Over the years we always get a number of questions from customers about attaching a HydroWave Mini to their kayak, pond hopper, or Jon boat. The HyrdoWave unit used in this install was the bass specific mini. The HydroWave Mini System - Bass is designed for targeting bass species. This marine technology device uses lateral and vibration reaction technology to trigger a feeding response in bass. The HydroWave Mini is preloaded with passive and frenzy sounds. It is shock and water-resistant. Control volume, play/pause sounds easily from the head.
Items Used in this Install:
- HydroWave Mini System - Bass
- YakAttack SwitchBlade Transducer Deployment Arm
- YakAttack MultiMount Cup Holder
- Bonafide Kayaks SS107 Fishing Kayak
When looking at the HydroWave speaker the YakAttack SwitchBlade
Transducer Arm looked to be the perfect candidate for attachment to the kayak
and deployment into the water. The “blade” section at the end of the transducer
arm matched up fairly well with the two tabs on the side of the speaker and
with the arm being flat in geometry it paired up nicely to the contour of the cylindrical
speaker. Using two zip ties (not included) it was simple and easy to attach the
speaker to the end of the SwitchBlade Transducer Arm.
The design of the SwitchBlade incorporates cable management so using the smaller included zip ties I was able to secure the speaker wire to the front of the blade using the designated zip tie locations. I chose to use two zip ties on the blade and two on the lower and middle arm. The key thing to remember when doing this is to leave a little extra wire when transitioning from one section to the next to allow the jointed arms to move properly and not pinch the wire.
The SwitchBlade Transducer deployment Arm is designed to be track mounted. In this install a Bonafide Kayaks SS107 was used which comes with factory installed YakAttack GT90 GearTrac, so no extra track was needed for this kayak. If your kayak doesn't have track or you are wanting to use this solution on your pond hopper or Jon Boat any YakAttack track will work for this as long as it is 8" or longer (the base of the SwitchBlade Transducer Arm won't fit on a 4" track).
The idea of using the YakAttack MultiMount Cup Holder as a place to stow the controller didn't come till after we attached the speaker to the transducer arm, but that is the beauty of the YakAttack product line; it is a Lego set with most products being highly compatible with one another. To attach the cup holder you simple remove the stock knob that comes with the transducer arm and slide on the rubber washer from the cup holder and rotate to attach. The cup holder now acts as the attachment knob to tighten and loosen the mounting base of the system from the track and a perfect spot to stow the controller and extra wire. By doing this is takes up less space on the track so it can fit on smaller lengths of track or be able to better utilize the rest of the track for other accessories like rod holder, camera mounts, etc. Everything is attached and detached from the kayak using a single bolt and knob (now the cup holder) so it is simple and easy to rig up at the beginning and remove at the end of the day.
