Going to be upgrading to an Old Town Sportsman 120 PDL and using the Navarre scupper mount for my transducer (Garmin Striker 4), but I also want to be able to take it out to float on creeks and rivers and such. With the scupper mount it sits very close to the hull of the boat but I'm a little worried about stray rocks or boulders that might damage the unit if I get too shallow. Is this something I should be worried about or am I overthinking it? Does anyone remove their transducer if they know they'll be potentially getting very shallow?

Yeah, I turn mine off and pull it out when I'm going to be in water less than 2 feet.  I've already had to replace my transducer once.  It didn't stop working completely, but it got to the point where it was beat up enough that it lost its sensitivity and wouldn't pick up much more than the bottom.  I could go over a tree that I could physically see, and it would just tell me the bottom was 15 ft. down and sloping.  Useless for finding fish or cover.  

I never take mine on rivers unless it is higher water or winter.

I don't fish rivers much/yet though I'm planning to put it on the Delaware this spring/summer.  I have the short Helix transducer on the standard old town mount.  No plan to remove it.  I fish shallow lakes and launch on rocks now.  I'm mindful of it when I'm shallow but have never worried too much since it sits 2-3" higher than the nose of the kayak and its a short transducer.  

Not at all uncommon to use two different kayaks.

I've been tempted to scupper mount my transducer, but I alternate between lake and river fishing pretty frequently.  I use one of the rail transducer mounts and just leave the whole setup at home if it's going to be a river day.

I have mine attached to my pod and a spare pod that doesn't have one. When in shallow rivers I use the blank pod. Honestly, the Garmin has been a waste of money since I mostly fish shallow rivers. Probably should sell it I guess. 

On 3/1/2023 at 8:26 AM, Choporoz said:

Not at all uncommon to use two different kayaks.

unlike my friend Choporoz..I have one kayak.  I fish the Russian river frequently.  I took my fish finder the first time and it was a waste of time/energy.  i fished with the kayak clipped to my belt with a carabiner, and me knee deep a lot of the time.  my Hobie has the transducer tucked into  a cubby hole so it stayed put, but you won't need a FF in my opinion.  

I just pulled the trigger on the Yak Attack Cellblock & Switchblade arm arm with a lock-n-load mount for the Helix 7. Fishing the river as much as a lake it just made sense and because I remove the ff while transporting and it makes it a lot simpler, compact unit.

 

Yet another reason to utilize a YakAttack Switchblade.

Not sure how helpful this is, but I have mine rigged on an arm I built that sits in the sail holder of my outback and runs over the side. If it hits something hard it will just lift up, so I don't ever worry about it. Then again all my creeks are sand, not rocks, so that might change things