Thats too funny BassnRoun, I'm glad im not the only one!!! Thanks for sharing your story!

Maybe lanyards are the answer? We can just tie a string to everything important in our boats, and connect them to a central location. Then we can wear spiderman outfits because we will have about 2 miles strings from one end of the boat to the other!! But you wont have to worry about loosing anything, and your lifejackets will be flying like a kit on that string! LOL, I'm a dork...



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-Brent Parish
Austin, TX

Brent, sorry OM, was only joking about the dork statement. From the looks of that watercraft of yours, the only thing that I would take a chance on is a cane pole! There is no way that I could take a couple of rods out on something that size and keep custody of them for a day of fishing.

I asked my wife to hand me my needle nose pliers about 2 months ago. She pitched them towards my feet. Guess what? They hit on the handle and bounced into 20' of water! That is after I had lost my life jackets. ha All you can do is laugh.

I was fishing Lake Cumberland about 5 years ago in my brothers boat. We were drifting and using the trolling motor, while fishing for stripers, by trolling live shiners. No rod holders, so I laid a rod down on the deck on each side of me, thinking that if I got a strike, I would merely reach down and grab the rod, set the hook and reel in dinner. We had balloons on for floats. All at once the balloon on the left side disappeared, jerking the rod out of the back of the boat before I could even move. I jumped but of course it was too late. The only good thing about it was that it was my brother's new rod and reel! He stated as I told him what happened, "I hope to H*** that was one of your rods"! The joke was on him!

BassnRoun,

No harm done, I was calling myself a dork for actually posting my lanyard/spiderman thoughts! Im a computer dork by trade so I am pertty used to the dork/nerd thing....

I dont worry too much about loosing a rod on my boat as much as I do getting them wet. If they are going to fall all the way in, they would have to hit me in the face before they made it in the water because of the way I store them. If that happens I probably deserve to loose them!

This thread has made me think I might want to look into making some sort of rod holders though!



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-Brent Parish
Austin, TX

Brent,

You may have seen me post these before on the float tube page. I have used these on the back of my float tube. I use them in the upright position, and fasten them to the tube with cinch straps and bungee cords.
http://www.basspro-shops.com/servlet/cat...t=SearchResults

Kelly

Thanks Kelly,

I have a question about that setup. On my boat I am able to lay the rods down on the pontoons next to me which keeps them completly out of the way for casting. With any upgight rod holder, I feel that the unused rods will hender my casting. How do you cope with this???



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-Brent Parish
Austin, TX

I have them directly behind me on the float tube. With the natural range of motion of a cast, pulling rod over my shoulder, I don't hit the rods. Unless you pull the rod towards your nose and cast from dead center, they won't be an issue.

You have to watch them if you're fishing under overhanging brush and limbs, but that isn't a problem much when I'm tubing. I'd rather cast up under that stuff than tube under it!

By the way, the tops and bottoms are open. The reel will keep the rod from falling thru. You'll want to install it high enough that the bottom of your handles are constantly not submerged. Only the 9" and 10" handles will go all the way thru.

KD

OOPS...that is 'so that the handles are NOT constantly submerged'!

[This message has been edited by Kelly Denham (edited 11-04-2003).]

There is a place on my boat that I can mount them where they would be right behind me. And for 10 bucks I guess I cant go wrong.... Thanks Kelly, I'll give it a shot.

-Brent

Brent,

One last thing about the rod holder. On my tube, I can't turn around enough to put the rod back into the center tube. I end up fishing with one, and have one in each of the outter tubes. To change, I pull one from the outter tubes over my shoulder and put the old one back in that slot.

You may have more freedom of movement, but consider this if you encounter the same problem.

KD

Brent,
For what it's worth, Fishmaster has some pretty nice rod holders for about $16. They come with straps that I believe will fit around the tubes on your boat. They are already fitted with some sandpaper attached to the bottom to prevent slipping.
www.fishmastermfg.com

Well, back when I got to go fishing (and thank God it was a lot warmer), I took my 3 year old grandson fishing. (You will see as this story progresses that I was glad my wife and son-in-law were with us). I caught a chunky 13" bass and without his seeing, I put it on his line and free spooled out a lot of line. I handed his pole to him and told him I think he has a big one on. I had reeled my worm up and laid my rod on the front deck. The tip of the worm was just ticking the top of the water. He was so excited and started screaming, "Papaw, I've got a big one". I got the camera and started taking pictures. I heard this splash from the front of the boat. I realized all of a sudden that my brand spanking new Calucutta and All Star rod were not laying on the front deck any more. I looked in the water just in time to see the image of a silver reel going down. I felt to make sure my wallet wasn't in my pocket and dove in! I could see something right in front of me the whole time I was trying to swim deeper and deeper. Finally, at about 12', I had to give up and come up for air.

When my head popped back up, my wife asked, "where's your glasses?" Guess what I was seeing sinking right in front of me. You guessed it, my one week old prescription transitional, bifocal $500 glasses. My son-in-law said, "There's your cigars floating over there". It was then that I reached in my front pocket to discover that my collector edition Scrimshaw Zippo lighter was among the new fish reef I had created with my other stuff.

My son-in-law said, "A $250 rod and reel, a $500 pair of glasses and a $50 zippo lighter all overboard totals $800. But, seeing your father-in-law jump in the lake with his boots, hat and clothes on, "PRICELESS"!!

My grandson had this confused look on his face when I climbed back in the boat. He said, "Papaw, why did you jump in the water with your clothes on?"

Another sad story that I get sick when I remember is this......I was going across Amistad one morning and thought I had strapped down my rods and reels. When the boat hit 70 mph, I saw the rods and reels go airborne into 110 feet of water. (6 rods and reels). When I turned to see the rods hit the water, my prescription sunglasses followed them off of my face and into the deep blue waters also.

[This message has been edited by The Hag (edited 11-07-2003).]

It might be worth it to follow some of you guys around. After a couple of trips, I wouldn't have to buy any more fishin stuff.

if reels still making noise, remove bearings and clean them. Put them in a bottle cap of lighter fluid and swish them until all the dirt and grime come out and then air dry on towel. apply one drop of oil per bearing. that should help also. If I can be of anymore help,just let me know. Like your boat! conniek

Man Hag, thats too funny, I laughed out loud at work! Im sure it wasnt too funny for you at the time, but dang, I got a laugh out of it...... my fortune seems to be better all the time!! LOL

Thanks for the tip on the rod holders Robert, I bookemaked the site, if the holders Kelly was suggesting dont work out, then I'll try those.

And Yes, I cleaned and lubed the reels and now one of them started screeming again after about 10 casts and the other one has a anti-reverse that is not catching some the time. (Probably too much grease or oil, I can fix that!) So i'm going back in to remove the bearings and soak them and relube per conniek's suggestion to see if i can get it to stop.

Thanks


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-Brent Parish
Austin, TX

The Hag...Wouldn't you love to have that episode with your grandson on tape? Play it again Sam (family get togethers). Sorry, I know none of those stories were funny. I just posted one of my senior moments on another thread. I have lost my fair share of rod and reels over the course of 40 years or so but not as many as you lost on the one trip! Believe me, I sympathize with you. I placed my glasses in a pocket in my life jacket to ensure that I would not lose it, then took off down the lake, the jacket blew out of the boat and I lost both! I guess in a small way, the fish are paying us back for jerking them out of the water and removing their fillets! HA Good luck to you in your future fishing endeavors..../MikeW)

I dropped a $300 rod/reel into about 30 feet of water right off Cate's point on Ray Roberts early one morning last year. It was still dark, we pulled up to the point, I shut off the big motor, jumped up and deployed the Trollin motor, and ker-splash right off the side. I was fit to be tied! My partner just tossed out a bouy marker....I told him he was crazy! Mid day when the fishing slowed, we went back to the marker and tied on some worm hooks, and I-kid-you-not, my partner snagged the rod after about 30 minutes and I was eating crow...but it tasted GOOD!

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