First off let me start out by stating the facts, I am a scrounge, I am always digging through what others are throwing away, well this time I hit the jackpot!!I have been wanting to fabricate some rod holders for my new pontoon ,and have not been pleased with the results, till now . While on one of my regular scrounge trips I came across 5 ball and socket mounts ,not unlike the Ram Mounts that I have drooled over ,but could not bring my self to spend the money on. They are pretty much the same, but have two thumb screw's instead of one.Too make a long story short with the use of some PVC and my wood working tools I think I have come up with a respectable rod holder. What do you think
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looks GREAT man. What a luck with those
ball/socket mounts. Hey how about a picture of
your ride (everything).
Peter
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How do you like that wide spool reel? I've heard many opinions... I'd say most of them negative???
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Very nice! I did splurge and bought a Ram for my Sonar. They are great cause you can turn them any way.
I love that you did the cut out for the reel. A little bigger and it would support a fly reel. That is exactly what I have been trying to explain.
Keep up the good work.
The bout is one of the TU pontoons isn't it?
See allot of those out lately.
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Sweet, that is some nice work. Excellent craftsmanship.
I was wondering as well, how are those US Reels? I have seen them in my local shop but haven't picked one up and played with it yet.
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You made your cut outs for your real like I did mine. With a lock so the rod can't be pulled out. I can tell you for a fact they work GREAT! You might want to round the edges where the handle goes through. Mine chewed my cork up a little until I did mine. I had some 6 to 10 pound catfish try to drag my rod out of the holder. They didn't get the job done. Good work. Ron
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Thank's everyone, for the compliments on the rod holder's. I went out today to take them for a test drive, and they worked better than I could of hoped,I was able to adjust them into the position that I needed regardless of the way that the drift had me going, or using two poles. And yes FG I'm one step ahead of you, I already have a PVC tube that I have made a larger cut out to fit my fly rod. As for my pontoon It is not a TU but it is made by the same company,and sold through Costco, I know that it is not the quality of a Scadden, but I'm trying to work my way up. As far as the reel I really like it, the drag is as smooth as silk, and consistent, you can cast a mile with it and it holds a huge amount of line,not to mention the huge variation of line weights that it will handle. However you do need to feather the line when you cast or you can end up with a nasty backlash that you don't notice until you have tripped your bail and started your retrieve, the heavier your lure , the worse it is! But it only took a couple of casts to figure it out, overall I plan to buy another. I would not be afraid to recommend them!
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Nothin wrong with that boat. As I said, I have seen a bunch lately and they do the job.
I want to see some on the water fotos of the rod set up if possible. That is really a cool idea.
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I really like you setup! I only have one question though. I have the same pontoon only mine is the Classic Accessories Rouge, the only difference is the name and color. My question is when your legs are in the water and you are fining around with your fins, does the rod holder get in the way? From looking at the pictures it looks like the back of my leg would be kicking the crap out of the rod holder? Just curious.
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As of this time I do not use fins,as a matter of fact I am considering not even wearing my waders,but if I did I don't believe that it would be a problem. The position that the holders were in were mainly for the photos.To give you a better idea of where I have them mounted,I removed the plastic anchor cleats, that didn't perform well for me.This gave a flat surface for the base of the rod holder , and the round tube on the back side for the U bolts to go around. With this setup it puts my rods right at the corners of my seat,and keeps them low enough to be out of the way for rowing.
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[ul][li]Wood working tools....lets see, u used the table saw to cut the ends. I did guess u used a half inch router bit to route a slot. Drill press to drill some holes. I'm close?[/li][li]Being a life long woodworker for a hobby build alot of things big and small.[/li][li]About that slot on the pvc, u wanted it to stay put if a fish does pull it down from standing at an angle with that kind of fixture so it wouldn't be yanked out of the holder, is that why u put it there?[/li][/ul]
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Pretty close on the tools that I used! I did start out with a 1/2 router bit but had to go to a 3/4, and a warning to everyone else, that pvc really grabs ahold to a router bit, be sure you have a good hold, and your hand in a safe spot. A miter saw for the ends. As far as the slots go, I do quite a bit of trolling,even only having oars, I feel that the added action of rowing does good stuff at times. But with trolling the angle of a fish hitting is more straight out the back rather than a downward pull, not too mention swapping back and forth between rods sometimes you don't get them seated as well as you might of hoped, hence the slots in the holder. I have a substantial investment in rods and reels, and don't want to watch them sink!
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Try using a dremel tool. The smaller bits with the sanders work very well on the PVC.
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