Rod Holders, need some help/adivse

[Way2slow]

Making and installing rod holders today and have never used them or had them on a boat and looking for suggestions on how and where to put them.

I have eight of these individual rod holders with the mounting brackets  Driftmaster T-Bars Spider Rigging Rod Holders | Bass Pro Shops but will make my own bar to mount them on.  Anyone that uses them and have suggestion, it would be appreciated.

Would you put four like the picture or maybe two or individual.  I would assume they will be located in a convenient spot to get to them without getting out of the seat.

 

[Jig Man]

Are these for trolling?

[Deephaven]

Keith - if you are looking into spider rigging setups they aren't legal here so I am not setup to do so, but on my tiller I do have 14 rod holder locations.  Mine is setup for walleye though which means they are evenly spaced around the boat.  For spider rigging I normally see either something like this in the front if you are using a trolling motor and seat:

 

Or similar around the rear for a tiller.

 

On my Ranger they are all around the boat about 2' apart with 6 on the transom area.

[Way2slow]

Wow!  That's a few more than I envision for the time being.  With those eight hanging straight off the bow, are you doing that drifting or trolling backwards or are they just going back underneath the boat.   From the research I've done, it seems 0.3 to 0.8 mph with 4# to 8# line is the most common speed so I guess they would be down deep enough if going forward, if you didn't have much line out. 

Like I said, this crappy stuff is all virgin territory for me, I've been reading what I can find on the net but as they say, there's no better teacher than experience. 

I've just finished making my brackets.  I'm only putting two rods on each bracket with four brackets total (8 rod holders).  I've put rivnuts along the sides of that top rail about every 20 inches.  I have not put any on the bow because for the time being, I don't have plans on putting a seat up there.  After this first trip, those plans might change.  If I do one, it will have to be offset off that deck some to give enough room.  I've already got the stuff to do that if I see it becomes necessary, I'll just have to get me another seat to go up there.  

[Deephaven]

That is not my boat, but I wasn't sure your goals and found that one on the internet.  My buddy has a boat like that and controlled drift is how he usually moves otherwise he needs to ramp up the weights to keep the lines from tangling.

[Way2slow]

OK, this is what I've come up with so far.  Now, these are the tall rod holders I ordered to clear the seat backs on the pontoon boat.  I didn't like the mounts they came with, so I ordered the Driftmaster mounts.  That left me with 8 extra mounts and I didn't mind them on this redneck engineered project.  I actually have 8 more of the short Driftmaster's but will need to order mounting brackets for those, since I used those mounts on the pontoon.  So, if I want, I can order those 8 mounts and have 16 rod holders.  I have the aluminum to make four more brackets like those I made, but how in the world would you fish that many rods in a boat by yourself.  

I've always believed in the old saying, "if the fish are not biting, you don't need but one rod, if the fish are biting, you only need one rod".

If you look, you will see little silver dots all the way up that top rail, about every 20", so I can go all the way to that deck on both sides

 

One other thing, the Driftmaster and those Chinese rod holders look alike, but they are not directly interchangeable.  The Chinese rods are larger, but I made the Chinese rod holders so they would fit the Driftmaster base mounts, and they will also still work in the mounts that came with them.  

 

[Deephaven]

Crappie wise you normally go off the front or back of the boat so that the lines all move together while covering more water without crossing each other.  Having each line run over the same location albeit even with different depths isn't as effective.

 

[Way2slow]

Sound like I might be putting a fishing seat on that small deck, "for the next trip".  Right now, my plan is to us the four on each side, but probably move them up to the front bench, and vary the rod/pole lengths.  Using a 6', 7 1/2', 10' and 13' on each side.  If that don't work, I've put my transom mounted TM on also, and I will put all of them on one side and drift sideways.  It that don't work, I'll just be bass fishing this trip.  The main problem is the lake I'm going to is 100 miles, so I usually go for at least two days.  Which kinda sucks when I used to live five miles from the boat ramp.  There is a closer lake that's only about 45 miles but I'm told the crappy fishing on it is not very good, mostly all you catch are small, hand size, and I've never liked bass fishing it.

Another thing I don't know is when they start schooling up around the tree tops/Christmas trees people put out.  I have no plans of fishing with minnows.  Just going to be drifting/trolling for them with small jigs.  I know there are hundreds, if not thousands of those things that have been "planted" just in the backwaters I fish.  I see them on the side scan all over the place.   This lake does not have much in the way of bank structure, and no boat docks, thank god.  Sometimes the DNR will go along in places and cut a few trees down so the tops fall into the water but it's most bare banks, so you have to know how to fish what's under the surface.  

[WRB]

Not a crappie angler but have caught a lot them using 1 rod/reel with crappie jigs. Looking at your sonar crappie stack up looking like a small tree 5’ to 8’ high. 

Controlled drift is the most productive technique with multiple rods. I would plan on a side drift with 4 rods on 1 side only to start with in a fan spread to keep the lines apart. A side drift allows you to watch the rods easily and hook and land the crappie while still drifting without being a Chinese fire drill. 

You can also use bobbers set at different distance to avoid line tangles. Keep in mind bass eat crappie jigs.

Crappie spawn in brush piles about 58 degree water temp before bass.

Leave room for the cooler w/ice for all those crappie and a few beers.

Fish cleaning table with sink to follow.

Good luck, 

Tom

[Way2slow]

Looks like if I'm going within a week, it will be this Sun and Mon.  Rains and bad weather move in Monday night and pretty much hangs around until next Saturday.  Where I fish, much rain has a tendency to muddy the water fairly quickly.  50-amp Circuit breaker for TM and 12ga wire for wiring the electronics and accessories came Friday afternoon, so I can get it finished up today and have it ready for its maiden crappie trip by this afternoon.

Wife won't know what to think if I go fishing and bring back some fish, provided I catch some.  Bass fishing, I'm strictly catch and release so it's rare I bring fish home.

WRB, the beers, I don't worry about cooler space for those.  You can pour that crap back in the horse as far as I'm concerned.  Alcoholism ran strong on my daddy's side of the family, and I always figured if I never took the first drink, I wouldn't have to worry about being an Alcoholic, plus, never could stand the taste of beer.

[Jig Man]

Just curious Keith, is there a limit to how many rods you can use?  Here we are limited so our spider rig guys only have 4 each.  When I see them it looks like their rods are 12 to 14 feet long.

[Dwight Hottle]

Keith the varying rod lengths will work but you can help reduce tangles by varying the amount of line out. Place the shortest rod forward by staggering short to long then let out more line on each going from short to long. If you stagger the line lengths by 10 to 20 feet per rod it really helps. If you find all your bites are further back from the boat you can adjust to longer leads or just use fewer rods. You could premeasure the amount of line out by placing a slide on bobber stop to each line that you can wind on to each reel spool for future length reference for staggering your setups. 

[Way2slow]

4 hours ago, Dwight Hottle said:

If you find all your bites

Somebody is being optimistic.  Gathering up gear now, done about all I'm going to do to the boat for now.  I just got another surprise, the wife is going also.  She cares nothing about bass fishing but just sitting there watching a line in the water is just her kind of fishing, so we will see how that one goes. 

[WRB]

Enjoy your outing. I don’t drink anything but water when fishing. The cooler comment was for all those crappie you are going to catch.. the beer was tongue in check.

Tom