Dry mount Garmin 300c fish finder install in Hobie Outback

So I purchased the garmin 300c recently and decided to dry mount the transducer. The dry mount method involves gluing your transducer to the inside of the kayak hull. The risk is you get bubbles in it which will create false readings but the benefit is you don't need to worry about creating a watertight container for it and keeping it submerged with water. As there are more dry mount posts than you can poke a stick at out there I have kept this brief and specific where possible to this install.

200mm x 200mm High density foam from Clark Rubber @ $4, cut out a small section to mount the transducer in to ensure a tight fit to the hull and no air bubbles between the hull and tranny. I used Selleys All Clear (thanks for the advice guys) to first glue the foam into place...

The high density foam in place.

The foam again

then glue the tranny in place.

Transducer glued in place

I then mounted the head unit bracket (supplied) onto the kayak, it unfortunately did not fit into the side rail or under the handle which was a pity. I ended up putting it behind the rhs rod holder and happy with it now. Drilling the large hole for the 2 cables was a bit scary and used a rubber bung, gutted and cut down the middle to make the hole waterproof.










I have cleaned this bung up a little since but the same concept.

Here is the battery box, you will notice the fuse is on the outside of the box... not sure if this is a good thing, might have to make a bigger hole, put it in the box.

Battery Box.

The mount is a bit exposed and dangerous for moving and also if I flip it in the surf so I cut some of the spare high density foam and make a cover for it.

Mount protector

Without mount protector

Now I was curious about how the unit would display in full and direct sunlight so I set it to simulation and took some photos, they really do not tell the same picture as it was crystal clear to read in the sun and I can tell you now that you could not wish for more.

Garmin 300c sun behind screen

Garmin 300c sun infront of screen

So now all I can do is wait, next weekend the glue should have fully cured and it will hopefully not have any air bubbles in it.

UPDATE: It works, and works very well, could not be more happy with the purchase and install. Having a fish finder adds a whole new dimension to fishing and takes a little of the guess work out of it.






Dan

Make your own rod leashes using shock cord and envirobag handles.

I am not a fan of curly phone cords so opted to create a sheathed bungee leash instead.

I am not really sure why other people 'sheath' their snap straps with a tubing but I would think it is for safety reasons. You want to limit how much stretch can be put on the bungee cord so that in the event of it breaking you do not have a projectile. I have used the handles from my cooler bags to do this and hopefully the breaking strain of these is greater than the 3ml shock cord I have used on the other end.

I also wanted to control at which end the bungee cord would break this event, so I used loops created from lower breaking strain bungee/cord for attaching to the kayak and stainless steel clips on the other end. Hopefully if one of these breaks, the end of the bungee should propel away from me instead of a stainless steel clip coming straight at me... hopefully.

Rod leashes.

Making them was simple, ~1 meter of shock cord (I used a variety of 6ml and 3ml). Stainless steel clip on one end and just doubled the shock cord back over itself and used 2 cable ties to fasten it. I then thread ~2 meters of tubing over the shock cord, sew it closed (lots of zig zag sewing to first stop the sheath moving back and then to close the hole. Then a loop of smaller diameter cord or shock cord on the other end attached with zip ties and sewed up.

I attached them to the rods using stainless steel d-rings and small o-rings and a mix of cable ties and double sided velcro.

Big rod

Small rod

I also made up a number of leashes without any tubing for my accessories. For these I use heat shrink to hide the cable ties and reduce the risk of them getting snagged on anything. This helps to keep them handy and not sliding everywhere inside the hull of the kayak. I try to keep the number of leashes outside the yak to a minimum.

Dan

Make a cooler bag for Hobie Outback rear bungee well

I recently caught several long tail tuna that did not fit in my cooler box. That got me thinking about a more effective way to keep larger fish cold, reduce wind resistance and save space. A cooler back would achieve all these things but unfortunately I could not find and cooler bags on the market that fit the hobie outback rear well.


We had some bad weather over the last long weekend so I took to building my own cooler bag.

My fiance had the great idea to use cooler bags available from Woolworths / Coles, they are lightweight and easy to work with using a standard sewing machine. I bought 4 and ended up using 2 1/2. Here is a blow by blow for those interested in doing the same.

I picked apart the bag into 2 sections, being careful to only pick where the 2 pieces join and not the seam (i did this a few times). I also removed the handles and zippers. I kept the handles and zippers for later.

You get 2 of these for each cooler bag

I did this for 3 bags then placed them together in the back of the ob to get the right shape. I then pinned them together.

2 1/2 bags, picked apart and laid out for pinning.

First time sewing for me and once you get the hang of it, it's not that hard but several times the misses had to step in to fix a few stuff ups. It was easier to sew it up into 2 sections first.

2 sections sewed up.

Then sew these together and sew in the bottom section.

All section sewed in.

Now the hardest part was then joining the ends together, this was very time consuming and in the end the sewing machine just could not reach the last section so I had to do it buy hand. I decided to put the zips at each end, this would allow me to clean it easily and also be able to fit long fish in with head and tail hanging out. You will notice overlaps that I plan to use for pockets, I have created one for the ruler at the moment and I may put a zipper on the other. I used a part of the handle to create a loop for the rear well bungee.

Finished project.

Fitted in the kayak.

Shot of it in the outback.

At full length for offshore work.

Full length

End folded in for estuary use and conserve the ice.

End folded in.

I am very happy with how this came together and the placement of the bungee loop holds the top part of the zipper open to make it easy to put fish in. I am not sure how long this material will last but after doing this DIY i realize that any more of a complicated design or harder materials would have proven much harder sewing. I will keep my big cooler box in the car and load the fish straight from one to the other and try not to carry fish in it.

Dan

Maroochy River Bread and Butter

Trip #9

Well, my RDO came around again, another beautiful Friday, great weather but unfortunately felt like I was coming down with a cold. Decided to have a little drift around the maroochy river.

Launched 10:30am @ Swan Boat hire again, but just after I got the yak off, 15 or so 1st time kayakers returned from a charted outing. They we very nice and answered alot of questions but had a hard time finding a carpark and bait. Managed to get one livey which I hooked up a big fish just out from the moored boats but pulled the hook, prob a flathead.

Pumped some yabbies and didn't get far before I hooked up 4 or so small bream, back in the drink for something bigger.

Small grunter on nipper

small bream on nipper foul hooked

Found some livies finally and went back to see if the one that got away was still hungry... nope. But got a smaller model nearby, released.

small flathead on livey

After fishing the same river 6 or 7 times now I had not tried the cod hole, so I caught a free ride with the tide and trolled the live baits to the cod hole. It was good to test out the fish finder and loving it. Nothing on the way to the cod hole other than a few snags, dislodged and off again.

I found the cod hole, and the 5 other boats on it and worked the hole very thoroughly on the change of low tide while not getting to close to the other vessels. Plenty of small bream and what I suspect were shopping trollies. I found the hole runs under the bridge on the north east side and the edge of this part go me a few big hits on the live fish. First happened when i decided to take a leak, both lines buckle over, lose a big fish on the first, land a small bream on the other. I rig up again for another go but I am bested again, with it getting me on the pylons; too big for my 6lb line to keep it out.

A bit tired of all road noise and dodging boats I head back, trolled a pink tilsan hardbody back, got a bream and legal flathead on the way back, both went back, wanted something bigger.

Bream on hardbody

Flathead on hardbody

Put my last livies on and went past my launch site for one last effort to get a big fish. Just after the bridge to chambers I get a 48cm sized flathead on the livey, manages to tangle both lines but did a good job to land it, filet it and beer battered fish and chips.

48cm flathead

Dan