fish finder on the bow

What's the best way to mount a locator in the front of my 1785 Yar-craft? I have a minn kota motor that takes up a fair amount of the available area, and I was wondering how/where the rest of you have mounted the electronics in the front of the boat. Also wondering about the best place to mount the transducer. Can I mount the transducer on the trolling motor (remember, minn kota has the shaft pass through a channel, making it impossible to secure the transducer chord to the shaft of the motor)? Do I need to mount the transducer on the back of the boat and run the wire to the bow?

Any help would be appreciated.

[Jeff ND]

I would mount the tranducer on the trolling motor. Tiestrap the cord at the top and bottom of the shaft. Leave as little slack as possible in the cord. As for the unit itself have you thought about mounting it on the deck of the boat. This placement will also prevent the unit going overboard if the mount breaks. If you don't like it there try a RAM Mount and move it alittle to one side of the boat out of the way of the trolling motor. Just a couple of ideas.

I mounted an X-15 on the bow of my 16.5' Sea Nymph and used the large Johnny Ray Swivel Mount. I put one base up on the front beside my trolling motor and another base on the casting platform floor. When fishing, I put the X-15 on the front; when not fishing, I put the unit inside the boat on the casting platform. It is secure and out of sight.

[bigfish1965]

My Lowrance has the transducer attached to the skeg, with the transducer wire going along the motor cable. Works fine.

[REW]

Brad -
Consider your needs - if you always fish from the bow - have the trolling motor in the water a very very very large percentage of the time - fish waters that have lots of very sharp breaks -- then it makes sense to put a transducer on the trolling motor.

However, if you are like a lot of us - do a fair amount of drifting - with the trolling motor out of the water - do some trolling with the big motor or kicker - with the trolling motor out of the water - do some cruising - where it would be nice to have a bow mounted depth finder - then it makes more sense to have a transducer on the stern.

If you want to do both - you can do that as well - and install a switch to switch between the stern and bow.

I personally - used to have a trolling moter mounted transducer, with a switch to the stern.

However, I found that I seldom switched the transducer to the front motor - even if I had the motor in the water.


When I got the new boat - I intalled a new trolling motor - no transducer - installed an excellent bow mounted depth finder - with a single transducer mounted on the stern of the boat on the opposite side of the boat from the transducer for the console mounted depth finder.

I find that if I am going at high speed, across the water - I seldom refer to my console mounted depth finder. To do that I have to take my eyes off the horizon, and glance down at the console depth finer - it takes a part of a second to see what is going on - before I can look back at the horizon - to see where I am going.

However, by using the bow mounted depth finder - looking through or over the windshield to see it - I can see the horizon, and depth finder - at the same time. Thus - I can see schools of bait fish, see a sudden change in bottom structure etc. without ever taking my eyes off the horizon.

Then when it comes time to fish - I drop the trolling motor and no hassle with cords etc.

The one thing that I do give up - and I will admit that I have missed it a few times, and that is when I am working a lake with "canyons". i.e. where the bow of the boat might be in 10 feet of water, and the stern of the boat in 40 feet of water. It is nice to have the forward mounted transducer at this time. However, this is such a small percentage of the time for me - that I will live with that trade off.

--
Again, as I mentioned before - once I am on a spot - driving slowly - then I can use the console mounted GPS and depth finder to really pick apart the bottom. Since I am going very slowly - I don't have to be looking ahead of me - as much - as would be the case - if I were driving fast.

Take care and enjoy your boat.

REW

You might go with a smaller screen unit for room and the Johnny Ray swivel detachable mounts. Eagle has split screen/bottom zoom on their smaller displays now freeing up room on the top deck, and with temp combined in the transducer you can have temp display well "clogging" now. The bow mount trolling motor/transducer really shine when your fishing structure, shallow and tempature contours this way especially from the bow or trolling the bow motor.

[ski]

I have a lund prov with a lms 350a and a zercom flasher on quick release mounts side by side in the electronics compartment in the stern (I have a tiller boat). I have an electric motor in the stern and one in the bow. Since I like to see sharp breaks and confirm what I see on the flasher with the liquid crystal the flasher stays in the stern most of the time. However, since I often use the bow mount motor my solution was to buy a second transducer for the zercom with power cord and mounted it to the bow motor. This way all I have to do is quick snap off the flasher from the stern mount and snap it in and connect it to the front transducer which also has a quick release mount.