There seems to be lots of questions around here about the suitibility of canoes as fishing crafts, IMO they make very good fishing boats and with a small amount of work they can make great ones. Heres how I turned my canoe into a great one. The canoes greatest strength is its portability so I wanted to avoid anything I couldnt pack a ways easily, as well I do alot of river tripping so I didnt want to do anything too permanent. Here she is all rigged up
This is the key to it all right here, this is my tackle box, fish finder, and set of rod holders all in a convinent package
The elegantly simple idea behind this bit of gear is right here, handle mounted on one side, fish finder display on the other. You slide the board into the milk crate handles, the grooves cut on the handle side keep it from sliding around both while carying and while fish finding.
Here she is ready to go, notice that I have the crate slid under the thwart with the rod holders on the oposite side as the fish finder. This keeps it very secure without the need to be tied in.
Heres the transducer mount, I cut it out of the lid of a toolbox that was breaking up. IMO it is the weakest point of the whole rig. I can think of lots of better ways to build one.
I mentioned portability, I can launch the rig pretty much anywhere I can get my truck within half a kilometer of the water. Because of my fishing style I refuse to make more than two trips either way. Here is trip one, in the pail I have my anchor, stringer, bailer, and fishing rods. The pail itself doubles as a drift anchor, I bungy cord my paddles into the canoe and cary it in on trip two.
When I go alone I dont bring the trolling motor but if I have someone along I bring it sometimes. Heres a few pictures of the mount that I scabed togeather a few years ago and havnt got around to building a nicer one.
Effectiveness is best expressed with a few eaters we caught this weekend, interested to see other peoples setups. Hope someone finds this usefull.
