Dave,

I built a nice varnished wood cross bracket from a 2”x4” for my Guillemot Coastal. This cross is bolted through the deck about 6” in front of the coaming with 3/8” nylon bolts and S.S wing nuts. When I’m not fishing, I remove the cross and place 3/8” plastic plugs into the holes. When the bracket is bolted on, it is extremely sturdy.

The cross provides me a mounting base for the commercially available pivoting plastic rod holder. I have holes drilled through the sides of the cross for tethering valuables (e.g. rod, pliers, etc.)

The underside of the cross follows the curvature of the deck and is padded with old mouse pads. (Actually, they were new because I don’t use mouse pads... too restricting).

When trolling, the rod holder points my rod forward and off to the side. I rarely hit my paddle against the rod, I never touch the line with the paddle, and I can always see the rod tip. When paddling out, I rotate the rod holder so that the rod is in line with the keel and the tip is low to the deck.

Now, the cons.

1) When trolling an “iron” or a diving rapala, I can feel the pull of the lure to that side.

2) I haven’t caught any fish while trolling. I just started kayak fishing this year. I’ve had best luck drift fishing over structure.

3) If you like to keep your deck clear because you have a low (Greenland style) paddle stroke, this is NOT the type of setup you want.

All in all, it works great for me.

Good luck. Kayak fishing is a BLAST!!!!!

You may also want to check out the Coastal Kayak Fishing website at: http://www.kayakfishing.com for more ideas.

Jim Gabriel

Kayak Builder of Southern California

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/btreecs

> I just finished a CLC Chesapeake 17. Anyone out there have any
> suggestions on how to rig it up for fishing - installing a rod holder,
> etc.?