Full-well crate

I wanted a crate to fill up the entire well of my Prowler 15. Office Max has good file crates that are lightwieght and made of flexible poly plastic.  I first cut out enuf of the lower sides and bottom so that one of them will fit over the protrusions in the forward end of the well - an idea I saw on the forum.  Then I cut out the rear end of that crate, leaving the sturdy uprights.  After a little measuring and eyeballing, I cut out the front end of the back crate, and shoved it forward into the front crate, so the two overlap.  The sides of the back one go inside the sides of the front one, but the bottom of the back one went outside the front bottom.  I then drilled two small holes side by side  in several places where the crates matched, and used 50# test mono to tie the two crates together into one long crate - about 27" long. Use two or three surgeons' knots so they don't come unraveled.  I used a hacksaw, some emergency cut-all scissors, and a rough file to whack at the crates and to round out the sharp edges, constantly cutting as little as I could but enuf so I could get the crates together.  You've got to be bold with the cutting of the rear crate, and figure that if you cut too much, you just go get another one. You also have to file down some of the horizontal bands that go aroud the top of the crates.
     In the photos you can also see where I tied a Scotty mount to the topside of the crate - thats for my  night light pole, but I use it more to hold the Scotty rod holder to get it out of the way of my legs on launchings/landings. The light pole wiggles a little up there, and I think that is a good thing, gives a flashing effect, but legally.   I think.   Also, those white rod tubes are not the usual shedule 40 or 80PVC, but sections of a poly-plastic gutter downspout I found at OSH - much lighter, cheaper, and plenty strong for the job.  I think I'll give that tip its own post!
     This job took a couple of hours because of all the whittling and testing needed, but I really like the result, and it has held up well.  For those of you who are picky, there is still that little curved area in the rear without crate filling it, but I use it to stuff my splash top in (tieing a sleeve to the crate) on sunny days when I'm probably not going to need it. 

Nice project, Tom.  Now you just need a nice, 30 pound ling cod to fill up the crate.......

Pat