Where you mount your sonar can be critical the success you have on the water. New technology surrounding forward facing sonar/live imaging is no different. That’s why we are going to breakdown the three different locations where you can mount your forward-facing sonar, along with the pros and cons of each so you can make the best buying decisions.
Trolling Motor
The first location would be to mount the transducer on the trolling motor. You can mount it right off the barrel, but it can be really hard to adjust between Forward, Down, and Scout modes in this location.
You can also mount it onto the shaft which gives you the capability of moving it between modes with just the spin of a button. However, if you’re mounting your sonar on the trolling motor, it becomes less effective for panning once you spot-lock. You can see forward or wherever the spot-lock is pointing but you can’t control the view.
Unfortunately, if you mount the forward facing sonar where you can’t control the view, then it loses most of its purpose.
Independent Mount: Bow Location
What a lot of people do instead of mounting their transducer on the front trolling motor is mount it off of the front bow railing. This gives you full control. You can also run it from the bow seat and easily change between modes.
However, when you get into big waves, this location allows the transducer move a lot, making it tougher to read.
Independent Mount: Transom or Cockpit Location
The bow isn’t the only place you can use an independent mount. You can also mount your transducer off of the side of the boat behind the windshield. This reduces disruption from big waves and works well if you are using the remote to control the bow mount trolling motor or fishing with multiple anglers.
Improve your graph performance
Any of these mounts will work well for using forward facing sonar. In fact, many anglers will have mounts in multiple locations, allowing them to use their forward facing technology in tandem. However, the location isn’t the only thing that affects how well your unit works. How it’s setup is also crucial to getting the most out of your unit.
Clean power and good power drastically improve side imaging and the resolution of forward facing sonar. That’s why the team at AquaTraction recommends rigging boats with a heavier 6-gauge wire. When you’re doing a longer lead throughout your boat, (battery location near transom to bow of boat) running 6-gauge power wire maximizes the capability of how much amperage is pulled. This means there won’t be any hesitation in power which will improve the performance of the electronics. Not only will your resolution be a lot higher but the screen’s going to be a lot clearer and brighter. If you’re running wires a shorter distance, 8-10 gauge will do the job but 6 gauge is still recommended for all-around optimized performance.
More anglers are also making the switch over to a lithium battery to power graph. The key is to have a separate lithium battery to power the graphs and a standard cranking battery to operate the motor.
For more electronics tips be sure to checkout out electronics section.
