I know alot of people make their own rod holders or don't use them but I was wondering if anyone had used the little black stake looking holders from academy. They are like $2 a piece and have done fine on the last few trips but those trips included 2 skunks and one trip without a fish over 1lb. so curious to know if these would hold up against a decent sized blue? Their size has been making me nervous so I have been contemplating making some beefier ones. Thanks fellas

I have yet to see any store bought rod holders that can hold up against a big cats.... Just make your own

Think of rod holders bought in the store as pole props only. Yeah they say holder on the label, but don't believe it.

as i suspected...looks like a trip to lowes is happnin this weekend

little rebar.. little pvc pipe... couple hose clamps..
i like to duct tape down the excess piece of the hose clamp being as accident prone as i am..

you can also pm a friend of mine who goes by southernguy - he makes the toughest rod holders around.....all I use

Y'all look at this man's sig pic. He knows tough rod holders.

Thanks DF. Be putting some more of those together soon. Mine all went to you hard core catfishers. Need to get me some of my own.

Ill post pics when I get home

dont forget I need 8 more and ryan needs 10

Got you down. Still waiting on materials to come in. It'll be close to the end of this month.

Thats fine brother

A couple weeks back I had my rod in one of these while fishing a midsized pond. An 8 pound blue got a hold of it and pulled it right out of the ground and took off with my rod still in the holder.

I dredged the bottom a few times with two 18 inch leader and empty trebles on my other rod. Ended up snagging the line from my first rod and got it back, along with the blue. It was tasty.

I bought a couple of the spiral holders from Wal-Mart and they have worked much, much better.

I learned the hard way that those Wallyworld rod holders are junk if you're not fishin' for channels or little fish. I used them at L'ville, and figured out that a fish that's 3 or 4 pounds can yank that sucker straight out of the dirt. The posts aren't long enough, and the spiral ones don' hold a rod with any kind of cap on the butt of the handle. All things considered, in material cost, you can make your own for probably 4 or 5 bucks a piece, which is a lot cheaper than replacing a magic disappearing rod and reel when the cheapo rod holders get yanked out of the ground.

Here is a thread from a while back you may find helpful.

Several good ones here but I really like kittywompers--

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/6292707/Re_Rod_holders#Post6292707