tinkered with the boat today

[Reel Time]

 the step dad and i have been trying to figure out how to get more rods on the boat. thought about hardtops, t tops, radar arches, some custom fab of a bar going across the stern, all sorts of crap and totally missed the obvious,,,, just add a couple more flush mount rod holders like the ones in the gunnels,,, duh

the arrow in this pic shows the location of the new rod holders (old pic) one on each side of the live well. had to go with the straight up and down model, cause the angled ones had a clearance issue with all the hoses on port side. and the sweet part is we can now troll 6 rods,,,, woot!

[wingshooter]

nice,, stripers look out

[Hotrod]

I run about 4 on each side running down my gunnel from my console back, two on the t-top and 4 up front. and 4 on the side of the console The 4 down each side are set to different angles..I mainly use the first 2 for storage ..  I don't like having dead sticks hanging off the back.  I like keeping all that area open and not for storage.

[Capt. Ed]

Hi Reel,

I cannot see from the picture but a nice addition would be a place to attach flatline clips (or rubber bands). This keeps the line closer to the water.

Is there a cleat back there? Are there eyebols in the transom?

Thanks,

Capt. Ed

[Reel Time]

yes and yes ed,, got 2packs of rubber bands on standby. teh rear cleats are on teh downsloping part, which will get them even lower.

[Capt. Ed]

Hi Reel,

One more thing ... do you have a rod holder or rocket launcher or anything down the centerline of the boat. I use this for a way-way-back bird/green machine combo. I use a longer rod to clear the engine. I mounted rodholders on the back of my seat on my smaller boat to get this ability.

One last thing off the top of my head. I use a clip with rope to keep my rod/reel combo from going in the drink. One side of course is clipped to the reel and the other I clip to an "eye" like piece of harward on the boat. Sorry, I forget the name but they come in outrigger kits. They run a few dollars. I will look the name up if I am confusing you. Have you thought of a way to "clip off" your rod/reel when in the rod holder?

Thanks,

Capt. Ed

[Reel Time]

 i do not have a center pole holder for my wwb line, will have to be one just off center of the motor. thought about putting a holder in the middle, but thats the livewell right there so i dont know how i would go about it, with out running the end of the bolt into it.

 i picked up a set of outrodders which are these,
which i am gonna run off my rear outer holders since my forward holders are turned out a little and will point the outrodders either forward or back. so the forward holders will run back and be rubberbanded to the rear cleats. if that makes any sense.

 my 2 inner holders, off each side of the motor will be my wwb line, and my near cedar plug.

 i will try and fire up adobe and see if i can put somethign together with a pic to demo what im talking about.

[Reel Time]

see if this helps any

 

[Reel Time]

 seems like i almost got it all figured out,, but keep asking away, i'd rather reply yup and yes all day, then get out and the water and go o'shat!

[Capt. Ed]

Hi Reel,

Nothing will be known until you get out on the water and give it a try.

It looks rational. ALthough, I would be worried about the mid-ships rods. I put the outrodders there so the line is away from the boat for one big reason. Turns!

When trolling, I turn the boat constantly. I would not want to have a line go under the boat.

Good picture. The WWB will work well there.

I would still consider putting ...

H) Stainless Padeyes - w/Screws      645254 8667  Only $7.99 USD   

the link is:

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/producte/10001/-1/10001/73366/0/0/outriggers/All_2/mode%20matchallpartial/15/0

You can then breath easier about lossing a rod/reel with these.

One other thing you may want to consider that I added to my boats a few years back is a kite cluster. You can greatly expand the number of rods in your spread with them.

I bought mine in Florida but I saw them at Consumer's Marine last year.

They help even when I am not fishing ... I can put rods back there out of the way.

Thanks,

Capt. Ed

[Reel Time]

 i would prefer to have the outrodders in the forward holes too, but they are installed so what ever is in them will lean out, and with teh outrodder in the holder with the gimble locked in it would be angled forward probally a good 20 degrees or so.

 only work around for that would be 1) reinstall the forward holders, leaving old holes, or 2) cut the bottom of the outrodders tubes and recut the gimble slot a little off to match.

 actually knowwhat im gonna do, im gonna try the outrodders in the forward slot and see what happens, might work out fine and not need to do anything.

 as far as the kite rod holder, i was checking those out, and not sure if i like it since the outter rods will be angling towards one of my other rods. i dont have a true center holder, so it would have to go into one of the new ones i installed, or rear corner spots.