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An In-depth Look at Marine Electronic Mounts by Brad Wiegmann
It’s crazy. It’s literally crazy how fast the marine electronic mount is changing with technological upgrades, newly designed and new manufacturing companies building mounts. The kicker is while this article is current the next best thing is going to be released in the near future with no end in sight for this market to slow down.
Many of these companies getting into the marine electronic mount marker have been in the business of making these products. Most are making products that are not related to or involve the fishing industry; however, the demand allows them to stop production or step-up production to build these mounts.
Several companies had booths at the 2021Crappie Expo in Shreveport, Louisiana. Several don’t currently have electronic motors that control and are separate from the trolling motor shaft. Notice I said currently as things are changing so fast they may have by the time this article is posted. These companies are Rose Metal Products, Beatdown Outdoor Products and Stowaway Mounts.
Stowaway mounts offer single and double unit mounts that can be folded down and can be raised higher or lower depending on what height the angler wants it.
Beatdown Outdoor Products offer a wide selection of mounts for marine electronic devices. Everything from triple mounts to single mounts that can be adjusted quickly and easily. They are built to last and solid. New product released at the Crappie Expo was the BreakAway Transducer Pole that locks in place with the transducer below the surface, however, if the pole comes into contact with a hard object will break away keeping the transducer from breaking as noted by the owner Blake Price. The BreakAway Transducer Pole can also be stored locked down on the deck of the boat keeping it out of the way when the boat in on plane. It comes in a breakaway model or fixed model.
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Trophy Mounts by Rose Metal Products feature marine electronic mounts that are constructed from aluminum powder-coated, textured UV-protected coating. They offer a wide selection of mounts, but without the knobs or machined moving parts which means Rose Metal Products are the most affordable mounts for anglers.
Trophy Mounts are simple mounts making for easy and fast installation. “Our mounts are available in single bridge mounts, double bridge mounts, dual graph mounts, tall dual graph mounts and pedestal mounts. We are expecting new products in the future for additional mounting options for sonar transducers,” said Johnny Christy with Rose Metal Products. It’s a fast growing market and Trophy Mounts by Rose Metal Products manufacture everything inhouse allowing to quickly grow with the every changing market.
The next companies offer hands free control sonar transducer mounts. This allows the angler to move the transducer independently with a motor driven transducer holder on a separate shaft mounted on a trolling motor. Due to product construction and material cost these mounts cost more than rigid or fixed mounts.
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The Livescanner mount can be used with a Garmin LiveScope or Lowrance ActiveTargeting transducers. Its design allows you to use GPS features that keep you trolling motor active like spot-lock and can currently be mounted on Minn Kota Ultrex, Lowrance Ghost and Garmin Force. They do offer a wireless remote control, but it’s optional so an angler would have to add that on to the price of the mount.
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Cornfield Crappie Gear brings a new product Micro Sweep that’s an advanced independent shaft motor driven transducer holder. Unlike other manufactures Micro Sweep offers several un-heard of features that currently other companies don’t have available. You can bet that will change in the near future maybe by the time this article is posted. The Micro Sweep controller has an in the center setting, sweep in degrees, trolling motor sync and target lock. This allows the angler to control how the Micro Sweep is moving by degrees, syncing with the trolling motor or locking a degree setting even if the boat is moving in any direction.
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RITE-HITE part of R.M. Industries, Inc located in Purdy, Missouri, produces the Turret that is an independent shaft motor driven live sonar transducer holder. An angler can use the Garmin LiveScope, Lowrance ActiveTargeting Live Sonar and the newly released Humminbird MEGA Live with the Turret; in addition to the following trolling motors Minn Kota Ultrex, Minn Kota Fortrex, Garmin Force, Lowrance Ghost, Motor Guide Tour and boat side mounts that crappie or walleye anglers commonly use. It’s available with a 3-or 5-rpm motor along with a correcting the 8-degree to make the image more flat. You can plan on the owner Mike Roller to continue on building new products.
Crazy for sure, but it seems like there are still mounts available for anglers to purchase. Price and construction may change in the future, but the drive to build a better marine electronic mount devices will continue.
