So I'm looking at buying a small, portable sonar unit for canoe fishing in the BWCA. I've read a lot of posts about the placing the transducer in the bottom of the canoe with a little water and it'll work like a champ...sounds cool! I've found a good sale price on a small unit that has down imaging, so here's the question - will the down imaging feature work if trying to go through the canoe's hull (let's assume kevlar)? The unit I'm looking at is the Garmin echo 151DV.

Down imaging? A few thoughts........have you considered your unit might be an energy pig? Not so big a deal if you base camp but if you like to travel your unit may go through batteries like nobodys business.

Originally I had a cheap fish eagle ($100) and it worked fine and dandy and was great on batteries. But then I decided to "upgrade" with a more sophisticated depth finder and it chews up the juice. Be wise........I love my Lowrance with the DSI imaging but it required a serious battery pack and along with a few other goodies meant an extra portage (tripling is my new "normal"). A better unit may not be to your advantage especially since all you really need is depth and a general understanding of wether the bottom is smooth or rocky / bouldery.

BTW.......I seat my transducer in a dollop of pure silicone and shoot thru my hull........no water required. Just glop out a hardball sized ball of goo and press your transducer in and gently wiggle until it seats on the bottom of your canoe. The overflow I pushed over the top of the transducer thus encasing it in silicone. Avoid skid plates as that will be more material it will have to punch through. I used to have a suction cup mount but it was always coming off thus violating the MT creed and tripping philosophy of "No Hassles".

I thought about the power consumption possibility, but it is grey scale and not color, so I'm hoping that offsets the power usage somewhat. Probably not 1 to 1 but being black and white should help.

I just bought this unit. I just metered it. Read this thread.
http://bwca.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=forum.thread&threadId=1011199&forumID=14&confID=1

I have yet to get out on the water with it. I was going to try shooting through the hull first. I should get out this weekend. The Crappie are calling me! I'll let you know how it works.

Trailcheif...that is the exact unit that I'm looking at buying. Any chance you could post a picture or two of your power setup? Thanks!

Sure , I just got home and my batteries and holders just arrived. I still need to get them in a dry case. But I have two of these. And it should be enough to run the unit for 68 hours. With the Garmin set to draw as little as possible.

Hey Trail chief if you are weight conscious like me the Ram connector between the mount and the depth finder is available in a plastic / nylon composite and is quite a bit lighter than the metal version.

It is available at "The Mount Guys.com"

Hey trailcheif, what is the model of that Garmin you picked up. I have been looking to pick something up and the time is getting really close, thanks. Terry.

Hey trailcheif, never mind,just read your other post, found out it is a garmin 151dv from cab. on sale. I ordered one also, thanks. Terry

Master,

I did not know there was a lighter version. I might just have to stick with this one. My trip date is nearing. I'm a fairly strong guy so I'll just look at it like a little more of a free workout. Wanted to say thanks for all your informative posts. I have been gathering up a lot of your fishing knowledge lately. It seems some people get annoyed by your posts or tone. But I appreciate your passion, and feel I have learned quite a bit in a short time from your info. I threw my Ram rod holder on my canoe so I could get the appropriate trolling angle. I'm excited to get out and give it a go. I had a few questions about how you mount your ducer. Do you have a Kevlar canoe? And if so does the glob of silicone just
peel off when yo want? Or would it leave a mess? I'm thinking of going with duct seal, if it would be easier to remove. I want the ability to switch back and forth between my Kayak and Canoe.

Hey thanks for getting my back Trailchief..........but I do acknowledge I can be a bit "wordy" at times and I suppose in this day of "snippet" info that can easily become tiresome, particularly on a format such as a forum. Personally I want to know why people advocate for their point of skew and that usually means explanations but I digress.

I have a Carbon Fiber boat and it was Old Salt who turned me on to the whole silicone concept. It is not easily removable however which in my case is actually a good thing. It is more or less mounted permanently including the cable tucked nicely under the gunnel. I had to acquire another transducer to mount in my other vessel.

About the only way to remove silicone is with a very sharp thin flexible knife or a razor type blade and even then there will likely be some residue left. With a bit of persistence it would likely be fairly minuscule however. I used DAP 100% silicone in clear.

quote trailcheif: "Sure , I just got home and my batteries and holders just arrived. I still need to get them in a dry case. But I have two of these. And it should be enough to run the unit for 68 hours. With the Garmin set to draw as little as possible. "

Nice looking set up. Let us know how the down imaging works for ya after some time in canoe country.

T

I bought the vexilar sonarphone t-pod. https://www.amazon.com/Vexilar-SP100-SonarPhone-Transducer-Pod/dp/B00CJJBM66

Trying it out end of May and can update.

I have a mini solar module to charge it as well as my phone.

Assuming that I'll get what I paid for... but the weight, ease, cost was worth trying it.