[Whistler]

Original post made on 19 September, 2002

When I was a kid, my dad used to make this type of rod holder for bank fishing on the canals
where we fished. They work great for lakes too, stick it in the ground so your rod sits at the angle you want. After seeing some of the expensive rod holders that screw into mounts on boats, I thought this might be an inexpensive alternative. I have never tried it, but I think it would work. In sandy banks it has a tendency to turn with the weight of the rod, but I’ve never had this problem otherwise. It cost me $2.19 and some time to make it. Well, here goes:

Whats required:

3/8" steel rod (I think it’s 3 feet long.- I bought this at the local Ace hardware store for $2.19. You could make it with any diameter steel rod that will fit your needs. My dad used to make them with ½" I think.

The tools I used are a vise, 3 lb hammer, propane torch, a short piece of conduit and a 3/8 X 16
standard thread die.

Start with the rod in the vise as shown and heat the entire bend area until it is nearly red hot.
Make sure you heat each area to be bent, or the rod will crack.

Then bend the rod around the conduit so that it is fairly close to a 180 bend. You may need to
heat it as you go, so it doesn’t crack the rod. You can make it as close or open as you want it for your fishing rods.

Then take the end you just curved and put it in the vise and bend the rod as shown. How far you
bend this part will determine how much of an angle your rod will be at when the rod is straight up and down.

Then place the rod in the vise with the bends already made in the position shown.

Then bend the rod as shown in the next picture, this bend will also affect how the rod sits in the
holder.

Place the rod in the vise with the bends as shown and bend it around the conduit until it is almost
a 180 bend.

 

[Whistler]

Continued from previous post

When you finish this bend, it should look like the one in the next picture. You can reheat any area that needs to be tweaked to fit your needs. But this is the basic rod holder end of the rod.

Cut the rod to the length you prefer and sharpen it to a point.

With a rod in the holder it should work like this.

I usually wrap it with electrical tape to protect the butt of the rod, you could also use heat shrink for the same thing.

You could also cut the end off to whatever length you want, thread it and use it just like some of
the more expensive holders I’ve seen in the catalogs. Same basic concept, except about 15 dollars less.

The vise kinda chewed the lower rod up, but I guess this could be wrapped too. This whole process took about 45 minutes. Probably less after the first one. This is the second one I’ve made and the first was about 20 years ago. And it shows. Hope this is useful to some of you.

 

[Whistler]

Original post made on 20 September, 2002

The rod holder in the post titled "Bank Fishing Rod Holder" was primarily for bank fishing. That same holder can be easily modified to use on the boat. It is very much like some of the expensive ones you see selling for $15 to $20 dollars apiece in the popular catalogs. If you are handy with tools this is a very easy project. Cost is less than $2.19 apiece for the 3/8” steel rod available at any hardware store such as Ace, Lowe’s, etc. The tool dip cost about $6.50 for the can and should do about 4 or 5 holders. I used a 3/8 X 16 standard thread die and threaded about 4” of the rod. I cut the rod so that there is about 10” left from the top curve to the end. You can leave as much or little as necessary for your application needs. The tool dip can was a little too small to dip the whole top end in, so I poured it over it into a plastic bowl, then poured the residual back into the can. I drilled a 3/8” whole in the treated 2X4 and placed a large flat washer against the wood with the lock washer and nut above that on the rod. I think I will change the hex nut for a thumb nut so that it will be a little easier to adjust if necessary. Place the same hardware stack up on the bottom and tighten it up and your done. Number of holders and placement is at the user’s discretion, of course. I’ve only shown what I intend to do with it. I will mount 4 of these on the 2X4 and clamp it on the Ski-tow on the back of my pontoon boat. That will give me a stable but removable set of rod holders to use in the back of the boat. Making the mounts like the ones for the commercial rod holders is a easy as getting some ½” aluminum plate stock and cutting it into squares and drilling 4 mount holes in the corners and one 3/8” hole in the middle and tapping it. Then you could mount it anywhere on the boat.