Re: Fishfinder location
I assume you were referring to an installation that "shoots through" the hull. I personally like that approach- nothing to collect weeds and no holes through the hull.
The best spot, as mentioned by another poster, is in the stern- you can't guarentee good reading at speed with anywhere else. The bilge can be a good spot, I would pick that.
But in the same way that mounting forward in a planing boat can create issues, you have to mount the puck in an epoxy bed to insure the transducer can send its pings directly into the water column- no air space, no bubbles, no plywood, no foam...you might already know that. Certain kinds of fiberglass layups and/or plywood in the hull between the puck and the water will cause the transducer not to work. My fishing buddy has an 18' Nitro with a shoot-through transducer that won't work right unless he lets a little water into the boat. That was a dealer-installed unit! Sometimes it happens.
You don't mention what brand your boat is but it is likely someone here can tell you if shooting through the hull will work in your particular boat.
