Transducer installed (semi) quick report

[solar]

Had a friend of mine who has put in a few transducers on aluminum boats in his day, come by and give me a hand with the final aspects of installing the transducer on the hull of my new/used 14' Lowe. I had initially thought of using a clamp-on transducer holder, but was advised that they do not perform well at speed. I had read the instructions for the Humminbird transducer mount, and had used a Sharpie to ink in the prosepctive mount location of the mounting bracket, using a plumb bob to determine the hull angle and a level to get the mounting bracket square.

Carefully drilled out the holes, coated the stainless screws in an extremely tenacious caulking used in automotive work and which has been proven to last for years in the water, and put everything in, adjusted the angle of the transducer head, and then used additional screws and cable guides to route the cable. Took it on the water yesterday--we were the only ones on the lake--and once in the deep water, put the throttle to the pin and had consistent depth reads at all times, even at the high end of 24 knots.

Except for a curious rooster tail being put up by the transducer, everything functioned as it should. This is a Humminbird 728, and the graphics and functionality are quite good. I'll be installing a WeatherSense weather component, which allows you to have basic barometer rising/falling info on the screen. Many would use this to calculate when the fish might be biting, but since a falling barometer may indicate increased bite in the shallows (http://www.quickoneplus.com/fish/articl ... barometric), it also indicates incoming bad weather and for me, the signal to frappez-la-rue and get off the water before it gets stormy.

Anyways, the 728 marked some decent fish near some shoreline structure, otherwise a quick outing and a chance to test the gear and ultimately find out that my so-called submersible trailer light was not really submersible at all....any suggestions as to proven submersible lights would be appreciated...

Best, be safe out there,

Chris

[chappee77]

I put a 757c bird in this year on my pro mag Princecraft. First time i went out it worked great but there was a wicked rooster tail, so i moved it more to the center of the hull hoping to get it deeper in the water. Next trip i went out the same thing, don't really want to just live with it. I'm hoping someone has a solution?

[solar]

My buddy suggested an angled stainless plate over the transducer to cut the rooster tail, but that may present problems of its own. I don't find the issue to be a big problem, I think its likely the fact that the transducer is just under the water level instead of being at the water level that causes the rooster tail. I plan to contact Humminbird to check with them, but if it doesn't affect the performance of the sonar, I'm not too worried and don't want to play around with it in the event I cause more problems than I solve. Since the transom position changes a lot in the course of a day on the water (depending on speed, trim, etc), it might be something that's hard to cure. Or there might be a simple fix from Huminbird. Right now, its reading at top speed, with no whiteouts or loss of signal, so I think I'll just leave well enough alone unless Humminbird can provide a really simple fix. If they do, I'll let everyone know.

C