Depth finder rookie

I recently purchased my first depth finder, one that I have fallen in love with. So much that I have a hard time thinking about having to fish without it. My problem is that I do a lot of fishing out of two different boats but don’t have the money (or atleast don’t want to spend the money) on a 2nd transducer in order to make my Helix a bit more portable. I’ve currently got the ‘ducer mounted on my boat, but I’ll be headed to the family cabin with my Dads boat next weekend and to Canada next month. Anyone out there have a similar issue, or at least know what my best route is? Should mention I do have a 2nd mounting bracket that came with my unit, but I’ve also got a dad who really wants to avoid drilling holes into his boat. Is there some portable transducer bracket that anyone would recommend? Or is mounting it to the transom my only option?

Also, if I’m not able to figure something out by the weekend I’d still really like to get gps waypoint locations up to the cabin with me. Do I need the transducer to be with me in the other boat or can I just bring the unit and a 12v with to follow the waypoints I already have?

Thank you. Hope everyone is having a great 4th weekend!

Have you seen Humminbird 7400901 MHX XNPT Portable Mounting Hardware Kit

It works pretty well

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Get a 1 x 4 board 3 feet long. Looking at the board vertically, screw the ducer to the bottom of the board. Clamp the board to the transom with a C-clamp. Make a plywood box to mount the sonar unit on with a battery compartment behind it. Now it’s portable. It probably won’t read at high speeds, but at trolling speeds it will work fine.

GPS doesn’t need the transducer. It gets signals from satellites orbiting the earth. Your tax dollars at work.

Good luck.

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I built a cradle like Ron, made it to fit inside a size 24 battery box. Added the ice fishing transducer and use it ice fishing (this with a 788 ‘bird).

tbro16 wrote:

I’ve also got a dad who really wants to avoid drilling holes into his boat. Is there some portable transducer bracket that anyone would recommend? Or is mounting it to the transom my only option?

I sympathize with your dad. If you don’t go with the portable ideas use a mounting board for $20 and buy one extra bracket for your specific ducer.

That way it’s only two more holes in the boat. All future ducers get drilled into the board and not the boat. Doing an additional bracket means it will always be pointed correctly and faster to make the change.

Stern Saver also makes a transducer mount that uses some crazy adhesive to bond to fiberglass or aluminum, no drilling required. I think it’s about $50.

Ron wrote:

Get a 1 x 4 board 3 feet long. Looking at the board vertically, screw the ducer to the bottom of the board. Clamp the board to the transom with a C-clamp. Make a plywood box to mount the sonar unit on with a battery compartment behind it. Now it’s portable. It probably won’t read at high speeds, but at trolling speeds it will work fine.

GPS doesn’t need the transducer. It gets signals from satellites orbiting the earth. Your tax dollars at work.

Good luck.

I don’t have much talent when it comes to woodworking, but that would be a real nice rig to have for some hard water fishing too. Thank you for the replies everyone, looks like I’ve got a few more choices than I thought I would!