Splash Board Rocket Launcher

[Paddler]

Thought this project might be interesting to a few of the Dogs, especially those who own similar boats.

I was given a rod for my birthday, and a gift certificate to Sportman's. Couldn't think of a better cause to spend it on than tuna, so I got a 6/0 Senator to put on my free rod. This made for five trolling rigs. Last year, I ran four rods, two off each side, in Scotty rod holders. I got to thinking, and it seemed that having one down the middle made sense. I also had no place to put rods will running, as having them in the rod holders made them stick out to the side.

My boat is a Hewescraft 200 SeaRunner without an ET, so it has a splashboard just ahead of the splashwell. It is perfect for mounting a bracket to hold rod holder bases. A friend of mine is a welder, and TIG welded this up for me a couple of days ago. It's made of 3" aluminum channel, with five 5" plates of 1/4" flat bar welded along it's length. It's way over built, but really adds stiffness to the 1/8" thick splashboard:









This will allow me to keep all the trolling rigs inside the boat while running, out of the way of most of the spray. When fishing, I'll move the outside rods back to the gunnels, and leave the center one in place. With a couple of handlines off the rear cleats, I'll be running seven lines this year.

[Nalu]

Looks like really nice work.

One suggestion though....If you're using plastic rod holders you may want to consider rod leashes.

[Paddler]

Thanks for the reminder, Nalu. I used them last year. I'll just drill a hole near the center position to clip the lease on. I keep my drags at 13#, so it's not much of an issue. My neighbor used the Pursuit system last year, but didn't check his drags. It was exciting to see, I guess.