The Fishing is Fishfinder & GPS Installation

The second requirement was to fit rod holders. A lot of people seem to fit them up front where two circular mounting areas exist. This appears great, though try reaching them from a seated position!. It really wasn't suitable so an alternative was required. I settled upon using RAM tubes mounted just aft of the seat. With the tubes locked forwards at around a 30 degree angle an 'armchair' fishing position was achieved, perfect. They can also be angled in any position, enabling them to be pointed outwards for maximum rod spread when trolling, or folded back out of the way when paddling. 

The RAM tubes were fitted to the sides as shown, though because of the nature of their design all of the weight of the rod is rotating forward (as opposed to supporting the rod in the middle) putting quite some stress onto the base fixing. To make sure this wasn't going to be an issue a strip on nylon cutting board, maybe 8mm in thickness, was cut and placed inside the hull. The fixing bolts passed through this board providing a lot of re-enforcement. The end result was an extremely sturdy fixing. 

Rod Holders

 

A word of warning with the RAM tubes, glue the rubber end caps on!, otherwise they'll soon be lost. They do require a very good 'nip' when locking them in position, otherwise they have a tendency to droop over time. Otherwise they are a great bit of kit. 

There's a separate article on fitting the centre hatch, see the link below. Though do not purchase a 'revised hatch', fit the 'original hatch' as it's a far superior item. 



The fitting is very simple, carefully mark and cut out the aperture as per the supplied instructions and bolt in. What you end up with is a big hole enabling acees to the inside of the yak when the cover is removed. This isn't really that useful so it's worth fitting something like a collapsible bait bowl inside the yak to make is more user friendly. I fitted a washing up bowl that can either be fixed or slid out of the way when required. 

Centre Hatch Installation

Fishfinder & GPS Installation

The battery is a 12V 12Ah item, fitted into a watertight box with a marine plug & socket fitting. Originally I had the battery sitting in the battery tray aft of the front hatch, open to the elements, though this quickly lead to corrosion on the battery terminals, hence the unit was fitted into a watertight box. It is still fitted in the battery tray as shown below. 

Battery Installation

An anchor light was fitted to the rear of the kayak, a legal requirement for night fishing. As the yak is so small a fixed white light (i.e not flashing and no red/green nav lights) is adequate. A pole light was purchased and fitted as shown below. All the electrically looming on my kayak is fully sealed against the ingress of water.

The lamp, as purchased, tuned out to be rather poor in its design, and saltwater was able to contaminate the electrical connections. I modified the electrical connection introducing another marine plug socket (same as used on the battery) to overcome this problem. A waterproof on/off switch was fitted up frontadjacent to the fishfinder.

Anchor Light Installation

Note: The photo above shows the prototype loom prior to the marine plug/socket arrangement being utilised. The power loom is now fitted directly to the socket and not to the base of the lamp as shown above.

One of the last things I did was to fit some storage space in addition the the centre hatch. I've tried a couple of things, though I settled on a Yakmate 3 and a Marine Box, the latter supplied from SolentPlastics. Both are secured using bungee cord and stainless fittings as shown. Removal and fitting takes seconds.