What fish finder

Hi,

Getting a Humminbird 363 combo fitted on Thursday at Rutherford Marine, Tauranga. Can't wait, fingers crossed the weathers fine at the weekend! Will post some pics at the weekend.

Hi Julian the Bloody recession hey ! had to get the 363 black and white sounder couldn't stretch it for the 383 colour hey. When I got mine from the States the exchange rate against the Aussie peso was almost dollar for dollar now its about 63 cents. I probably couldn't afford one now either. You wont know yourself when you are drift fishing just hit mark on the unit and keep motoring up and down following the breadcrumb trail back to where the bite started, Fish don't have a chance

Have fun with it cheers Hoot

Hi,

Big thanks to Winston at Rutherford Marine for doing an excellent job fitting the finder. Wasn't as easy as he thought and although I paid a little more for labour, I'm really pleased with the neat job he's done. I'm also really pleased with my choice of finder and the ability to clip it off and cover the bracket when your not using it. Note the fish finder is mounted on a bracket inside the cup holder and not on the facia





ONe slight concern is the mounting of the transducer in the hull as I'm not sure whether the internal hull is flush with the outer hull but, the guys said they'd adjust it if I had any problems. The transducer is mounted below the engine mounts, anyone any idea whether the inner hull is flush at this point??



Thanks for all the advice along the way.

And if your worried about the recession, go out and spend it up large. No point investing it in shares and watching the value plummet, infact a new Jetski is probably a better investment right now!!!

Julian

Hi Andrew,

Yep, your bracket is in the cup holder with the fish finder mounted on top. I'll take another picture and post it tonight.

The guys have done such a good job, it looks as though the fish finder is mounted on the dash but because it's mounted on the bracket, I'll be able to remove it with no marks on the ski. Exactly the result I wanted and I'm very pedantic.

The guys did have a few problems with the bracket due to the base on the humminbird. They had to put a spacer under the bracket to raise it and then fit a plate on top to which they fixed the fish finder.

If you wanted to make the bracket more universal, you could put a small base plate on the top (50c coin) and then supply a plastic base plate which can be cut to fit the fish finder. The plastic base plate would screw or bolt onto the bracket with the fish finder then mounted on the plastic bracket. It might also be worth making the bracket slightly higher to cater for fish finder who's base plate doesn't recess into the cup holder.

If this doesn't make sense, feel free to give me a call.

Julian

I have fitted over 20 fishfinders to jetskis now
most of the seadoo range can have the transducers fitted inside the hull,the yamahas/kawas have the transducers fitted to the transom, if you need to use self tapping screws use a good quality sealent.
Andrew is designing a nice bracket setup so you can utilise the boarding ladder mounting bolts for the transducer.
another tip use a fuse on the unit + wire as to keep your jetski electrics safe.
Jase

Hi Jase,

I take it from your comments, the transducer won't work inside the hull of the yamaha? I'll give it a test tomorrow as there's nothing else I can do at the weeknd and if it doesn't work I'll get the bracket from Andrew.

Thanks

Julian

Hi Julian
Im not saying it wont work in your hull
I have had a few issues in fitting transducers in yams and kawas inside the hull due to the way they are laid up.
some craft have air voids or little air pockets in the hull and this is where you dont want a transducer as it disrupts the signal,hopefully your transducer is not on one of these.
The new yamahas are made of "nano cell technology"that kind of looks like honeycombe so it uses these air pockets for strength i have not fitted a transducer to the inside of one of these hulls yet i wonder if it will be a problem?
Jase

Hi Jase,

Went out this morning and it seems to be working ok. Picked up the bottom structure and a few fish although I didn't manage to catch any!!!

The only issue I seem to have is depth in shallow water. It doesn't seem to be very acurrate in under a metre of water. I wonder if this is the hull or is common to all fish finders?! Reports a reading of 0.2m when in approx one metre of water.

I guess the only real way to check it is to run alongside someone else with a fish finder and see what they get!

Thanks

J

Julian
On your fishfinder there is adjustment to set the depth up,you need to make sure that is set correct or on auto adjust
out of intrest what unit do you have?
Jase

Hi Jase,

Got a Humminbird 363 combo. I decided to go for that unit as it clips on and off easily (see photo's above) It's got GPS and maps but is still relatively small which makes it ideal for the jetski.

Happy with my choice so far and I'll have a play with the depth settings as you suggest.

Julian

Hi,

Just to report the fishfinder is working well with the transducer placed inside the hull (Yamaha FX160). My earlier problems were down to set up.

Having it set up for salt water seems to be the key

Time is a great teacher unfortunaltely, it kills all it's pupils

good to hear it is all going well, now go catch some fish