How to fit a Fish Finder to the Bamba kayak

Like our cars, everyone has their favorite brand of Fish Finders.  In this example of fitting a fish finder, I used a trusty old Eagle Cuda 168.  The foot-piece fits into the cock-pit recess without cutting or sanding it.  The Garmin 90 and 120 also fits without any modifications.  I decided to fit mine in the recess as it is fairly protected in there and easy to see and adjust.

Cut a plastic plate to match the bottom or your FF foot-piece. An old nylon bread/veggie cutting board works best. Align foot-piece on plate and mark 6.5mm holes. Center 6.5mm hole must be "exactly" center!

Trial fit the foot piece onto the plate

Counter sink the 6.5mm outside holes so bolts fits flush. This view will fit upside-down on the top deck. Only the centre holes will be drilled through the hull

View from the bottom/inside of the hull. 6mm Bolt to fix the plate to the deck. The plastic plate will be on the top of the deck. Use a large stainless washer

Trial fit the FF foot-piece onto the 6mm bolts.

In this example the FF is fitted into the recess immediately in front of the cock-pit.The FF can be fitted anywhere. Ensure that you have access to the inside of the hull before you start drilling any holes

Fit FF foot piece over the plate, place washers and fix with nuts/wing-nuts. Do not over tighten the nuts!

Melt a small hole in the removable net to thread transducer & power cables

Drill a hole the width of the handle in the hatch cover. Careful not to crack the hard plastic. As most home drills only house a 10mm drill bit, you may have to "work" the hole larger with a file.

Heat the grommet in hot water to house FF plug fitting. Thread/roll the grommet onto cable before fitting it to the hatch lid

Adjust the angle of the FF to face the paddler. Ensure the fish hatch lid does not interfere with the FF. To store the FF during launches, pull out the rear plug, unclip from the foot-piece and store inside the net hatch. The hatch can be opened with a 3/4 turn without interfering with the power & transducer cables

Please e-mail me if any of the above instructions are not clear

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