FishNdive's Stealth Evo 495

[laneends]

The other option being up front on the deck in front of my toes which would be out of my paddle stroke but a stretch to grab the rod in a hurry.

What i have on the quest 11 that works well for me is railblaza holders on 6" extensions. Then i have two side mounting ports on each side one directly in front of mesh pockets within easy reach for bait fishing then another just in front but tilted at a forward angle so that extention tilts forward putting holder at my feet, whilst mount is just below knee. I use this for trolling and paddling as it keeps rods well out of padddle stroke. It also makes it easy to get legs in and out of yak. No doubt once you get used to a skinny paddler you will start sitting astride with legs over side. It helps stability at rest. so you dont want anything to get in way of this. When trolling rods can angle out forward , drag of lure will bend tip back. Angling forward gives more paddle room.

Using railblazas means moving rods and holders back and forward between two locations a breeze.

Berkleys quick sets , as i have on quest 13, make grabbing forward rods a breeze, but work best with full length grip handles rods rather than the segmented (eg trions), as skinny bit of handle can slip out under a hard strike

[Seasherpa]

The other option being up front on the deck in front of my toes which would be out of my paddle stroke but a stretch to grab the rod in a hurry.

What i have on the quest 11 that works well for me is railblaza holders on 6" extensions. Then i have two side mounting ports on each side one directly in front of mesh pockets within easy reach for bait fishing then another just in front but tilted at a forward angle so that extention tilts forward putting holder at my feet, whilst mount is just below knee. I use this for trolling and paddling as it keeps rods well out of paddle stroke. It also makes it easy to get legs in and out of yak. No doubt once you get used to a skinny paddler you will start sitting astride with legs over side. It helps stability at rest. so you dont want anything to get in way of this. When trolling rods can angle out forward , drag of lure will bend tip back. Angling forward gives more paddle room.

Using railblazas means moving rods and holders back and forward between two locations a breeze.

Berkleys quick sets , as i have on quest 13, make grabbing forward rods a breeze, but work best with full length grip handles rods rather than the segmented (eg trions), as skinny bit of handle can slip out under a hard strike

I've had railblazas before on the cobra Keith and wasn't a big fan of them so I swapped them out for ram mounts in the end.

I found the railblazas too hard to adjust on the water, the extenders would lock in the starports and the sliding locks were often hard to move, especially at a stretch. Some people recon that its too hard to get a good grip on the ram bases but I just put a wrap of tennis racket grip on the ball and I haven't had a problem. It worked for Chenski trolling livies at SWR too.

Location wise I mounted the bait rods behind me because of the construction of the yak. Unlike with a hobie there is no access to the underside of the hull to install a backing plate and therefore the rod holders are all installed with self tappers. The area behind the seat where the standard trolling rod holders sit is reinforced with marine ply. When I put the ram mount bases there the self tappers went through the glass layers and into the ply. In the area in front on the footwells there are two floatation tanks If I installed 'working' flushmounts or railblazas in that area there would only be foam below the glass for the self tappers. The flush mount I have there is only for rigging and holding the anchor reel. It wont have to hold the weight of a fish or trolled lures. I should have taken photos of the construction when I was installing the rod holders.
Totally agree about straddling for stability on the skinny yaks it definitely helps,and that was the frist thing I did when the gummy rod went off at Lang Lang. Sometimes its its even nice to just to stretch out the legs! Can't do a move like that at SWR though

[happyas]

Eoin I have mounted my transducer in the side. I installed a screw lid waterproof hatch in the side wall of the rod chute. I made a nest of eva foam and glued it to the hull. The wires come through the wall via a rubber grommet. The transducer is a slide fit into a shaped hole in the nest and is sitting in a small amount of water. I tried the under the seat thing and could not find a suitable place to make it work. I tried "shoe glue" but it came unstuck. Now I have it all glued with SOUDAL T REX Power Bond and so far so good.

[Seasherpa]

Eoin I have mounted my transducer in the side. I installed a screw lid waterproof hatch in the side wall of the rod chute. I made a nest of eva foam and glued it to the hull. The wires come through the wall via a rubber grommet. The transducer is a slide fit into a shaped hole in the nest and is sitting in a small amount of water. I tried the under the seat thing and could not find a suitable place to make it work. I tried "shoe glue" but it came unstuck. Now I have it all glued with SOUDAL T REX Power Bond and so far so good.

I picked up a 4inch inspection hatch from Dennis to do a similar setup on mine Larry and was ready to cut it on the weekend but I came across a thread on the underseat install. Apparently Jamie did his by putting the tranny in a ziplock bag of water and moving it around in the fish hatch to test signals when out for a paddle. I don't have DSI so there's a chance it might work there. It would be nice to avoid having to do the inspection hatch if possible.

[happyas]

Eion, if you go the inspection hatch route, you can cut a circle of nylon sheet (6mm?) to match the outside section of the hatch, spot drill the mounting holes, cut through diametrically on one side and thread it into the hole so it is now on the inside. You can then screw through the thin glass and into the nylon to secure the hatch surround. This method also works for other "through the deck" installations like rod holders etc. My transducer is not DSI either. The plus with having the transducer in the side tank is that it is right out of the way and can't get knocked or disturbed and it doesn't tangle with other gear.

[l2andom]

Looks great . I told my wife I want a Stealth for my next yak . Still waiting on her to give me the green light as I already have an AI, R13, and a baby soon to be here . Hopefully I can just add to my fleet and not have to get rid of anything .

[Seasherpa]

Eion, if you go the inspection hatch route, you can cut a circle of nylon sheet (6mm?) to match the outside section of the hatch, spot drill the mounting holes, cut through diametrically on one side and thread it into the hole so it is now on the inside. You can then screw through the thin glass and into the nylon to secure the hatch surround. This method also works for other "through the deck" installations like rod holders etc. My transducer is not DSI either. The plus with having the transducer in the side tank is that it is right out of the way and can't get knocked or disturbed and it doesn't tangle with other gear.

Cheers for that idea Larry, I've made the hatch cut and installed a hobie plug for the cables. I'm going to make the backing plate out of a cheap Kmart chopping board. There's already a few holes in it from putting rod holders on the outback. I've got a Li-ion en route from China to power it that it going to live bungeed in the back of tackle tray in a mini dry bag. I'll post pics when I finish the job.

[Seasherpa]

Finally got around to doing the sounder install on the Stealth. Nothing really new about the install just a variation on write-ups from the boys up north.
Because the fish hatch has a dual layer of glass its not a suitable spot for the transducer to shoot through. An inspection hatch had to be cut in the side wall to access the outer hull which only has one layer of glass. Seems simple enough but it is a tight space to work in.

Inspection hatch cut in side wall.

I've seen some write-ups where people have used cable glands mounted in the centre of the hatch lid or cutting notches out of the hatch frame for the cables but I had a hobie thru-hull plug left from the outback so I used that instead.

Hatch and Hobie plug installed

I replaced the bolts that hold the adjustable foot pegs with longer versions and added P-clips to the back to route the transducer cable neatly up to the deck.

transducer cable

Cable runs up around the tackle tray

Next job was to mount the head unit so a pair of ram bases were mounted on either side of the fish hatch lid allowing the head unit to be stored easily underneath with the rods for a rough launch/return.

Sounder mount 1

Head unit on

Head unit stowed underneath lid

To power the sounder I wanted to keep things light so I picked up a blue brick off ebay and it is stored in the tackle tray safe and in a dry bag. Later I'll add a bungee or velcro to the underside of the tackle tray to hold the dry bag that way, I don't lose any of the storage.

Dry bag in tackle tray

[shane]

Nice Eoin. You'll be leaving me for dead next time we're offshore.

[Seasherpa]

The hull had a few wear areas from use most noticeably on the bow and on the rudder/skeg area. Cheater is going to make up a trolley that clips directly to the skeg so I wanted to protect it from further wear. Took out the heat gun and a few strips of keel Ezy tape. The bow, rudder and skeg are now covered and while i was at it I also added a simple fishing line mod to the rudder to stop trolled lines getting wrapped around it. The idea is not mine, again just a simple variation on the theme.

Rudder keel ezy mono mod