Thread: Boat Project Update

I purchased 4 Scotty rod holders for the specific purpose of side pulling for crappie and other species of fish. Since the 12' open V-hull is all we have for fishing waters outside the huge Quabbin flowage, it became a challenge! (Doesn't everything with fishing?) We use Walt's Tracker for fishing the big waters of the Quabbin.

The gunnels of this small boat proved to be especially difficult to overcome, as far as interference was concerned. A member of another site suggested getting a plastic kitchen cutting board and cutting it up for spacer material to stand out the bases of each holder. This would allow the rod holders to swivel freely, without interference from these roll over type gunnels.

A member of our state forum (MaAngler's) volunteered to help with cutting up the board and drilling the holes. Took no time at all and this allowed mounting the rod holder bases to become a much easier task. Attached are the photos of our efforts.

This is the overview of the boat with holders and TM mounted on the side:



Another shot down the port side:



The rear most holder which required an extension to get over the sonar:



Here's the inside base and stand out plate made from the cutting board:



And finally we also put a section of the cutting board on the outside to make the installation more ridged. This, combined with Scotty's support base made for a very secure mount for this type of boat:



All in all the project went pretty well. Now we need to get the hull wet! Won't be long. We hit nearly 70 degrees today and most waters are finally free from ice.