Howdy ya'll been a member for over a year but this is my first post.  I guess it is time to step out of the shadows.

I have a native ultimate 14.5 that I am looking at putting a fishfinder on.  I have never used one so I am not sure about the placement for a transducer in this boat.  I already have a movable mounting bracket that I drew up being made by the shop teacher at the school I teach at.  The reason for that is so that I will be able to locate the monitor in two different places (1 while fishing with seat in solo configuration and 2 placed near the back while I am fishing with my wife).  I have already bought the cords and battery accessories to testfit my configuration and it should work find.  I do not have the fishfinder or a transducer yet as I have never owned one before.  My experience is with a flyrod and ultralight spinning tackle on southern ,Mo streams.  I have moved to central Illinois and live 15 min from clinton lake.  So here is the problem -transducer placement.

If I was still living in Mo, I would have placed the transducer inside the boat so that it will not be ripped off by low water levels on the Gasconade in July.  Since I will be fishing on a lake much more now I was thinking about placing it outside the boat so that I could get water temps as well.  Should I mount it inside or outside (front, back, middle) or does someone have a better suggestion? 

if you look at the tabs above , (articles) , then (skills and equip.)then (boats and sporting ), that article is on some of my rigs . there are some pics on the right of my fish finder . for my redfish and my sons native mantaray , we mounted our transducers on 3/4" PVC . they drop into a flush mount rod holder and hang over just below the water line . do you have a rudder on there ? if not , you could make a flip down type . on a hinge , you could flip it in only when needed . i made a small mark with a sharpy while i was in the water . then with the boat flat on the ground , i measured the space and mounted the transducer in between . now i have temp. but the boat will drag before the trans touches . if you want , hit me on the PM or email and i will get you some pics of ours . let us know how it goes . down here in south , our little kayak web site has a rigging forum . one guy will post an idea , by the end of the week ,five more different ideas have been added to it . catch you later... ronnie

fishing is life , everything else is just details . and i prefer my tails with specks or spots .15 miles NE of austin

You can put a thru Hull transducer from any brands, I know that Humminbrd makes them, just go to their website. If your using a kayak and you'll have enough items hanging over the side they have flat transducers that allows you to glide over rocks and things.
Dennis