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| O.K,new boat and I am looking at rod holders.I am leaning towards Down-East Saltys but they have to have the bracket permanently mounted to the gunwale!Are there other sturdy ones that sit in a pocket(drilled)that withstand musky trolling? Whats everyone else using? Thanx Jeff |
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| Look at the Scotty Brand holders, they are tough, and reasonably priced. The mounting brackets are adaptable to rail, flush, side, or top mount. |
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| My vote is for the down east. They can be set in many ways are easy to take rods out of when the big girls are on and they are practicly indestructable. |
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| I use scotty's also and they are great. I bought flush mounts and put them on top of by beam rail. Nothing sticks out. |
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| Rail mount Scotty's are the most versitle for me. I did use down easterns and they were fine, but a little noisy in rough water.
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| I would go with the Downeaster Salties as well.To mount them the best way is to purchase Bert Custom Rodholder tracs,mounting blocks and sanction mounting slides.The trac's are mounted by drilling three holes and using well nuts,the blocks for the Salty S-10 slide into the tracs and lock down,the sanction mounts allow you to use Downeaster sanction mount rodholder that is a little shorter in hight then the S-10 Salty that you clamp to the block mount.This way one rod can cross over top the other during a strike without hitting each other.When the rodholders are not needed,loosen them slide them out of the trac and put them away,replace with a plastic step peice that you can insert to fill the trac.Avaiable through Cabela's in the fishing Catalog.
Capt. Larry |
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| Thank you guys,your information is invalueable!The jury is out yet but I am think`in hard and really hurting myself! [:devil:] Jeff |
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| I have used the Scotty's for 2 years now but I only troll for walleyes. I would think the rod could be a real B!$%H to get out of the holder with a muskie at the other end. I know a big walleye can make it a chore now and again. I do wish there was a little more fine tuning you could do with the up/down rod positioning. You can only work with the slots they give you. Plastic and a 50# Georgian Bay monster, which one would win??????? |
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| This is my first year with Scotty holders.
In the past I have used RAM and Roberts Rod Holders. I do a lot of slough trolling in snags and stumps on the Mississippi River with Fireline, where you literally hammer bottom with your cranks. When a holder-rod snags up going with the current, it either peels line out of the reel in spite of the drag setting, breaks the line (rare with Fireline), or brings my 20'' Tuffy to halt. Either way, I have never had a plastic rod holder break on me. I doubt a muskie can apply the same force as a 2500 pound boat trolling with a 2-3 mph current, but you never know (that''s the muskie I wanna catch!).
I do wish that the plastic holders had finer up/down left/right adjustment increments.
Zach |
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| I had a set of Berkley rod holders from before I started muskie fishing. A 44" fish literally ripped the holder right off the side of the boat. Mind you we were trolling at 5+ mph. Luckily, I grabbed the rod before it headed for the bottom of the lake.
Since then I have made my own holders out of galvanized fence post hardware and 1 1/4" aluminum tubing. I want to catch the muskie that can rip these off the side of my boat!
I've seen the Down Easters and my vote would be for those.
J.P. |
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| J.B.
Did it actually break the holder or did it pull the base out? I should mention I try to bolt the holders on and if I can't get to the back side I used 4 oversized stainless screws. Did you get wet lunging for the rod or did you manage to stay in the boat?
Zach |
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| The rod holder was mounted with 4 #12 x 1 1/2" stainless screws. It broke due to torsion. The sudden torque applied when the fish hit caused the base to crack (spirally) and the rod (and holder) came flying out. It was my partners rod and he was fortunate I was looking that way because I immediately grabbed it before it went in the drink. I only got wet up to the elbow. The fish was successfully landed and released.
P.S. we saved the rod holder too, although it wsn't much good after that. I must say Berkley treated me very well, sending me a replacement holder and some other stuff for free, though I don't use those holders for muskie anymore. |
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| Scotties are it for me too. The Striker model is much adjustable than the downeasters, and it cradles the fore-end of the rod to reduce stress at the reel seat. Yes, the Scotties are plastic BUT they are designed for big halibut and rock cod that weigh in excess of 200 pounds, so muskies are minnows to these rod holders. The new model has a special stainless insert that makes them even stronger still. The down easters are made of a white metal alloy, and fatigue over time. They WILL snap if you put too much torque on them, especially in the really cold weather. They also have some rough edges that can cause problems. It is more difficult to get the rod out of a down easter with a larger fish in my opinion. I've tried both, and I've been using the Scotties now for 8 1/2 years without the slightest hint of a problem. They also offer a greater array of mounting options than the down easters. Once the base is installed, it takes all of 10 seconds to remove them from the boat. You can buy different mounting bases, so the rod holders are portable between different boats once the bases are installed.
If you don't think they're up to the task, Bill Craig has been using them for 15 years on the Upper Ottawa. The only guy who puts anywhere close to the numbers of big fish in their boat that Bill does is Mike Lazarus. He regularly tangles with 30 pound plus fish. In fact, he released a 55 x 25 last Thursday (that was stuffed with mooneyes) that was a 42-45 pound fish. He won't use anything else, and also has never had a problem with them either.
With due respect for the number of guys that do use the down easters, I don't think you can go wrong with either the Scotty Strikers or down easter salties. Price 'em out and check out the availability of both (with the mounting bases you want) and get fishing!
Steve Wickens |
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Rod-Holders ?