I like a rod holder.
After reading previous posts on the subject, I ended up buying a Clamp-On QuickDraw from Cabelas.
Well made and sturdy, but for my style it had it's drawback(s).
I like to troll the drop-off line when traveling if possible. I also like my rod holder to be on the drop-off side.
Depending on conditions I might cross back and forth on a given body of water. Clamping/re- clamping wasn't hard, it just wasn't as quick and convenient as I would like.
On portages unless they were wide open, leaving the holder on would result in brush entangling in the unit.
If you had more than a few portages in your day, it became a pain.
I decided to go with a little different approach and make my own rod holder up.
I wanted cheap/rust free/durable and easy to deploy/change sides and put away.
Here's what I ended up with. I bought a heavy duty plastic clamp at the Home Depot. The kind carpenters would use to clamp items with. I can open it with one hand, but barely. I put shrink tubing over teeth so it wouldn't scratch the gunnel's of a canoe.
I bought some 1- 1/2" PVC pipe, a 1/4" stainless threaded bolt about 3/4-1" long. A 1/4" thin fender washer and some smaller 1/4" washers. I 1/4" stainless nut with the nylon lock threads.
I drilled a hole about halfway down the handle of the clamp. I cut a piece of the PVC pipe about 7" long and drilled a hole halfway down on one side only.
You fish the 1/4" bolt with fender washer attached thru inside of pipe and thru the hole in clamp handle.
I used a small metal mending plate to re-enforce the handle but that probably was overkill.
Put a small washer over bolt and the locknut. Tighten till there no slop but the PVC still rotates fairly easy.
When you clamp this to gunnel, the PVC pipe will jam under the width of the clamp jaws, and give you a nice angle for your trolling rod.
I cut a notch in both ends of the PVC in-line with each other and parallel to the clamp handle the PVC is bolted too. I clamped the holder to a board to simulate the gunnel of the canoe and just visually marked where I wanted my reel leg notches. ( You may not want them at all).
Now I won't claim that this set-up will hold the monster LT or NP, but if you set drag properly and pay attention as you should, the clamp grips tight enough that shouldn't be a problem.
But, I like to plan for the worst, so I take a piece of cord with a loop on one end and a big gated carabiner on the other. Put the carabiner thru the loop around your seat frame and run the biner end up thru a little loop end you put on one side of the clamp. Then hook carabiner around leg of spinning reel.
Worse case scenario you won't lose holder or rod. Make sure you leave biner cord long enough that you can set hook and unhook the clip before reeling in.
I think it's a pretty cheap and fool proof rig and easy to deploy/ switch sides/pack away.
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