New One Man Boat

[yoderjac]

I think I'm going to get rid of the YakAttack Switchblade. It works pretty well but there are a few issues. First, it is a bit of a pain for entry and exit of the boat. I can kind of fold it out of the way some, but not completely. At higher speeds, it has some movement. I did notice that one side of my SI is darker than the other. This could be caused by multiple issues, but one of them is that the transducer on the switchblade is not quite deep enough. It is intended for a kayak, not an inflatable.

So, I started working on a design for a transducer pole. While this pole won't need to rotate like the one I made for Megalive 2, it will need to slide vertically. I think the best place to attach it is to the oar locks. I started working on it today. I had some 1x1x1/8 square tube scraps. I plan to use them as back brackets to secure the same 1 1/4" pvc conduit I used for the outer pipe on the Megalive 2 pole. Putting the square tube inside the oarlocks and the pipe horizontally outside, I plan to simply bolt them together to hold the pipe in place. I'll then use an elbow and Tee fitting to get the Tee mounted vertically just outside the inflation chamber. I'll then use the same 1" PVC conduit I used for the inner pole of the Megalive 2 pole. My plan is to pin it so I can change the depth of the transducer and stow it by pinning it well out of the water.

I grabbed the fittings and bolts on the way home from church this morning. I got part of it done, but the bolts I got were a half inch too small. When I get back to lowes and get the right size bolts and start the first steps, I'll take a couple pictures.

If this is successful, the pole will be more stout than the switchblade and allow for greater depth while being out of my road for entry and exit.

 

[yoderjac]

I got the bolts, so here is a picture of the first step:

Here is a picture with the elbow and Tee:

It is not cemented in place yet, but it give you an idea of what it will look like.

Unrelated to this mod, the electric pump I have is a SeaMax and it is setup to plug into a cigarette outlet. The parts came in, so I hooked up a cigarette outlet to a trolling motor plug. This will allow me to simply unplug the trolling motor and plug in the pump when needed so I don't have to open up the battery box and use alligator clips.

 

[yoderjac]

I made a bit more progress this morning. The fixed outer pipe sections have all been glued in place. In this picture you see the inner pole inserted.

I used the trailer as a proxy for the water level. I'm sure the water level will be slightly above that. I made the inner post tall enough that I can drop the transducer about a foot deep. I'm sure that is much further and I will need to to remove any issues. I doubt I'd ever need to run it more than 6" deep, and for safety purposes I doubt I will. When I put it in the stowed position, that pole will really stick up a lot, so once I get it in the water and test it out, I'll probably cut off the top of the pole to reduce the adjustment to just what I need.

 

[yoderjac]

I finished up the mounting pole for the 2D/DI/SI transducer this morning. I removed it from the boat and put it in a vise so I could test all the settings. Here it is in the deepest setting:

The next picture shows it in the shallowest operating position:

The picture below shows it in the stowed position

The final pic shows it mounted back on the boat in the stowed position:

 

[yoderjac]

In order to launch and load the boat, I need to wade in to thigh level at some of the places I launch. That works fine in the summer with shorts. I think I'd like to be able to try fishing into the fall, so I ordered a pair of Simms stocking foot waders and some FrogTog felt sole boots. The boots came in a while back, but the waders just came in yesterday. The waders fit great, but the boots were a half size too small. They only sell these in whole sizes on amazon, so I returned them for the next larger size.

The replacements are supposed to arrive later this week, so I hope to get back on the water and test the new pole then.

 

[yoderjac]

I decided to test out the mods I made to the boat and do some fishing today. It is getting a bit too cool for shorts, and the boots I ordered for the stocking foot waders came in this morning.

The boat needed me to push it a bit at this launch because of the raised rollers, but it was easy as pie to do. When I loaded the boat, the raised rollers did help it load smoother.

It was a windy day. I started out checking out the electronics. I used the new pole and put the 2D/SI/DI transducer at the shallowest setting to start with. It worked great. There were no issues from the boat. I can't see any reason to put it any deeper. I did not measure how deep it was but I should have. At any rate, I plan to cut off the top of the pole. I plan to leave the next two deeper settings, just in case, and get rid of the top of the pole.

I started out making one pass up the lake with the side imaging being recorded. I plan to transfer that to my computer to mark waypoints at structures for future trips. Not much was biting when I started about 1pm. I did catch a few small crappie about 3pm, but nothing large enough to bother filleting unless I had other larger fish. I quit about 4pm. It was windy but a nice day otherwise.

I'm happy with the mods I made!

 

[yoderjac]

Here is the 2D/SI/DI transducer pole after I cut it down:

 

[yoderjac]

When I was having issues with the side imaging, Humminbird sent me a new transducer to try. So, when I setup the new pole, I used the new transducer and left the old one on the YakAttack Switchblade, just in case there was an issue with the new setup. Given the way the new setup performed the other day, I pulled the Switchbalde and old transducer. This will make entry into the boat easier for me.