Need rod holder advice PLEASE

[gooch]

Heres the deal I am new to the spider rigging thing. I need a rod holder that will work in my Bass Tracker style bass boat (typical front and rear decks) and on a pontoon boat. I will be using it 90% of the time for crappie fishing. and the other 10% for drift fishing for catfish. So I need a rod holder that will adjust and let me angle the poles down for crappie, so the rod tips are just over the water, and angle up for drift fishing for river cats. I would also like one that has the abiltity to move the height of the support up and down again so I can set it at the ideal height in both boats
I have seen the driftmaster and it looks like a kids erector set and I just cant tell by looking at the 10,000 peices they sell you if it will satisfy my needs. The busy bee looks great but doesent look like it will adjust up or down like I want. I need some help guys. Any advice would sure be appreciated.

[VietVet68]

Gooch,

I just went through the same deal. I ended up going with six Tite-Lok square rail mounts on my Pontoon. I did not want a "Tee" bar because I didn't want my holders out beyond the railing, and I also didn't want to have to build some half-as*ed deal so I could swivel them down. The Tite-Loks works very well and I can put the rods in the water if I wish.

[Barnacle Bill]

Gooch,

I just went through the same deal. I ended up going with six Tite-Lok square rail mounts on my Pontoon. I did not want a "Tee" bar because I didn't want my holders out beyond the railing, and I also didn't want to have to build some half-as*ed deal so I could swivel them down. The Tite-Loks works very well and I can put the rods in the water if I wish.

Are you talking about the Black Widow models made by tite-loc? I've been looking at them at BPS.

[Bart]

I just spoke with the guy who makes Bee Ready's and he says you can adjust them appx 20* up or down from the horizontal position with the gromets provided. That would equate to appx 12" off the water give or take depending on how long your rods are. No need to get rod tips lower than that IMO. I ordered a pair of them so I will soon see for myself. I do like the fact that the design is simple... nothing rising above the flat mounting bar to get in the way. Tite-Lok holders are very well made also just a bit pricey for me. You can also make some with 1/2" pipe and wal-mart holders for under 20 bucks that will work just as well as any.

[Dutch]

I use the Driftmaster rod holders on my boat. Bought the ones that have the star base included, bolted them to my front deck 3 to a side. Works great. Also have the Driftmaster T-Bar, has 4 rodholders on a 24' bar that is 9' high. I use it to run poles out the front of the boat. YMMV

[VietVet68]

I just spoke with the guy who makes Bee Ready's and he says you can adjust them appx 20* up or down from the horizontal position with the gromets provided. That would equate to appx 12" off the water give or take depending on how long your rods are. No need to get rod tips lower than that IMO. I ordered a pair of them so I will soon see for myself. I do like the fact that the design is simple... nothing rising above the flat mounting bar to get in the way. Tite-Lok holders are very well made also just a bit pricey for me. You can also make some with 1/2" pipe and wal-mart holders for under 20 bucks that will work just as well as any.

That's strange, I sent Bee an e-mail asking that very same question, the response came back that "no, they are not adjustable vertically", that is why I went to Lok-Tites....er Tite-Loks.

[Bart]

I spoke with Ed Phillips this morning at 214-354-9570. He said there are two gromets included. I think he said one is used to elevate the rod tips for catfishing and one to lower them for crappie. I'll let you know the skinny on them when I get them mounted. I should have them in a couple days.

[Crappie Chaser]

Gooch, you can PM or ask Driftmaster here on the forum any questions about how you can set up your rigging system for crappie and catfish. He'll tell you what you need. On my boat, I have a couple T-Bars in front of the boat for spider-rigging and I can adjust my poles horizontally and vertically where I need the baits to be. I also have several bases mounted around my boat for the rod holders when drifting, catfishing, or fishing on the sides of the boat around docks, cover, etc... when fishing with more than one pole. No need to buy a rod holder for every base. I just unscrew the holders off of the T-Bar and screw them in the other bases where I want my poles to be. This way, I can adjust to any way I want to fish. I can switch from drifting or doodlesocking from the side or rear, to spider-rigging in the front in less than a minute.

Heres the deal I am new to the spider rigging thing. I need a rod holder that will work in my Bass Tracker style bass boat (typical front and rear decks) and on a pontoon boat. I will be using it 90% of the time for crappie fishing. and the other 10% for drift fishing for catfish. So I need a rod holder that will adjust and let me angle the poles down for crappie, so the rod tips are just over the water, and angle up for drift fishing for river cats. I would also like one that has the abiltity to move the height of the support up and down again so I can set it at the ideal height in both boats
I have seen the driftmaster and it looks like a kids erector set and I just cant tell by looking at the 10,000 peices they sell you if it will satisfy my needs. The busy bee looks great but doesent look like it will adjust up or down like I want. I need some help guys. Any advice would sure be appreciated.

[fiddlefarter]

I have one tite-lok 4 rod holder. The only gripe I got is that it doesn't seem to be as tough as me. Seems kinda light weight. At least the vert. rod does I'm going to order the 1" dia. pro tournament series rod. And if I like that I will order another 4 rod Pro tournament series holder. If not I might look into the Ultra series.
Only thing I don't think I would like about Driftmaster is on the T bar its only 10" tall. If it was about 15" I would check them out being a crappie.com sponsor and all. But they're holders are first class. I have a friend that drifts live bait for rockfish and that's all he uses and they are tuff.
But hey I'm new to spider rigging too. Actually I have to start all over pretty much cause one of my storage compartment lids crushed 3 of my 12' rods today. I broke 1 of them on a fish and the other when I got hung up. The other one I checked and found it was cracked in the same place the others broke in. Wally Marshalls though and I had 2 BPS associates in customer service fishing with me who called and got 5 sent in to the local store which was out of stock of 12 footers.

[papasage]

this is my home made pole holders and racks http://img151.echo.cx/my.php?image=crappieboat5xl.jpg