Rod Holders

[LBL]

Here’s a response I posted to a question on the other forum. I thought someone may be interested. So here ya go.

These are certainly not as esthetic or well finished as the professionally made ones but they’ve worked for me. Use any length/diameter conduit based on your rod. I used a heat gun and very slowly bent the conduit. It wants to crimp and you can see some crimping but going slow enough it doesn’t affect the result other than looks. Then I used an oscillating saw to cut the opening and a drimel to sand the edges. There is a guy on YouTube that fills the conduit with sand before heating to prevent the crimping but I was fine with how these turned out.
I also make rod holders to transport rods in the cab or truck bed broken down into 2 sections with the reel on and rigged. I only cut a slot in the end for the reel and then attach bungees to hold in place. The rods are safe and basically rigged during transport.
Hope this helps. The professional ones are beautiful. DRE offers aluminum ones that are outstanding but cost $$$$$.
Just the weight of the conduit
Choose your conduit diameter to fit your rod
Any length you want. Could add a coupler and go 20’ if you want!
I wouldn’t purposefully stand on them or sit on them. The guides are still exposed in the pictured model. (It’s made with the long groove to be able to remove a full rod while in a boat.)
I used pipe clamps attach to my raft frame. Hell you could use thick zip ties, or whatever depending on your raft set up. If you’re not planning on flipping your boat the attachment doesn’t have to be bomb proof. I don’t leave my rods in the holders on the boat when driving. I’m not worried about anything coming loose but rather the road grit in the exposed reel.

 

[krusty]

I would recommend having the rods in some sort of soft fabric 'sock' before sliding them into any sort of hard tube (whether it be PVC or aluminum...as is the case for commercial rod vaults...even the ones lined with soft plastic). Without the fabric sock the rods will vibrate during vehicle travel and eventually start wearing away the guide thread coatings. With open PVC tunes I'm certain that the abrasive road dust that will inevitably make its way into the tubes would accelerate that problem if the rods were not protected with some sort of sock.

I've now been using a rod vault for several years because it saves a huge amount of time rigging and de-rigging my fishing kayak because I fish with three fully rigged rods aboard. I keep my most used rods fully rigged in a ceiling rack at home, which further reduces loading time preparing for a fishing trip.

 

[Phil K]

I'm not following how this works. The rod is inserted at the open end; fully rigged? Does the tip extend into the bent section? Do you have a pic of the holder in use?

 

[Stoneflywelding]

Here’s a response I posted to a question on the other forum. I thought someone may be interested. So here ya go.

These are certainly not as esthetic or well finished as the professionally made ones but they’ve worked for me. Use any length/diameter conduit based on your rod. I used a heat gun and very slowly bent the conduit. It wants to crimp and you can see some crimping but going slow enough it doesn’t affect the result other than looks. Then I used an oscillating saw to cut the opening and a drimel to sand the edges. There is a guy on YouTube that fills the conduit with sand before heating to prevent the crimping but I was fine with how these turned out.
I also make rod holders to transport rods in the cab or truck bed broken down into 2 sections with the reel on and rigged. I only cut a slot in the end for the reel and then attach bungees to hold in place. The rods are safe and basically rigged during transport.
Hope this helps. The professional ones are beautiful. DRE offers aluminum ones that are outstanding but cost $$$$$.
Just the weight of the conduit
Choose your conduit diameter to fit your rod
Any length you want. Could add a coupler and go 20’ if you want!
I wouldn’t purposefully stand on them or sit on them. The guides are still exposed in the pictured model. (It’s made with the long groove to be able to remove a full rod while in a boat.)
I used pipe clamps attach to my raft frame. Hell you could use thick zip ties, or whatever depending on your raft set up. If you’re not planning on flipping your boat the attachment doesn’t have to be bomb proof. I don’t leave my rods in the holders on the boat when driving. I’m not worried about anything coming loose but rather the road grit in the exposed reel.

View attachment 93004View attachment 93006

I made some just like this many years ago for my old raft. I loved them and they were quite easy to use. Definitely kept a rods protected. I gave them to someone in WFF a while back. There’s a very good tutorial online somewhere for them as well. I think I made mine in about 2 hrs.

 

[LBL]

I'm not following how this works. The rod is inserted at the open end; fully rigged? Does the tip extend into the bent section? Do you have a pic of the holder in use?

These are for use on the raft. The rod is fully rigged and ready. Insert the rod til in the long slot and push it forward until the back of the reel seat can hook inside the back end. The bend on mine is pretty radical because I have a small raft and use longer rods. The bend follows the curve of the front of the raft. Otherwise the holder would be sticking way out in front and prone to getting caught up on something. I figure if the rod can handle a big fish it can handle being flexed. The long open slot makes removing and inserting the rod easy without having to pull a long rigged rod from the end while sitting in the boat.
Yes the rod is not fully protected. Compared to the option of a fully rigged rod banging around in the boat getting stepped or sat on its way safer. Even in a Scotty type rod holder there are risks when floating under trees or the errant cast from another rod. I don’t travel with the rod in the holder. Like Krusty said above, too much road grit.
I do just put my broken down rods in the other enclosed conduit holders I’ve made. I think risk is relative. An un protected rod is prone to getting broken or banged. But I also want convenience. I leave my rods lined with the reels attached and broken down into 2 sections. The conduit holders allow for good protection and easy of rigging at the water. A sock would offer way more protection but then not as convenient to set up when I’m itching to fish. Obviously everything is a trade off. I’m always looking for better ideas!

 

[_WW_]

Montana Clacks have those built in I believe. At least the one I've been in.

 

[Sagebrush]

Do you have a picture of the setup you made for rods broken down into 2 pices?

 

[LBL]

Do you have a picture of the setup you made for rods broken down into 2 pices?

Look close on the second pic and you can see my leader next to the cork. It’s wrapped around the reel seat with the fly hooked on a guide up in the conduit.

 

[Sagebrush]

Thanks, looks like good protection for transporting in the car