Positioning Forward Rod Holders

[CAGE RATTLER]

I learned something new today that I will be trying.
Was doing a little rigging today and my GF said her front rod holder on her Pompano 120 was hard to reach and she was also looking for a good place to position a rod holder to put her rod when landing a fish.

Just stumbled across this article about turning the rod holders around backwards and pointing up on the front & it makes a lot of sense.

http://www.paddleguy.com/tips-advice...rolling-lures/

[Runnin]

Interesting. I will have to try that. It looks good. I have trouble reaching my rods when trolling also. If I position the holders at 45 degree I have either have trouble reaching them, or I hit them with my paddle.

This looks good but you don't get much spread with this method for multiple rods.

[CAGE RATTLER]

I like it more for ease of reaching the rod and placing the rod in the holder when landing a fish.
For trolling I would angle them out farther too.
But how much spread are we really getting anyway considering a kayak is under 3 feet wide.
I don't troll much but when I do, I run lures at different depths with the deeper lures not out as far as the shallow running lures to prevent tangles.

[JohnE]

I troll all the time and have two powerlock rod holders in front of me angled just slightly forward and low enough that I can monitor for stuff getting caught up on the lures. I have no problem reaching for mine, but I guess I do have slightly abnormally long arms. I do not have to scoot forward to reach mine either. I also have rocket launchers behind my seat, but I primarily use those for storage and trolling sometimes.

But if that setup works for you...

[YaknBass]

the Viking kayak site has some video's and they showed a guy trolling and that is exactly how the rods were placed...thought it made sense have not tried that set up... nice way to troll three lines if you wanted...two set up outboard and one down the middle...that way you can see all three rod tips...without having to look backwards...i have a tuff enuff time with two lines out...

[JohnE]

I troll 3 rods sometimes, more frequently during striper season. 2 up front and 1 in a rocket launcher behind, but I guess I would like to have 3 in front of me. Never really thought of having a third up in front until I saw this. Might give it shot, especially if I get a new yak with a pod style center hatch.

[Mbae]

those railblaza rod holders look nice... has anyone here used them? how do they compare to the scotty powerlocks? and this technique should be able to be accomplished by the powerlocks as well right?

[JohnE]

I have looked at railblaza stuff, but have not tried it myself. The rod holders look nice, but I don't see any advantage over powerlocks and they are substantially more pricey.

Like I said earlier, I have no problem on the positioning of my rod holders out front. I do like the idea of one in the middle. I flip mine around in various positions occasionally, but I prefer to keep my rod tips in front of me, angled slightly forward and approximately 45 degree setting so I can see the rod tips without having to look up in the air...seems like that would make me dizzy after a while. My powerlocks are just far enough forward on my tracks that they do not interfere with paddling and I have no problem grabbing them out of the holders without scooting forward or anything like that.

[MetroMan]

I position my rod holders like this on my Viking. I got the idea from the same website linked above...done successfully by the guys down in New Zealand. It makes sense, and works really well. I chose to stick with Scotty brand products for my rod holders. The Railblaza products work nicely I'm sure, but I stuck with what has traditionally worked for me. There is a strong affinity of Viking owners/users/retailers to Railblaza products. They primarily use Railblaza products down in NZ (successfully), so I can understand why. I like the ability to interchange mounts between my kayaks. Railblaza mounts require a different base (StarPort) than Scotty.

But anyway...that rod holder configuration works well.

-It keeps the rods well outside of your paddle stroke motions
-Rod tips are easy to see (when a fish hits, or if your lure runs afoul on debris)
-Rod is easy to grab
-Rod is easy to put back

[archeryrob]

Very interesting. You can put the rod father forward and it's still easy to reach on a strike and still out of the paddle stroke.

[dsiekman]

But how much spread are we really getting anyway considering a kayak is under 3 feet wide.
I don't troll much but when I do, I run lures at different depths with the deeper lures not out as far as the shallow running lures to prevent tangles.

I've been playing with some mini planer boards. They will give you as much spread as you want. That said, they work best for trolling a long straight path rather than hitting a certain area multiple times, just like full size boards on a boat.