Spey Rod Holders and Drift Boats

[Joe Smolt]

Folks:

I recently got a Clackacraft and I was wondering what to do with my spey rods. What have folks used to hold their spey rods in between runs?

Joe

[TallFlyGuy]

I just use the regular rod holders on my Clackacraft. With spey rods, they fit great. With single handed rods, they don't work so well.

[Salmo_g]

One setup I've seen that appears to work well has a board with about 1 1/2" holes drilled a couple inches apart screwed to the right hand side underside and back of the front bench seat, and then has a store-bought plastic rod holder with the foam inserts that hold the rod blank snugly screwed to the right side of the oarsman's seat.

[East Fork]

One setup I've seen that appears to work well has a board with about 1 1/2" holes drilled a couple inches apart screwed to the right hand side underside and back of the front bench seat, and then has a store-bought plastic rod holder with the foam inserts that hold the rod blank snugly screwed to the right side of the oarsman's seat.

I have a similar setup and it works. This is a link to a picture;

http://www.washingtonflyfishing.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=15536&ppuser=1553

PM me if you would like better pictures.

[Sloan Craven]

Clever, I like it....

[Eastside]

I also have a Clackacraft with a dry storage compartment in the front. It's a 1985 boat, so the configuration is different but I screwed a Berkeley rod holder that they are vertical in. I use it on the Deschutes River in Oregon and you can't fish from the boat, so they don't get in the way. The boat is just used to get to the next fishing spot.

[BertBrehm]

Get one of these cases at the bottom of the page. http://hardingandsons.com/fly.html Bungee cord it to the inside of the boat. I break my 14 foot rod in two pieces, fold it in half and slide the whole thing into the case everytime I move the boat. Everytime!

Works on pontoon boats and in the truck too. I can't tell you how handy it is to have your rod, completely strung up and ready-to-fish.

[Big Tuna]

Get one of these cases at the bottom of the page. http://hardingandsons.com/fly.html Bungee cord it to the inside of the boat. I break my 14 foot rod in two pieces, fold it in half and slide the whole thing into the case everytime I move the boat. Everytime!

Works on pontoon boats and in the truck too. I can't tell you how handy it is to have your rod, completely strung up and ready-to-fish.

My brother built spey rod tubes from PVC and bungeed them to his pontoon. Same concept as you're talking about. He would just break the rods down to two pieces and slide them into the tube. I'm sure you could do the same thing with a drift boat.

[TallFlyGuy]

When they had Ed ward and Steve Choat on the fly fishing america, they were using a jet boat. They simply used the "gear" style rod holders. Put them in pointing out the back of the jet boat, and a hauling azz they went.

I personally wouldn't like to have tor break down my rod after every run, but to each his own.

[East Fork]

I like to tape my ferrules so breaking the spey rods down each time I move the boat is too fussy. Plus my winter rod is a 3 piece making sliding it into a PVC tube a bigger production. On the other hand, when swinging a fly from the rear casting position in the boat, it’s a real pain in the ass to have a rod tip interfering with my erratic casting. That said, Salmo g’s solution is the one I adopted and it works well most of time for spey and single handed rods.

One thing that may not be apparent from the picture I posted above is that the board on the passenger seat, the rod holder on the rowers seat and the rubber gunnel guard are on the same plan. This means that boat can be towed with rods in the holder for short distances without fear of damaging the tips. This is particularly true of single handed rods.

[Davy]

not sure I can find a pic, but I have one those removable rubber slide in/out wall rod racks mounted on the outside right edge of the fly deck on my Hyde. The rods go in the rubber VEE's and stand up ( you only have to worry about overhead), I don't like them sticking out the back and certainly not the front. When trout/boat fishing the rubber part slides out and all you have is a reasonably flat mounting plate that flylines slide right over with no hangups.

[BertBrehm]

I like to tape my ferrules so breaking the spey rods down each time I move the boat is too fussy. Plus my winter rod is a 3 piece making sliding it into a PVC tube a bigger production.

True dat. Three piece and five piece rods won't work with my "system".

[BertBrehm]

The rods go in the rubber VEE's and stand up ( you only have to worry about overhead), I don't like them sticking out the back and certainly not the front.

Anything sticking above or outside of the gunnels is in the danger zone. I've had some mean ol' trees reach right into my drift boat trying to eat my stuff. But if you have taped those ferrules, I see your point. Up is the best of those choices.

[Davy]

your right Bert!, for some people I know it would be a stretch to expect them to pay attention when rowing a boat on a river, let alone notice that big maple branch about to drag the Burkies into the river