Fish finder mounting

rogerrush

Cadet
Joined
Aug 17, 2008
Messages
23
just a couple questions I have a dual sensor humming bird it has a range of 20 degrees and 60 degrees what would that be in feet and would it be best to mount the transmitter on the trolling motor or on back of the hull.Does the mounting point depend which end you fish off of
 

wildmaninal

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Jul 14, 2007
Messages
1,897
Re: Fish finder mounting

My opinion, it won't matter where you mount the transducer, all it's going to do is let you know that fish are in the area.

You could always mount it through hull, like I did mine. No holes needed just glue the transducer to the lowest part of the bilge area if you have that type of area, glue it with silicone.

I have 2 depth finders on my boat, one at the helm for making sure I'm in a safe depth and one at the bow for fish finding and depth.
 

109jb

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Jul 15, 2008
Messages
1,590
Re: Fish finder mounting

I wouldn't mount it on the trolling motor cause then you could only use it when you have the trolling motor deployed. I use it a lot cruising around to see what kind of bottom I have to figure out where I want to put lines out. With it mounted as a shoot through hull as wildmaninal then you have the depth, but lose the temp readout. Mounted on the transom you have both depth and temp, but have to put holes in transom. Sealing up the holes isn't that bad using the sealants they have nowdays. I like having it in the water at all times so that I can keep an eye on depth for safety even when I am not fishing.
 

John_S

Rear Admiral
Joined
Jun 21, 2004
Messages
4,269
Re: Fish finder mounting

If you are only going to have one, then transom or thru-hull. If you do allot of trolling motor positioning, then you are going to want to add a 2nd to it.
 

dingbat

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Nov 20, 2001
Messages
16,622
Re: Fish finder mounting

just a couple questions I have a dual sensor humming bird it has a range of 20 degrees and 60 degrees what would that be in feet .

20 degrees - 0.35 or roughly 1/3 of depth
24 degrees - 0.42 or roughly 2/5 of depth
30 degrees - 0.53 or roughly 1/2 of depth
40 degrees - 0.72 or roughly 3/4 of depth
50 degrees - 0.93 or roughly 9/10 of depth
60 degrees - 1.15 x depth
 

rndn

Commander
Joined
May 20, 2007
Messages
2,323
Re: Fish finder mounting

I wouldn't mount it on the trolling motor cause then you could only use it when you have the trolling motor deployed. I use it a lot cruising around to see what kind of bottom I have to figure out where I want to put lines out. With it mounted as a shoot through hull as wildmaninal then you have the depth, but lose the temp readout. Mounted on the transom you have both depth and temp, but have to put holes in transom. Sealing up the holes isn't that bad using the sealants they have nowdays. I like having it in the water at all times so that I can keep an eye on depth for safety even when I am not fishing.

Absolutely the correct answer. You don't want to lower the troller every time you want to check depth, do you?
Professional fishermen/women do not use thru hull as they will get better accuracy with a transom mount. The last issue of my Bassmaster had an excellent article about the best way to setup and use fishfinders.
 

wildmaninal

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Jul 14, 2007
Messages
1,897
Re: Fish finder mounting

Professional fishermen/women do not use thru hull as they will get better accuracy with a transom mount.

Funny my reading on my depth finder hasn't changed a bit sense I moved it thru hull :rolleyes:. The only reason I moved mine thru hull is because I had a crack in the top of the transducer and it would quit reading at high speeds the screen would go blank. If you mount the transducer thru hull you also wouldn't half to worry about damaging the transducer.

I realize that some depth finders have temp read outs on them, the one
on my bow does, the one on my helm does not have a temp reading.

Whatever way you decide to do it will work, except if you want a constant reading (while underway) then don't mount the transducer on the trolling motor.
 
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