Anyone use a shoot through sounder on a flats boat/skiff? What’s the reliability/accuracy of these vs the traditional external airmar transducers? I don’t need precision, just close enough is all I’m looking for. And I don’t know that an external transducer would work great on the new boat. Looking at garmin/lowrance gps/sounder combos.
I was thinking I’d have to put it inside the recessed area where the motor is, but I guess not. I guess I could put it on the outside…it would just be uglier. Prefer to use the shoot through, but I’ve never owned a boat with one. Pros, cons?
I’ve installed several shoot through Xducers. Pros, nothing hanging under the boat to shear off or get busted. Cons, you lose some sensitivity, but for inshore use it’s not enough to matter with a good unit. A transom mount would have more sensitivity but I don’t like them or the cable hanging off the transom.
They have to be mounted over solid fiberglass, a foam or wood core blocks the signal too much. You can test if a location will work by smearing the transducer face with Vaseline and pressing it to the hull.
I have a Garming 545 and love the mapping on it but hate the sounder. So I pulled the transducer and added a Lowrance elite 7 sounder. Love it, and is is very sensitive and picks up bait on the lake I never saw before.
However, when fishing salt marsh, I have never used the sounder. Gps map, and depth alarm is all. I could see side scan being way more useful in the marsh and around docks than a bottom sounder would be. If it were me, with limited console space, I would get the nicest 7" sidescan unit I could get with CHiRP. The skinny sidescan transducer should be able to go on the transom instead of the sponsons.
I bought my boat used, and it has a shoot-thru. It works well for what I do. Sometimes it gets wonky and doesn’t read, but not too often. Also, I like the lack of holes drilled into the boat.
I don’t use it much in the marsh, but I think it’s helpful on those days where you want to fish a little deeper – it’s nice to see the ledge on the depth finder instead of just guessing based on GPS or something.
But what are you expecting sounder to do for you?
Find fish? Avoid running aground?
I grew up mainly on the Wando and Cooper and Folly. Three years ago the wife and I moved to Rantowles creek and now it’s extremely convenient to fish the Stono. I just don’t know the area that well. Lots of random sandbars in the little creeks, not to mention piles of oysters in the middle of a few creeks I’ve searched so far. I’m learning, but there are a bunch of shallow areas I’d like to pursue and figuring out where the deep water turns to a foot of water is proving difficult by trial and error. Nothing more. There are a thousand creeks up around my way and it would be kind of fun to try them all and mark them off on the GPS one by one too.
I’ve enjoyed low tide fishing already more than I thought I would. The high tide stuff I’ve got down, but I couldn’t get super shallow before on low tide. There’s a lot to learn still and I’m excited at the opportunities to actually get to the fish now. In the past I’ve fished several places where I could see reds crawling with their backs out of the water and never could get that skinny… Not true anymore, now I’m ready.
23, I set up a shoot through on our Hewes. It’s a Garmin unit and I just used The out-of-the-box transom transducer and mounted inside the hull. I did like Larry said and put it down temporarily using a bed of cheap silicone. Once I found a spot with the best reading I poured a resin bed and as it was setting pushed the transducer down into the bed making sure to push out the air bubbles. It works great even at high-speed. The only thing I don’t get is speed and temperature. Not too concerned about temperature for inshore fishing, and can always just grab speed more accurately off GPS anyway.
quote:The only thing I don't get is speed and temperature. Not too concerned about temperature for inshore fishing, and can always just grab speed more accurately off GPS anyway
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My temperature readings work pretty good too, once the hull temperature reaches the water temp. There is a lag time in that of course and it’s of no use trying to find a temp break offshore. The GPS is more accurate on speed than paddle wheel type sending unit.
It’s the only way to go. Actually, and contrary to what others have said, you get a better “shot” of the bottom b/c the water is 100% clean and has no turbulence. No worries about hitting anything, breaking off etc. I’m on I think my 5th sounder mounted in the hull. I’d never go any other way.
The only downside is the surface water temp sensor won’t be as accurate since it isn’t actually in the water. But since I’ve explained in depth on here how inshore water temperature is a farce and for rookies who crave useless intel, it really doesn’t matter, now does it?
Mount it inside the hull homie. If you don’t love it, I’ll buyyou lunch.
So since 23 pretty much has a resounding yes I would like to hijack a portion of this thread. Has anyone ever tried this on an aluminum boat? I have a spare sounder and transducer and was considering putting it on my Jon boat. I have a clear shot with just one layer of 100 gauge aluminum at the stern. Just not sure if standard tranducer can shoot through aluminum. Before I took the time to run power to the unit I thought I would ask. Also not sure what to bed transducer down in? I would just use some cheap silicone initially to make sure it read well and was in a good place like I did on my flats boat, but not sure what to use for permanent mount of tranducer? West System or was thinking about just using a couple of tubes of JB Weld?
No, I’ve never tried it on aluminum, but it would probably work. Just test it first by smearing vasoline on it and sticking it to the hull. If it works, glue it down.
Thanks Gail winds was thinking the same thing, I have a limited space to give it a try in, guess I really won’t know till then. Will have to try the vasoline trick like Larry suggested when I gave time.
