Depth Finders on small boats

I have a 14' canoe, but plan on getting a crawdad or another small car topper to fish local ponds. I have had a few car toppers but never had any electronics on them besides a transom trolling motor. How do you go about hooking up a depth finder to a small boat? Where does the transducer go? Are the portable models good since you can set up and take off the screen unit in order to transport boat? My understanding is that the transducer doesn't actually go on the bottom of the boat, but somewhere inside and shoots through the boats hull, is that correct? I think I saw that on some portable models, the transducer actually hooks up to the trolling motor, are these secure? Are they easy to hook up and take off before and after a day of fishing?

Thanks.

I have a cheap Lowrance that I bought at dicks for 90 bucks. I wanted to be able to find depth changes and have a water temp reading. It's perfect for that and if I were any good at deciphering some of the stuff it picks up then I'd probably even catch fish because of it. I have my transducer attached to the trolling motor. The clamp is sold seperately. I just leave it attached. No need to take it off. The wires are a little messy but oh well.

I have a small 12 foot jon boat and i have a lowerance x-4 on it just hooked it up to a small battery and it works great everytime

Most portable units will have a suction cup mount. They hold pretty well on any flat surface boat. The bottom of my cartopper has a rough surface so I need to stick the transducer on the trolling motor. I didn't buy any special brackets for it, I just use plastic cable ties. Holds well, I definitely bounce it off just about everything in a lake.

I had mine on there with cable ties and it was fine but I'm one of those weird people that need to have the bracket or whatever. I'm slightly ocd

Thank for all the advice. I would much rather attach the transducer to the trolling motor rather than the bottom of the boat since loading a car top boat is sort of rough and I don't want to knock the thing off at the ramp. Only problem with attaching it to the motor for me, is that the motor will be on the back of the boat, so the readings will be of water I just passed. Guess it's not really a big deal, maybe I'll just drive backwards the whole time

As far as the wiring, I can just hook it to the same battery the trolling motor is attached to? How does this affect the battery's performance having the motor and sonar hooked up to it? Do I just unplug the transducer from the main unti when transporting, that way I can just keep the transducer attached the whole time? Or is it like a wireless connection to the main unit?

One thing to keep in mind when attaching the transducer to the trolling motor you might get interference on your fishfinder screen. I had it happen to me but I see a bunch of people attach them and they dont have that issue. Also connecting the fishfinder to same the battery will not cause any problems. And some transducer do go thru the hull but they are pricey most just get screwed to tge transom

i have my transducer on my trolling motor and have no issues and haven't had interference since i'm not going that fast anyways. you can go either suction cup or this way. i prefer it in front since my motors in front but having it in the back shouldn't be an issue unless you're dropping right on them.

i have this setup so i use the small battery it comes with separately. it's convenient for a cartopper setup.

http://store.humminbird.com/products/322965/PTC_U

I run an Eagle 320 on my cartopper. The transducer is attached to the trolling motor using plastic cable ties. Both the trolling motor and depth finder use the same deep cycle battery and I have zero interference issues. The unit does a good job marking fish and displaying text book fish arcs. It also does a good job showing your lure on the screen when vertically fishing.

I also hook mine up to the same battery. I forgot about that. It tells you how many volts you have. I may try fooling around with the settings today. I always leave it on auto but will try to adjust the sensitivity to get fish arcs.

when you guys say plastic cable ties, do you mean Zip Ties?

when you guys say plastic cable ties, do you mean Zip Ties?

Yes, also portable depth finders come with their own battery so you do not need to hook them up to your trolling motor battery.

When i had my lowrance hooked up to my bow mount minn kota everytime i gave it gas it would cause the mass havoc on the screen. I now alot of people do it and never have issues idk why mine was so screwed up

When i had my lowrance hooked up to my bow mount minn kota everytime i gave it gas it would cause the mass havoc on the screen. I now alot of people do it and never have issues idk why mine was so screwed up

Heres the newest Hummingbird Portable with Down Scan Imaging, rechargeable battery ( last 24 hrs per charge) suction cup transducer for $ 299 dollars its a steal, I have the 550 series of this unit without the downscan and ran it for 2 years, it is dead on the money accurate, especially when drop shotting in deeper water.

The Down Scan Imaging will help you find structure, once you learn the type of structure Bass hang on you find the fish, this unit will show fish as little white dots, not as arches

http://store.humminbird.com/products/604317/571_HD_DI_Portable