Compact Sonar for the Native Ultimate

The Internet is full of photos and tutorials on how to install sonar on kayaks. Many are good, and in my opinion, others are just too snaggy and draggy - encumbering an otherwise sleek craft.

When we got our tandem Native Ultimate 14.5, I wanted to avoid as much of the transducer wires and mounting hardware, and to ensure a clean switch to a single configuration. Sometimes you just don't need sonar, so why have any remnants of its installation left behind?

Before I go any further, I do want to say that this unit has been tested for over two years now and it has been a great addition to our beloved hybrid. And although I have titled that it is for the Native Ultimate, I'm sure this would work in many canoes and other kayak hybrids.

The unit is completely self contained and only needs to have the bottom dipped in water, leashed, and then turned on. I'm sure there are ways to make the unit a little dock that it sits in, but I simply haven't made one. It shifts once in awhile, but it hasn't been much of a concern.

On to the tutorial :)

Tools & Supplies:
XNT 9 20 T Transducer
MS M Quick Disconnect Mount 740077-1
PC-10 Power Cable
Pelican 1050 Micro Hard Case
Marine Goop
File
2 Female spade connectors
Drill - small bit for pilot and larger 3/8" - 1/2" to make a hole big enough for the connectors that go up to the quick disconnect mount.
Utility knife
Wire stripper/crimping tool
Scissors
Zip ties
Perseverance

Pelican makes exceptional products, and the 1050 case looked to me like it had just enough room to squeeze some guts in to while holding the mount (humminbird in this case), to the top.

A trip to our local battery shop helped steer me in to a half-sized (4.5 amp hour) sealed lead acid battery.

The case will need to have a flat surface on the bottom, so carefully file down the two raised grooves.

The transducer that came with my 385ci, is the XNT 9 20 T. I have had great success with this transducer in the hull of two other kayaks, so I just cut the bottom from the rubber liner in the case and used marine goop to attach it to the bottom.

Position the transducer, battery, and liner together in the case, so you can tell exactly where the transducer needs to be glued down. There is absolutely no wiggle room as you can see.

Apply the sealant and transducer carefully to avoid getting any bubbles between the surfaces. Clamp it and tape the cable so that it doesn't move while the goop sets up. I would leave it overnight to make sure.

I tried to read up on shortening transducer cables, and from what I could gather and partially understand, the impedance of the cable could be adversely affected by cutting it. Since the unit is designed to work with the length of cable on the transducer, I chose to take on the task of carefully coiling the wire and binding it in place. You will need some patience for this, so be warned.

Make sure you have the battery in the case for reference to this point, or you won't know just how compact you have to make the cable for it to fit in there. You can see I used zip ties to compress them down and keep them in place. Position them underneath before you start coiling.

To make the hole for the cable to pass through,start with a pilot hole with a smaller bit and then switch to larger. Notice that it's off to the side. Make sure it will be above where the transducer is, NOT the battery as there isn't enough room.

You need a more room than 3/8" for the plug on the power and transducer plug, so you will have to enlarge it a little with side pressure on the bit.

Since there isn't room to fit bolts through the case, I chose to use some marine goop to secure the mount.

You will have to shorten the power cable and add the female quick connectors.

Don't forget to fill the hole that the cables pass through with sealant as well.

I don't take the battery out to charge it. I just pull the leads back enough to get the alligator clips from the charger on them.

Unit with battery charger connected.

I haven't tested how close the temperature is, but I don't think it's off very much once the boat is in the water. If I ever test this, I will update the info.

Now of course the battery doesn't last as long as the standard SLA, but I have found that it is a solid companion for a typical day of fishing. You can always turn it off when you don't need it.

The only thing you need to do before placing it in the kayak, is to get the bottom wet. Obviously it's best to do this close to shore in shallow water or with the unit tethered - it doesn't float.

Food on the Fishing Highway

Del left (cook and I'm pretty sure the boss) and Wayne on the right.

One of the things I love so much about fishing, is the places it takes you and the things that happen along the way.

I decided to finally take my wife up highway 24 to show her a little of the countryside. Highway 24 stretches from Little Fort to just south of 100 Mile house in our beautiful province of BC. The road often referred to as 'The Fishing Highway' because of the uncountable lakes in the area with great fishing.

Click photo for Google Map view

This would not be a day of casting or even getting out on the water however, which made me twitch a little, but it was great to give my wife a glimpse of this incredible area.

When you drive this road, you can't help but notice that some buildings are vacant and give the impression that for at least some, this is where their dreams came to die.

Along the highway by Sheridan Lake, is Del's Asian & Canadian Cuisine. This is where dreams come to dine. Inside there will not be someone waiting to seat you, take your order, or push in your chair. That's because Del is too busy making your meal and Wayne is at the front running the till, washing dishes, taking orders, and serving the tables.

Click photo to go to their Facebook page

On the TV up on the front wall, was the Nature channel. While waiting for my order I watched some lions disembowel a couple zebras and then have a good shag in the grass, hilarious in my opinion. Now don't let me get you thinking that poor Del and Wayne were doing anything wrong, it just seemed funny and the fact that nobody else noticed while they were cutting up their delicious meals made it even funnier to me. Once the lions were in the grass, I had to give my wife a little nudge though for sure. I think it was then that she said something about being happy that she married me.

To get back on topic.. As I watched the mom and pop of this operation, it became very clear that their restaurant had been in business for over 10 years in this sparse location because of how polite and charming they were and the fact that the food was so delicious that if anyone had tried to take it from me I would have chomped their neck, clawed their face, and roared very loudly - no, I would not have taken them to the grass. Don't be a sicko!

Later, we would have an opportunity to speak with Del and Wayne. Del was passionate about the food she cooks and took great pleasure in telling us about how she prepared our meals, got the right ingredients and the nuances of preparation that made it just right. She came to Canada from the Philippines in 1981 and you may think that she would be starved for the climate of the tropics, but that's not the case. She says that one thing that she has trouble with when she visits back home, is the climate. Wayne is just plain nice and handles all the juggling of jobs with a quiet peace about him.

Click photo for Trip Advisor Reviews of Del's Cuisine 

So as if there's not enough reason to visit this amazing part of BC. Now you have no excuse :)

Going Deep - Accidentally

I wish I could say that I've only made my mistakes once, but I seem to need a reminder once in a while.

Arriving at Tunkwa Lake as the sun crept over the vast horizon, everything seemed in place for a memorable day. The fish were rising only a few hundred meters from shore, and hardly a soul disturbed the skin of glass that mirrored the morning sky. The board slipped into the water, the cooler was placed on top, the tackle bag was strapped to the front, and the diving reel with anchor rope and 5 lb downrigger ball was clipped to the bow. Now to just put in the rod holders... hey, where are they?

Some say that 80% of your fishing is done off the water, and I agree with them. I don't know how to convince myself that I need to put more effort into simply being organized. Maybe some electroshock therapy, controlled starvation, light beating, or resorting to actually working on it may help.
I had apparently taken them out of the cooler to make some huge space for something else when I took my wife out paddle boarding - And yes, now I had someone to blame but it wasn't going to help me for the moment...

Inspired by such influences of mastery as Red Green and Tim the Tool Man, I decided to use the bungees on the back of the board to help secure the rods while I had them in the water to fish. This worked quite well and a few fish helped test the merits of the improvised 'system'. When I would move from one spot to another, I would make sure to more securely wrap the bungees over the entire rod and in front of the reel so there was no risk in losing anything.

Perhaps it was the heat, maybe it was the wind and waves that would arrive to challenge a perfect day, but the last time I moved spots I did not ensure that the rods were wrapped securely. After anchoring, I turned and realized in angling horror that my 6 weight Scott and Hardy CLS reel were somewhere on the bottom of the lake. I tried to trick my brain in to thinking that the rod was somewhere else, or that there was some kind of attainable solution, but I just couldn't bend reality enough.

Knowing that there was a floating line and indicator on the setup, and that I hadn't even given my faithful friend the dignity of reeling in the line, I thought it was possible to find the indicator floating. All good in theory, but after shoveling the board back and forth over the angry water, it was clear that I was going to have to concede to the indifferent depths.

I anchored upwind in the spot I was planning on initially, hoping I may see a fish leap in the distance, taunting me with my line in its mouth. While waiting I caught a beautiful scrappy rainbow that I somehow killed after what I thought was a brief fight and a quick throat pump. As it turned over for the third time and the eyes became focused on a very distant horizon, I knew to keep it. When the water is 71 degrees and incapable of holding on to as much oxygen, you just can't mess around with trout. All my fault for sure, just like leaving the rod holders at home.

As I sat there feeling like the schmuck that I was, a boat plodded up towards me and I could see a familiar face aboard. My friend Neil and his wife Tammy smiled, said hello, and asked how it was going. Like a 6 year old that just dropped his ice cream, I described in broken 'poor me' English what had happened. I may have asked how they were doing as well, which would have been nice.

Since I knew the fishing had been a little temperamental, I led them back up to a spot where I knew there was some fish and gave them the fly off my line before having one more look around. Oh, and I convinced them to take the fish, marinated in summer algae, thereby dumping the obligation to not waste a beautiful animal on a scorcher of a day to someone else.

The next day I had to go to the office to do stupid office stuff, so I'm sure my coworkers would have some interesting words to describe my level of chipperness - yes, that's a word because I just used it.

Of course when there's a screen within our periphery, we all have one addicted eye kneeling to the constant trickle of e-garbage that gives our cubicle-days a sense of purpose.
Somewhere between the promise of a larger penis and the last notification of the closing of my PayPal account I saw an email from Neil, and it read as follows:

Hi Wayne 
you aren't going to believe this but Tammy and I went out looking for your gear this morning and I still don't believe it but we found and retrieved it!!! I think giving me that beautiful bloodworm was good karma.
we will be returning Friday afternoon,you can email me ur phone number and I'll call u when we get in to arrange the return. Or if you come back to tunkwa you can have it sooner.
i suppose the only question remaining is how many flies is it worth 
Regards
Neil

Well I couldn't believe it either. And not only did they find the rod and reel, but there was a 2 lb fish on the end of the line that was strong enough to break the barbless (so why do they get off when I'm trying to reel them in?) fly off and swim away thankfully.

I was up at the lake bright and early the next morning, anchored like a stalker just off shore from their camper. I thought it would be nice if I was able to figure out what the fish wanted that morning and be able to just hand them a magic fly, but that didn't happen at all. When they made it out and handed me the rod, I couldn't thank them enough though.

Neil used a fancy word to describe the white glazing that had formed on the coating of the guide wraps, after being in the water less than 24 hours. I thought it was strange that water could do that, but I'm pretty sure it's something to do with the sediment at the bottom. Either high pH or some anoxic concoction that brews way down there. On some of the wraps, only half was white. This must have been where the one side lay on the bottom. The wraps toward the tip of the rod are still clear and must have been angled upward

So now my rod has some scars, marks that tell a story, to remind me of a day out and to be thankful for good friends.

UV Materials - Marketing Myths & Misunderstandings

Dubbing with 'UV' in its name.

I stumbled across an article called "To UV or Not UV" on Midcurrent and it reminded me of how much this has been annoying me lately. It concerns me how little people understand about it and how much both manufacturers and retailers must love that.

Main Points

• You can't see UV, so don't get excited when someone shines a UV light on something and it glows or changes colour.
• Fluorescence isn't the same as UV reflectance or absorption.
• Natural materials can be some of the most dependable in UV.

When I talk to people in the fishing community about this, it is clear that it is far from understood. In fact, I would liken it to Otzi the Iceman's comprehension of North American geography, dub-step, or the Kardashians. Now don't get me wrong, I am not making fun of poor Otzi. With just a copper axe and bag of tinder fungus, he kicked some serious Neolithic ass.

Every article and book I have read on the subject tries to go in to the painful details of the electromagnetic spectrum, nanometers, how this relates to both the frequency and wavelengths of visible and ultra violet light, the penetration of UV in water compared to other wavelengths...This is all very good information, but by the end of it all I think most people just want to buy some sparkly stuff and go home.

Here for example, is a scene played out in tackle shops everywhere. To up the cool factor, a UV flashlight/torch is pointed at the latest UV dubbing mix and the resulting glow somehow translates in to a glimmer of hope for all the near or complete misses we tied the previous winter.

Coooool!

There's just one problem with this misdirected mid-day infomercial. Since your eyes don't see into the UV spectrum, you're just seeing a different colour of visible light being reflected back. Yes, the UV light is emitting UV along with some visible violet light obviously, but it is being reflected back at a longer visible wavelength. You have no idea what it reflects in the UV spectrum unless you had equipment or special eyeballs to enable you to do so.

The most in-depth read on fishing and UV I'm aware of is The New Scientific Angling, Trout and Ultraviolet Vision, by Reed Curry. This book is strictly for the morbidly dedicated. After reading it, I was a little disappointed that I didn't somehow pick up more silver bullets, but reality is like that - in that sense, this book does its job. It simply gives you a deeper understanding of what may be happening in different situations.

Taking the magic out of UV

Confusing Fluorescence with UV Reflectance

The priority of those selling materials to us is not to catch fish necessarily, but to catch our attention and get us to buy a product. You can't blame them, it's how they stay in business. Of course it's great if it catches fish, but the feedback on that fact is not usually immediate enough to help with sales and keeping up with the latest trends. It could be the best dubbing material and colour for a caddis pupa for example, but too boring compared to something beside it glittering away. Many, many of the materials sold as having some nebulous UV quality or the letters 'U' and 'V' in their name have a bright eye catching material in them to subliminally insinuate that we are seeing something a lot more special than it is. This isn't necessarily lipstick on a pig. It may be a great material and the shine or colour could add that extra suggestion of life in to your fly, but the UV characteristics may have nothing to do with that at all.

More Coool

WARNING! The Following Contains Painful Science

When a material is fluorescent, what is actually happening is this. A photon from the shorter wavelength light (UV that we can't see) is striking the electrons orbiting atoms in that material which excites the electron to a higher orbit. After a really short delay, the electron returns to its original energy level, releasing a photon at a lower energy level. This short delay dissipates some of the energy from the original photon so the light reflected back is at a longer wavelength (Stokes shift). It is wayyyy more complicated than this, but that is the gist of it. For more detail, click here. This makes something look brighter than materials surrounding it that aren't fluorescent. In a way, the material is using extra light energy that is already around us but is too high a frequency and short in wavelength for us to see and adding it to the visible light being reflected back that we would see ordinarily.
There are many situations where fluorescent colours make a big difference. Kokanee fanatics, salmon anglers, or folks dealing with muddy or deep water situations usually have some gear that has a serious day-glo to it. Even with clear and shallower water, there are scuds and other insects that can have some fluorescent colours on them - the tequila booby... However, this has nothing again to do with UV being seen by either you or the fish, just that it was present in the environment.

My Fly is Colour?

There's another issue or at least a point of discussion. Let's for argument's sake say that a material had UV reflectance. Knowing what you know about colours in the visible spectrum, can you imagine if someone referred to all colours as just colour and not red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, as we go from 700-400 nanometers? What if you were colour blind and unable to see red and after you tied a nice set of damsel fly nymphs, some weirdo took a bright red marker and added it to the nice light green marabou. It would totally change the colour of the fly and you may not have a clue. Maybe I'm way off here and trout can't really distinguish any other colours beyond 400 nm, but it seems like were really fumbling in the dark. Maybe it's just the amount of reflectance or absorption of just one more colour or 'greyness' that they perceive.

Black UV - Does it absorb UV? Who cares! I like sparkly.

Not only is it a largely invisible phenomenon to us, but we then have no idea where we are putting what frequency of UV on what part of our flies and whether that matches up with anything on the actual food item that we are trying to imitate.

Good Ol' UV Materials

If there's one thing that I've learned from my unguided investigation of UV, and with Reed's book in particular, it's that there are some very standard materials that can give you dependable results in regards to the shorter wavelengths. Nature has been using UV for quite some time. If your goal is to have high UV contrast on a fly for example, then peacock for absorption and white mallard wing feathers for reflectance can give you good results. Thanks Reed! Oh, and thanks birds!!

I'm so high up on my soap box that I can almost see over the dashboard! So yes, I think I've overdone this one. Please take a break and then read the great article on Midcurrent about the significance of UV on prey items of trout. It's probably as detailed as you would ever want it.

Adding Salt to Plastisol to Make Soft Plastic Baits Sink

A salted slim-stick did the trick!

If you're totally googlepated and I have only seconds to get your attention, this is the point of this post-> To add salt to plastisol so that it is more uniformly mixed and doesn't clump, you...

1. Only grind the salt to the point where it is very fine grained salt, not like talcum powder or flour. It is far less likely to clump this way.
2. Like making real cocoa, mix a very small amount of the liquid plastisol in with the salt first to create a slurry. This helps a little, but doesn't alleviate the problem by itself. 
3. Use a simple drill mounted mixer, like the 1/4" spade bit paperclip gizmo you see in the photo below. Don't blame me if you poke your eye out. It's just a beta version of a better tool that should be designed by you so you can blame yourself for whatever happens.
4. Keep your temp down as low as possible so the plastic maintains viscosity and doesn't allow the salt to settle as fast.
5. 4 tablespoons (60 ml) of salt per 100 ml ( a little less than 4 oz for my American friends), gives a good standard sink rate on plastic stick baits that I have found very successful.

Increasing density to plastic baits can be done with salt or density additives. I am yet to work with the additives myself and although salt can change the colour of your bait drastically and make it firmer and less durable, it is popular. Along with scents, it may arguably add to the appeal of your offering and it is at least something natural to add to an otherwise totally unnatural material. That discussion and debate is for another post however.

Many salt clumps on the bottom :(

Lately, I've been working on improving some of my plastic bait making abilities and was doing alright until I started trying to add salt to some stick baits. I did look up enough to know that I would have to use a coffee grinder to make salt flour. After killing the first cheap grinder, I learned that powdering salt is a little tougher on the motor than coffee beans. I used non iodized pickling salt that was kosher too. I don't worry too much about upsetting people, but I really don't want to offend a fish!

Grind it Up

Knowing not to fill it up about half way and to stick with something a little tougher, like the Black and Decker version, has worked out much better. R.I.P. cheap grinder :(

Looks nice, but I don't think you should grind it this fine.

Pull Your Worm

Pardon me? If you pull an end of a plastic bait containing salt, you may see white marks form and actually feel the salt come out on your fingers. I have noticed that the salt that comes out of a commercial G.Y. bait, is a little coarser than the salt flour that was coming out of the ones I had made to this point.

G.Y. above, my original below with salt ground too much.

Less grinding has made the salt easier to work with and you're simply not wasting time and energy. I would also grind it fresh when you need it, as it cakes up, and that can just cause mixing problems again.

Mix it Up

So, done with the problems right? Nothing new ever goes that smoothly, so of course there was a little more frustration to work through. It seemed that no matter how I tried to approach it, there were little clumps of salt flour remaining in the plastisol. I tried the cocoa trick (where you slowly add and mix the liquid to the powder), adding it slowly to partially heated plastic in hopes that a thicker mix would allow the salt to be worked in better, regrinding the salt just before adding, and probably something else that I just can't remember. They just didn't work.

I guess if you were making huge batches of salted plastics, you could just use a drill mounted paint mixer, but I really wanted something that would work easily in a standard measuring cup. I remembered seeing a great video on painting plastics, by Lee Butz on YouTube, and that he used a handheld milk frother, to mix his airbrush paints.

By adding a little plastisol to the salt and then stirring until you have a paste, you can get the mix fairly free of lumps - it's more of a good start than a solution. I tried to use the frother when the plastic was thick with the salt and it's just a no-go on that.

After using the frother with adequate results only once, it died and that was it. This could be seen as a further setback, but it was too time consuming and weak for this task anyway. By all means use one if it works for you - it's safe, that's for sure.

Underpowered but made it eventually

OK, so now to replace the little frother device. I know it looks a little too improvised, but after taking the bite out of the end of a 1/4" spade bit with a file and sliding a large paper clip over the tip, I was back in business. I am not telling you to make this, I am saying it worked. It worked safely for me as I controlled the speed of the drill carefully to start and I never had any issues. Just like with any of this, you should be wearing eye protection.

I assume no responsibility for how you use this device.

The fine wire of the clip blends well in a standard cup.

Heat it Up

And as the last helpful hint from my experience so far, bring the temp down so the salt has better suspension time. If your plastic is hotter than it needs to be, the salt content will be inconsistent and probably heavier towards the end of your batch than the start. You will have to experiment a little to see how low you can go of course, but with stick baits there aren't any thin features on the bait that could cool and clog up your mold usually.

You can bring the temperature down a bit when you're not shooting baits with thin features like curly tails or craw claws.

No salt visible now :)

How Much Do I Add?

I found that adding 4 tablespoons (60 ml) of salt per 100 ml ( a little less than 4 oz), finally gave my baits the same drop as a 5 inch Senko. It seems like a lot and definitely changes the colour of the original recipe, but that's what it took. I think it puts it at just under 40% salt :) Adding half this amount gives you another presentation speed and versatility in shallow water or when you want to tease them a little more.

I was super dumb with the math on this originally, so some of you may not need the basic lesson that I had to give myself. After thinking that it was 60% salt, which seemed crazy to me, I realized that 100 ml salt mixed with 100 ml plastisol would only be 50% if the salt displaced all of it's volume.... So 60 ml out of a total of 160 ml is 37.5 %. Go ahead, make fun of me :D

Tree Hug Plug

While listening to Rob Snowhite's podcast of ICAST 2014, I heard about www.rebaits.org. Something to look in to and make sure we keep in mind, whether you have a recycling program like that or not.

Found this washed up in one of my favorite ocean locations. BAD!!

If anyone has any constructive feedback or details to add, please leave a comment.