Rigged Kayaks • Mantra Palani, second time round!

[Nativeman]

Folks

I am currently setting up my second Mantra Palani, I intend to use this one for some of the ABT Bass Tournaments next year as the Palani has a huge carrying capacity of 180kg. So I will be adding a 60l Live well to it soon as well as what I have done so far. I am trying to keep the fit out to a low budget to see how much it will really cost, hopefully I can come in under $1500 retail.

I have gone for the Teal colour, I am loving this colour it really stands out and is way different to the yellow/orange one I had last time. This week I have added some YakAttack Gear Trac and Ram Screw Balls, a standard Scotty mount, a Scotty Triple Mount, A Garmin Echo 300c Sounder, and some stick on graphics(not all are in the Photos), some ram tubes which will give me ample storage area for extra rods and some Keeleazy Tape, how good is this tape! All these accessories were purchased from Adventure Outlet. I still need to do a paddle park and as I said the 60l Live well.

I mounted the Transducer of the sounder a little different this time to my normal installs. I took advantage of the flat area on the stern of the kayak and mounted a std 1"Ram ball here using the screw inserts that are also there. I did need to drill one new hole on the ram ball and screw it on with two 5mm ss bolts. This allows me to mount the Transducer on an arm there, allowing it to have direct contact with the water, hooray I finally get an accurate water temperate reading. As this attachment protrudes from the rear of the kayak I also mounted a ram ball plate on the back wall of the rear well, so when I finish my on water session I simply transfer the transducer arm to the ram ball inside the rear well for storage and safe transportation. I installed the head unit directly onto the flat area in the center console behind the Scotty Mount. And I went for usual Kiddies Foam back pack battery storage option, this will sit inside the front hatch..

I must say I am pretty happy with the result so far and I am looking forward to some on water testing soon..

Check out the Pics...

[Nativeman]

More Pics

[scorpio]

Would never have thought about the ball mount for the transducer. What a great idea. I would like to copy it for my new yak. Thanks.

[Ado]

Looks great Nativeman. It would be good to get an overall shot of the yak to put it all in context.

Those Yakattack great Traks look interesting. I guess hull access is difficult at that point. Are they used as rod storage only or as trolling points. If the latter, are you confident the screws would hold in the case of a snag or a decent strike?

That Kealeasy tape looks the bisiness. I may need to look into that.

[Nativeman]

Ado

I use the rod tubes at the back for storage only, I troll from the forward rod holders if I do, so no worries there. Really I don't think it would be an issue, I used some silicone for extra strength and the plates perfectly moulded to the kayak hull...The ram ball normally swivels if there is an excessive load placed on it so I would doubt whether the plate would rip off.

Keelezy tape works much better if it is apllied to the full length of the kayak I have found.

Here is a pic of the set up for fishing at the recent Wivenhoe Kayak and Canoe Convention...
Click on the photo to enlarge...

[Ado]

Thanks Nativeman, makes sense. I agree that one advantage (or disadvantage, depending how you view things) of ram balls is they will give before too much pressure is put on the hull.