So I've had my PA12 2014 a couple of years and one of the few things I didn't like was how far I had to reach to get my rods. I mounted gear track to the front boards so I could have rod holders. However, the dead area between the mount boards and the rails meant I couldn't get them any closer. I used a couple different rod holders like the scotty spinning real holder and then the zooka tube. The scotty was hard to adjust but was ok, I went to the zooka tube thinking I would like the extra adjustment. I have spinning reels and bait cast reels, so another issue was the rod ends sticking inside right at my feet. I looked around at a lot of setups but really didn't see anything that looked like it would solve my issues with what I had. SO what I came up with is in the picture below.


The H-Rail upgrade and the Ram tubes I got from the great guys from Mariner. Seems like they will solve both issues. I can put the rods anywhere I want and they don't stick into the boat with me.

I also got a Lowrance TI 7 Totalscan and had it mounted to flip over the side (WHAT A PAIN IN THE !!!). I didn't like that fish would wrap around the thing and even when I wasn't using the thing I still had the transducer in the back of my boat. I just found and bought a BerleyPro from Mariner and can't wait to put it on. I was planning to see in lowrance made a plug kit or something so I could remove the transducer when I wasn't using it but this looks like it should work way better. The pic blow is not my boat but should be what it looks like after I'm done.



No more transducer in the back of my boat or having to flip the thing into the water.

I will give update on all once I get to go fishing again.


I also made me a baitwell for live bait.




I was tired of paying live shrimp prices just to fish with dead shrimp. I have used this and it worked great. Fished most of the day and kept a quart of shrimp alive and kicking. I just put a frozen bottle of water in to keep things cool. I'm looking forward to seeing how it does with live croaker and minnows.

Well the baitwell did great with 4 dozen croaker in it. I only had one die on a 5 hour trip.

The new battery for the FF did great with its new 20ah deep cycle battery. I started the day out at 13.1v and after 5 hours of side scan and down scan running, I finished the day out at 12.9v. I'm still playing with the side scan as I couldn't see much with it. I'm hoping it was just because I was in 2 foot of water and not that the new transducer mount is to far under the boat and I'm reading the bottom of the PA.

The rails did great, the H-Rail mounts (Ram Ball and Universal) I'm still holding off on judgment. It was awesome that the rod butts didn't stick into the boat with me, it made me feel much more comfortable. However, the h-rail mounts were a bit of a pain. I had to tighten them VERY tightly to keep them from rotating on the rails. One of them also lost its pin and I almost lost the rod holder and rod into the water.

So far I am very happy with the upgrades but I will update again on the H-Rail mounts and the Transducer mount after the next trip.