My shiny new red hot rod!

We saw a guy at the Mendo SBA tourney that must have had at least 50 rods in his lauminum boat. It was insane.


He did win though!

Yep...

The purpose is to have every possible presentation at your fingertips without having to retie.

I like having:

Spinnerbait
Crankbait
Jig
Drop shot
Texas rig or carolina rig
soft jerk bait or senko


Of course, you need different sizes and colors and such.....

I'm just going downstairs to mock up the box and decide.  I should be pretty good to go tomorrow.

MolBasser

No problem with 4 rod holders on the box.

I've got a bunch of pics, but I have to get a tool to finish the job.

SWEET!

MolBasser

We saw a guy at the Mendo SBA tourney that must have had at least 50 rods in his lauminum boat. It was insane.

Bill that guy was unbelievable.

All,

So as I mentioned before I gooped a slice of a pool noodle in my yak as a mount for the transducer.  Here is a shot of the noodle slice:




It fit in quite nicely and it also fits the transducer quite well.  Now all we need to do is hope that it works tomorrow and days beyond.  Here is a shot of it with the transducer installed.





The transducer dealt with I needed to drill a hole for the wiring.  No problem 3/4 inch drill bit and a rubber stopper resulted in this install:




Now that I have dealt with the most important part of the boat I wanted to get the box/rod holder in action.  I previously thought that 3 was the most reasonable rod holders that I could put on the box.  This is not enough for a bass fisherman and I mocked up a four holder set:




Looks reasonable and doable.  Next is to measure specifically the box for the rod holders:





I was going to install with zip ties and then I remembered my desire to bling this boat and not stoop to short cuts.  I'm not saying that zip ties would not work, but I was looing for something a bit more permanent and stylish.  Thus I figured that if I used screws with big washers on the inside of the box, they would stabilize the holders and look ok to the person that gave a rats behind.  Here is a look at the box on the inside after drilling and mounting:




Here is the shot of the box on the outside:





So now we all want to see what it looks like with rods in it!

Well, here it is:








I'm pretty happy with that install.

Now the next big project is the bait tank/live well......

MolBasser

Nicely done 

Very nice job on the box.

Did consider a Scotty flush mount bracket?  That will solve your the clearance problem with the roof of your SUV.

Yes, I considered it carefully.

The trade off would be that it would fit on the rack, but the rod holder would not function very well on the kayak.  It would be just too low.  I measured and measured, contemplated and beard stroked.  Sipped beer and thought more.

I just had to use the regular mount. 

No big deal, I just need to put some more padding in my roof rack.

MolBasser

We saw a guy at the Mendo SBA tourney that must have had at least 50 rods in his lauminum boat. It was insane.

Bill that guy was unbelievable.

Ditto 

Looking good Molbasser.

Lookin sweet!
One question, in the pic of the installed flush mount I can still see the red color of the hull at the bottom of the tube. Is there supposed to be a cap to go on the end or am I just not seeing it properly? I can't imaging it is open into the hull like my brain is making it appear.
I've been thinking of installing one of these on my tarpon.
Sean

There actually is a cap on the end of the tube, and it is red in color.  You are seeing the cap, not the hull.

MolBasser

Ah-Ha. Nice matching of the cap color to the hull then. This is like watching an episode of "Overhaulin" with a kayak.
Good work!

I've finally decided, with my wife help, on a name for my new yak.

Introducing: the Peacock!

After all the comments at the MBF and my colorful nature to begin with it was a no brainer (when my wife pointed it out!).

I will christen her at the Lexington Crappie Fest this weekend.



MolBasser

Being in the sensor business, I am not sure but often sensors that are remote from the electronics will be calibrated with a fixed cable/wire length in place.  This means that if you change the wire length, you may change the operation/calibration of the sensor and associated electronics.  It is possible that you would not notice any difference but it could result in less accurate depth measurements at a minimum and/or possibly other unknown problems.  One other issue is the waterproofness of any splice or connector you add to the cable.  Wihtout knowing more specifics about how these sensors work, I would simply coil up the extra wire and seccure it out of the way.

Being in the sensor business, I am not sure but often sensors that are remote from the electronics will be calibrated with a fixed cable/wire length in place.  This means that if you change the wire length, you may change the operation/calibration of the sensor and associated electronics.  It is possible that you would not notice any difference but it could result in less accurate depth measurements at a minimum and/or possibly other unknown problems.  One other issue is the waterproofness of any splice or connector you add to the cable.  Wihtout knowing more specifics about how these sensors work, I would simply coil up the extra wire and seccure it out of the way.

This is an outstanding point.  One I will take up with Eagle electronics tomorrow.  But I'm sure your right.  Best to leave the cable alone and just pin it out of the way.

MolBasser