Winter with a wet well transducer mount?

[mweber02]

So I've got my transducer going through the hull in a duct seal wet well. Right now I am assuming it will be necessary to remove the water before we get freezing temps, but its worth a shot asking... Has anyone found that it is not necessary to winterize the wet well for outdoor storage?

Also, if you fish through winter, do you just go without the depth finder or do you run it over the side/through a scupper?

[J.A. Veil]

So I've got my transducer going through the hull in a duct seal wet well. Right now I am assuming it will be necessary to remove the water before we get freezing temps, but its worth a shot asking... Has anyone found that it is not necessary to winterize the wet well for outdoor storage?

Also, if you fish through winter, do you just go without the depth finder or do you run it over the side/through a scupper?

I don't run my transducer in a wet well so this response is purely conjecture. If you store the boat outdoors at home, you probably want to drain the water after each use. If you store it indoors, that is not necessary. The critical temperature you are worried about while you are on the water is the localized temperature within the well. The water body temperature outside the hull will almost always be above freezing. That plays a role since it is less than an inch away from the water in the well. The air temperature inside your hull is the other factor. On an overcast day or at night, it will come close to outside air temperature. On a sunny day, the temperature inside the hull will be warmer than outside air.

You can evaluate those temperature situations to decide if you think you will have freezing inside the well. Also, brackish and salt water have a lower freezing point than freshwater.

I use a dry duct seal mounting method for my transducer year round and have had excellent sonar signals year round, including days when I break through skim ice to get to my pickerel spots. Perhaps you could try that method during the winter and see how it performs for you.

[Shady]

I use a dry duct seal mounting method for my transducer year round and have had excellent sonar signals year round, including days when I break through skim ice to get to my pickerel spots. Perhaps you could try that method during the winter and see how it performs for you.

Same for me, I think the only benefit of the wet well is maybe more accuracy in temp readings. But after a half hour on the water, I think it adjusts correctly to within a couple degrees.

[mweber02]

Interesting, I had thought the dry well with duct seal created issues with accurate sonar because of air pockets that are impossible to remove in the duct seal.

To be honest I have never felt like my wet well gave me a good quality scan anyway even though i had pushed out all of the air. I will have to give the dry well a shot. That just involves putting like 1/4" of duct seal down between the transducer and the hull, then adding more up and around the outside to keep it secure. Correct?

[J.A. Veil]

Interesting, I had thought the dry well with duct seal created issues with accurate sonar because of air pockets that are impossible to remove in the duct seal.

To be honest I have never felt like my wet well gave me a good quality scan anyway even though i had pushed out all of the air. I will have to give the dry well a shot. That just involves putting like 1/4" of duct seal down between the transducer and the hull, then adding more up and around the outside to keep it secure. Correct?

I have shown these photo before, but they still are impressive. I was jigging the debris piles off of the Jonas Green pier. My transducer was a dry duct seal installation. You can see the jighead moving up and down on the sonar screen. If you take some care in forming the puck/patty of duct seal, air bubbles are not an issue.


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Regarding installation, I posted a FF/GPS installation guide at http://technicalfisherman.com/forum/...nd-rigging.61/. It describes how I formed the puck/patty and placed the transducer on it.

[Pat Smith]

Below are the pics of what I have done. I get what I think are good readings, water temp seem comparable with other's temps and I can see lots of "stuff" down there. The first time I saw my jig on the finder I thought I was seeing "Thermo-Clines"... but I eventually noticed the thermo-cline reacted as Jigged my lure. hahaha

I used the electrical puddy to make a pool then filled the pool up with silicone.. then carefully sink the transducer in the pool.
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[DonV]

I have mine in the 4" PVC pipe wetwell. I did forget about it last year till about half way through the winter and then ran out to drain it. Surprisingly the transducer sustained no damage and still works fine. In my case I just take the rubber cap off and drain it. Any freezing near the transducer scares me and think I was just lucky last time and sure am going to drain it when we get to frost temps and below.

[DownTIme]

I have an aux transducer mounted in a pvc well.
I fill with marine anti-freeze rather than water.
Works fine and no freeze up problems