Fish finder - Part 2 - The battery

[PAX]

Using your input from my previous post regarding fish finders I narrowed down my list to 3 models. Today I stopped by West Marine to ask a few questions. When I mentioned that I wanted to use the device with a kayak, the vendor's first reaction was: How are you going to power the fish finder? Well I will use a battery I said. A battery? :eek: :confused:
So here we are looking at batteries. I never realized that on one hand they weight a ton (24 pounds to be more precise) and one the other hand they cost 3/4 the price of the fish finder. Add a battery charger, a power gauge, some cables, screws and other stuff and it gets expensive.
Now I am sure that you guys already figured out. There must be a light weight, non expensive 12 VDC battery, right??? Any input or comment on the battery issue is welcomed.

G-Man: you have the Pirhana 4 if I remember well. Do you use a 12 vdc battery or 8 small batteries. If the latter, how long do they last?

Soon to come, Part 3, "need input on how to mount the fish finder, the transducer, store the battery, etc .... Pictures are welcomed."

Sam: you will have to show me how you installed yours.

Thanks in advance for your help.

PAX

[rockfisherman]

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jhtml?id=0016916015675a&navAction=jump&navCount=0&indexId=&podId=0016916&catalogCode=UD&parentId=&parentType=&rid=&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fcatalog%2Fitem-link.jhtml.1_A&_DAV=search&hasJS=true

Cabelas sells a 12V battery with charger for $30. This is what I use. There are other solutions too...search the archives...

[PAX]

You were right Rockfisherman, the archives and/or FAQ already cover that topic. My bad, I did not think about checking them.
The only point I am a little bite confused about the transducer. In or out of the yak??? A stupid question but does the transducer need to be in water?? I have a SOT so I have plenty of room to install the transducer in the yak but my understanding of an earlier post from JoeV is that the device needs to be in the water. In any case Cabela's has a suction cup for $8 that can be used in many ways.

[ruge13]

Water? Nahh...you could get a through hull. Though, you will need to add more to the connection than just sitting it on your hull. I think I read somewhere or saw on some show that petroleum jelly or siicone could be used to keep a "fluid" connection and make for more smooth reading. Otherwise, you could hang it over the side with the suction cup, or add a small brace to the deck at the water line behind your paddle stroke. Thats about all I know about fish finders....

[SamRiley]

Patrick,
My FFer set up is crude but works for me. You are welcome to check it out any time. RIBill has a set up the I think you would be into. Maybe he has a photo or two to post for you.

[Ozmo]

There are some suggestions in the kayak diving book by mark theobold. www.kayakdiving.com

[marvin]

Check the Yellow Pages for your nearest battery place- all you need is a relatively low amp-hr 12V battery- something like a backup battery for a burgler alarm, etc.

I've gotten small 12V batteries from both U-Do-It Electronics in Newton and Atlantic Battery in Watertown...

[SamRiley]

Boy did you hit the nail on the head with Patrick Ozmo. This could be a great winter topic..... who else dives out of their yak? Patrick just started teaching me the ropes of freediving this year and I have a ton to learn.

[Ozmo]

That's cool. I freedive/snorkel down here in Florida. I need to do a "rusty diver" before I scuba again. My wife and I actually bought our yaks with the intent of diving off of them (got tired of paying $40- $50 a trip). Then she got pregnant (somehow) and that killed the diving idea. So we just started paddling out of them. Then I got the clever idea to fish out of it and what do you know, I found out that others did that as well!

[RJ]

Ozmo,

You are living large, my man! Al that warm weather and big bones plus a huge Pro-Bass shop with its own fly fishing room just around the corner!

Neat! Welcome aboard!

Have you connected with what ya all call bonito and we call False Albacore with a fly rod yet?

They may not taste good, but they will rock your boat! As good as or even better than Jack Craval.

:-% Happy Thanksgiving

[Ozmo]

Thanks RJ,

I must admit, I'm more familiar with the warm weather and the Bass Pro shop than the big bones!:( I've seen a couple of 'em so I know they exist. The guy in our fly fishing club who won our species contest last year (something like 47 different species on fly, he travels a lot) swears that all the talk of bones eating flies is a myth! :D

I haven't found bonito yet but they're on my "to do" list. Love jack crevalles, even the little guys can pull my yak along.