Adding Rod Holders to Marlin Transom?

HDGWJOE

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melkat

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I have used the 4 rod holder on a 30 Marlin and presently have a 6 rod on my 33 Express. We use them all the time and Birdsall quality is great.
 

fishie1

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A buddy added a through bolted six rod spread to his transom on new 30 Express. Dealer did the work and is still cussing from what I heard. It can be done but what a PITA. He's on this board occasionally so maybe he'll chime in.
 

ocnslr

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Joe,

One of the first rod holders I added was centerline on the transom. We used it for the WWWFB.

Problem was that it was the first rod that needed to be cleared any time another rod went tight.

So, I added a center rigger and we run the WWWFB line from it, with the rod in a holder on the starboard aft leg of the hardtop. It is right behind the helm, and I can easily tend the line.

Understand you don't want to add a center rigger, but wanted to share our experience.

Brian
 

HDGWJOE

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fishie1 said:
A buddy added a through bolted six rod spread to his transom on new 30 Express. Dealer did the work and is still cussing from what I heard. It can be done but what a PITA. He's on this board occasionally so maybe he'll chime in.

Fishie1... that's exactly what I was afraid of. Sure doesn't look like there is an easy way of installing it.

Melcat... thanks for the feedback on the Birdsall... they sure look like high quality on their website.

Brian... thanks for sharing the experience on the way far back troll. I agree 100% on that. Those are usually the lines you don't have to worry about unless they get hit. Actually I was more hoping to use it to add another rod or two down the middle when slow trolling for strippers & blues. So I need it to be a low flat line coming off the boat. Fishie1/Ken confirmed my fears on installation nightmares. Maybe I should try a combo of what you said: run a rod off one of the hard top legs to a flat line clip/rband in the center of the transom. The problem to solve is the drag pressure of pulling a snake with a drail heavy enough to be near the bottom. But I'll be doing < 2mph so maybe it will work. Guess I need to do some more work on this!!!
 

go fish

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I have a rod rack on the transom of my 306. While I did not thru bolt, I did use a lot of 5200 and 6- 1 1/4" #14 screws. I only use this rack for light tackle. Works great and keeps the rod out of the way.
 

Southern Hunter

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fishie1

I would love to know how your buddy got this done and how well it works out because i've been wanting to do the same thing on the transom of my 305, and just cannot figure out how?
 

HDGWJOE

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Southern Hunter said:
fishie1
I would love to know how your buddy got this done and how well it works out because i've been wanting to do the same thing on the transom of my 305, and just cannot figure out how?


Me too... and a couple of pictures would be great. If you have a generator it's probably impossible to do.

Go Fish... thanks for the idea but I don't think it would work for me. There will be a lot of resistance trolling for stripers on the bottom and always a chance of getting hung up in the rocks. I don't want to take a chance that the 50# line would be the first thing to snap.
 

fishie1

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Southern Hunter said:
fishie1

I would love to know how your buddy got this done and how well it works out because i've been wanting to do the same thing on the transom of my 305, and just cannot figure out how?

I'll see if he'll respond with some insight and pics.
 

HDGWJOE

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megabytes said:
2 ideas

o get your hand and a socket wrench behind the fishbox
o pull the fishbox


Cummins, are you implying to use the battery access to get my hand in there? I doubt I could reach very far... I'll check that out.
Fishbox idea... wouldn't that have to be cut out?


Fishie1... thanks!!
 

Full Page

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Not sure how you would do it, it is easy to add six holders across the hardtop as I did this Spring. They are difficult to reach though!
IMG_3255.jpg
 

HDGWJOE

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Full Page... thanks for the picture. I do have the hardtop rod holders and am still looking for any easier way to slow troll off the center line. I love that picture... I can show your picture and Brian's to my wife and point out that a lot of Grady owners carry just as many rods as I do :D

Brian... I love it!!! How much are you paying her to crawl in there? I had to do the exact same thing when I added that center transom rod holder to my '95 Islander. It took forever and seemed like my fingers only had to be about 2" or 3" longer> by the time I was done I think they were!!!
 

gradyfish22

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Joe,

why would you want a rod across the transom when trolling, personally I'd highly advise against it and here is why.
I'm not sure if your triolling inshore for stripers or offshore for tuna, but either way that rod is now in the way and needw to be removed to fight any fish off the transom, doing the over under routine with that rod is a pain and will just lead to tangles and lost fish. Especially for offshore fishing, you want a 100% clear transom, especially on a boat our size, even look at expensive battlewagons in tounrnaments, no rods EVER across the transom. They use a rocket launcher to get more rods out but NEVER rods across the transom where they get in the way or fighting a fish.

I would do what oncslr recommends, add a center rigger, I did the same thing and it works much better. I run an 8 rod spread when trolling offshore.
I run 2 rods off my center rigger, it is double rigged. I run one WWWB off the top clip, that rod goes in the top hardtop leg, my shorter down the middle goes on the opposite top hardtop rod holder. My outside rigger rods go in the lower hardtop rod holders on each side. My inside rigger lines go to the fwd rod holders in the cockpit and my flatline rods are at the rod holders at the back of the cockpit. This gives me a free transom to work incase we hook multiple fish, and if rods go off, none are crossing one another and they can release freely and and easily be worked to the center of the boat to fight the fish. If we had rods down the middle off the transom we'd have more to clear before we could even remove a rod from the holder and begin to fight it, not to mention you will never get that middle rod out far enough and have it run right with the line dipping in the water, a center rigger really is the way to go.

It might be nice to place rods at the transom for the rides in and out of for inshore fishing, but other then that they really are more a hinderence then benefit, I'd strongly advice not using them for any trolling. I've mated on lots of boats in high school and only 1 had rods acorss the transom, we had 8 rods go off at the canyon and 20 min later we had 3 fish in the boat, all the rest tangled and or came loose because we had to clear lines at the transom or had to do the over under routine way too many times. I had to respool 3 rods on the water just to get them back in, what a PITA...here we are in a hot tuna bite and I'm respooliong 50W reels because we just had a huge tangle with 3 rods because the transom rods were in our way. After that trip we never again put rods across the transom on that boat.

As a side note, I removed all of my hardtop rod holders and removed my third set, I brought down my 50W's and placed just 2 sets on my hardtop legs and spaced them and angled them so that when a fish is on the tips will never hit or touch and that both rods and reels are safely within reach from the cockpit so getting them is not a problem. I called Lee and had to have new bolts and backing plates sent, my old ones were junked, cost was maybe $15 a holder, but well worth it to have rods where you want on your boat.
 

HDGWJOE

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gradyfish22 said:
As a side note, I removed all of my hardtop rod holders and removed my third set, I brought down my 50W's and placed just 2 sets on my hardtop legs and spaced them and angled them so that when a fish is on the tips will never hit or touch and that both rods and reels are safely within reach from the cockpit so getting them is not a problem.

Great idea... gives me something to think about. I think I could do the same thing with one pair of clamp-ons on the legs. I wouldn't remove my hardtop rod holders because I use them to get my offshore rods out of the way when my wife & I head to Montauk or Block Is.

Thanks for the feeback. I know you and Brian(ocnslr) are correct... especially when fishing offshore. And I don't plan use it offshore. But there have been a lot of times when fishing inshore I wish I had that center holder close to the water. I would only be using it in a 3 rod configuration... two off port and starboard rodriggers and one down the middle. I use to do that with my last two boats and never had a problem. I'm not too optimistic about being able to install a center rod holder without removing part of my deck and sliding in there on my back. Doesn't seem worth it if that's what I have to do... I have to give this a lot more tought.
 

Gman25

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Hey Joe..not sure if this will help but I added 3 rod holders shown in the pics. I dont know what kind of trolling you do, but we are able to tuna troll up to 9-10 rods.



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HDGWJOE

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Bob... thanks for the pics... that does help. Last night I was actually wondering if I could put one on each side of the fish box instead of a center holder. What angle rod holder did you use on the transom and also on the center holder in the gunwales?
 

Gman25

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They are the same holders that came with the boat. I planed on putting one on each side of the box but there is no room on the port side. Too much box under that section. If you put one on the stbd side, be careful..theres not too much room for error.
 

HDGWJOE

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Thanks for the tip.... I'm going to head down to the boat tomorrow or tuesday and figure out which way to go.