of the sea bed, below and to the left & right of you.

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Wiring

Wiring up you fish finder is fairly simple, all you should need to do is run the wire from your battery to your fish finder to power it. If you need to extend the power cable at all use a marine rated cable, head down to your local marine chandlers and they should be able to help you out. Wherever possible, solder connections for a better connection, rather than crimping them, and as with everything on the kayak you want to seal, seal, seal, to keep that salt water out. On all your connections make sure you do not leave any exposed cable joints. Give them a quick coat of protectant and cover with some heat shrink to keep the moisture

Fuses

You should protect your valuable electronics with a fuse, the fuse should be placed in the positive line of your wiring. The correct size fuse should be specified by the manufacturer so have a look into your manual, the most common size is 3 Amp. Also think about putting a spare in your fishing kit just in case.

Transducers

The transducer is the part of the kit that scans the water under your kayak. It needs an uninterrupted view of the water and again the newer kiwi

out. For the plugs and sockets make sure you protect those too with a protectant. Personally I have been using Lanocote from CRC with great success. Without some form of protection you will find very quickly that electrolysis will eat up the pins in your plugs rendering your unit useless and in need of a service.

Pictured: A soldered connectionFirst line of defence - heat shrink on each cable

Second line of defence- final heat shrink over both cables.

Transducer mounted in the transducer scupper hole.

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designed kayaks have taken this into consideration with their design; they have specially designed transducer scuppers. These are scupper holes that have been enlarged on the bottom to accommodate your transducer which means your transducer will actually be in the water – giving you by far the best view – talk to your kayak dealer as most will supply a transducer fitting kit as an accessory to make the job very simple. On older kayaks you may not have a transducer scupper so you will need to look at another method, the most common tried and tested method is to put your transducer inside the hull of the kayak. You have two options, the first is to stick your transducer to the inside hull of your kayak: the “glue” to use is “Selleys All Clear”, place a large blob of it on the hull and push your transducer into it, the key is to get no air bubbles under the transducer as these will interfere with the signal. The second method is a “wet mount” - with this you need to make a well to hold your transducer; the well is then filled with a liquid before you insert the transducer.

After Care

As with everything you take on your kayak, it’s going to get exposed to salt water during the day, so when you get home you need to remove what will probably now be a crusty layer of salt all over your fish finder as soon as possible. The easiest way to do this is with some tepid fresh water. The method I use is to half fill the kitchen sink with tepid water and gently bathe my fish finder in the freshwater for a couple of minutes, this is all that’s needed to dissolve the salt. Another method is to simply sponge the tepid

water over the unit, this will have the same effect of removing the salt and is better if you are unsure about submerging your unit. Once the salt has been removed put the fish finder to one side to dry. When the unit is dry, place it in a dry environment; I place mine inside a dry box. Please avoid keeping your unit in the hot water cupboard. This environment is not ideal for your fish finder; the warm air will be moist which is not great for your unit or its connections. A dry box is simply an air tight box with a drying system in it, a mini dehumidifier or silica gel; all your electronics such as your fish finder, VHF, EPIRB, camera, etc can be stored in it between trips.