Sonar/GPS unit for a boat with a tiller

[Shoot2Kill]

Pending some things work out like I hope, I may be able to add the last piece of equipment to my boat and be 99% finished with this rennovation that started a year ago. I'm looking at a sonar/GPS unit but am questioning where to put it in my boat with a tiller. I've had this discussion with a couple guys, but am looking to see what your thoughts are.

Would you put it in the back for when you're steering the boat and use it to troll, or would you put it up front so you can follow the contours while fishing with the trolling motor? Or...put it in back, move the foot pedal for the trolling motor to the back and fish out of the back of the boat? Or just have one in both the front and the back? Not an option though right now. Thoughts? Thx.

[50inchpig]

i run a tiller, i have an extra ram ball mount in the back so i can move the gps to the back when i troll and have it up front when i'm casting. clips under the gunnels to tuck the extra wires in when i need to. extra ball is cheaper than an extra gps.

[JimBuck]

Shoot2Kill, I run a 16ft. tiller. I can't spring for a 2nd unit up front yet. What I did was keep all the wiring for the gps unit and contain it in some type of cable management tubing. Then I picked up 2 Ram bases (1 in front, 1 in back) and whenever I drive to a spot I just pull the unit from the back base and run the cord along the gunnel to the front RAM base. It really doesn't take much more but a few seconds and the cord stays out of the way of things. I think 50inchpig has the same idea. It works well.

[JRedig]

Fished with 50inchpig a bunch, his setup works well. Fished with several other people who just fish from the back and run the TM from the back, that would get my vote. Kinda depends on the sonar/gps you get and the fishing you might be doing. I don't want to be moving an 1197 SI unit back and forth all the time on a run and gun day...

[MuskieJunkie]

If I only had one good GPS/Sonar unit I would have it on the front, I recently put one on the bow of my boat and it's a huge advantage. If you fish small lakes that you know, you don't really need one on the back anyway. On the other hand if you're making 30 minute runs across Leech Lake at night....

Putting it on the rear and fish from the rear is a good idea too. I fish off the back sometimes and once you get use to it, it's fine.

Another idea would be to get a cheap used handheld GPS online to use on the rear for navigation, then have your good unit up front.

[ole matty]

I mount my 858c up front i can see it from back in seat position with move spot to spot. If its big unit it wldnbe fine to mount in front if not oh well

[muskymaniac4ever]

so where u guys have your transducers located?

[MuskieJunkie]

On the trolling motor. There's 3 options on how to do this.

-buy a bracket for about $10 and use the standard high speed transducer that comes with the unit.

-a trolling motor transducer, specifically designed to strap on to the motor

-a trolling motor with built in transducer

If you use one of the first 2 options I would recomend putting rubber (you can buy gasket material at the hardware store) between the bracket and motor to isolate interference.

[DeBo101]

I have a 17.5ft tiller and I have a dedicated GPS and dedicated depthfinder at the back and a combination GPS unit at the bow. Works pretty good I think. I think having depth where you are running the trolling motor from is most critical. Unless your fishing rocks. They don't move so waypoints are very valuable. Weeds change so using your depth finder will force you to keep your distance where plotter trails/waypoints don't move with the weeds.

In hindsight since I went with lowrance units I would have went with 3 combo units since sooner than later they will die and the turnaround time on the 500 series units was 2-3 months so only having GPS at the back and only depth up front was how I survived half of last season.

[APCfishing]

Ive got a garmin handheld gps with 2 ram mounts, one next to the motor and one on the bow....and you can use it for ice fishing as well!

[Musky Buck]

I run a tiller and a tiller troller so the rear for me, no gps yet, but boated 17 fish this week. Hope you guys got in on the hot action this week, water temps were 73 yesterday down 5.5 degrees. Need new baits pronto, went through a bunch of hooks this week, now time to let the weekend warriors have at em.

[APCfishing]

wow 17? Let me guess....your camera batteries died?

[Shoot2Kill]

I run a tiller and a tiller troller so the rear for me, no gps yet, but boated 17 fish this week. Hope you guys got in on the hot action this week, water temps were 73 yesterday down 5.5 degrees. Need new baits pronto, went through a bunch of hooks this week, now time to let the weekend warriors have at em.

Nice work on the fish. Just a question...how in the heck do you effectively fish with a transom troller? My boat had one when I bought it and I found it to be extremely frustating and could not wait to get a bow mount. I just went around in circles using it and fishing in any kind of wind.....forget it.