Fish finders can open your eyes underwater like never before, but these high-tech accessories aren’t light on the wallet. Lure-maker Nate Marling of the Marling Baits YouTube channel demonstrates how to save a few bucks by building his own DIY kayak transducer mount. Follow Marling’s lead to create a beautiful, functional and affordable transducer arm mount, then stick around until the end to watch it help catch a few fish.
Building a DIY Kayak Transducer Mount
We begin in Marling’s workshop as he lays out the day’s mission: “I’m putting a $2,000 Panoptix fish finder on a $500 kayak and we’re going to hit a pond this evening and try to catch some fish.” In a process that will be familiar to veterans of DIY projects, his design is an improvement on an earlier version that suffered from a fatal flaw—in this case, weak hinges. As Marling says, “Whoops.”
The transducer mount is attached to the kayak via rails and it hinges to raise the sonar unit out of the water when not in use. Marling’s latest design sports a single, heftier pin hinge to handle the impact when the transducer arm gets hung up on underwater debris. He also upgraded the wooden components from pine to maple for added strength.
Beyond pure functionality, the lure-maker brings a healthy dose of fine fishing aesthetics to his project by fashioning the excess wood into an eye-catching bluegill decoration. As Marling says, adding beauty to your handcrafted work isn’t useless at all. “I think, if anything it just brightens moods and…you feel like you’re dealing with something nice instead of crappy.”
Kayak Fishing With DIY Transducer Mount
Marling hits the pond at 20:10 to test out his DIY kayak transducer mount, and soon he is hauling in fish and shouting depth readings to everyone around. What more could you want from an afternoon’s work?
Visit the Marling Baits website for more beautiful handiwork from Nate Marling. In the mood for a more ready-made fish finder installation? Check out our selection of transducer mounts and arms and fish finder display mounts in the Kayak Angler Buyer’s Guide.
Nice work carving and painting your transducer mount.