Weekend report….

Got out Friday pm and Sat am. Crankin bite was non-existant for us, but we did manage some on crawlers and minnows. A few real nice slot fish, one or two was borderline legal. All walleyes released.

Here is a pic of the big catfish I caught.. Not much of a catman, but it was a blast. Biggest catfish I have ever caught, and actually my first flathead. We caught maybe 8 cats between both days on walleye jigs.

17 lbs, 20 in girth, 34 inches long. Forgot the net, so landing some of the cats we caught was slightly tricky, but doable… Glad most of them were flatheads! Nice to see them swim away. Sweet!!

Mike

Better off forgetting the net on those. That “slime” just never seems to come off.

Mike,

I got to ask. Are the PVC parts some kind of homemade rod holders? I wouldn’t mind getting a closer look at those.

FDR

It’s definitely kitty-cat time on Wissota. Dan Meyer and I got towed across a bay by one yesterday. No amount of pressure that I applied could move that fish in the direction I wanted. It finally made a run for some dock pilings in 3 feet of water, and it was all over.

Nice pic!

Quote:

---

Mike,

I got to ask. Are the PVC parts some kind of homemade rod holders? I wouldn’t mind getting a closer look at those.

FDR

---

Yup, they are homemade rod holders… For the one you see in the above photo, I basically took a 6 inch or so PVC tube, cut it to length, and cored some holes in the top/bottom to vertically hold smaller (2 or 3 inch??) PVC piping, and mounted it on one of my Lund Sportrac mounting devices… One of the PVC sizes (I forget the exact size) I just right for holding rods, including thick-butted trolling rods.

I have seen a lot of guys do amazing things with PVC – Lots of L. Michigan guys make rocket launchers/rod holders out of it… Its not as strong as metal, but it generally gets the job done nicely if you work within its limitations. Mine certainly aren’t the prettiest things in the boating world, but they do the job, they are low maintenance, take up little space, and are totally removeable in about 5 seconds.

I have another one just in front of my single console.. I drilled a few pipe end holders into the back of the console, then made a PVC crossbar that connects to that with multiple PVC uprights. Great thing about PVC is its cheap and you get get all sorts of connectors (3 way, 4 way, t-pieces, etc…) that can make one upright hold multiple rods.

I’ll see if I can find any more pics of my rod holders… Again, not the prettiest things in the world, but they work ver well.. Especially for salmon fishing. Keeps everything way up front and out of the way. No stepping on rods, and the net is always upright and within arms reach.

Mike

Wow, looking back, I have very few photos facing towards the front of the boat… Especially the salmon pics – all of those are stern-facing and don’t show the rod holders I made.. I did manage to find a few, and I posted them here. I have two sets of rod holders… I don’t have a photo of the one in front of the console. Next time I get out and run the full spread, I’ll make note to get a few pics of the setup in action… I have wanted to do that for the last few years, but just never remember once those downriggers start going off… I will try to get a few shots of the setup in the garage in the next day or two if I can, also.

I have room for about 15 pole-like items.. Rods, nets, salmon clubs, whatever. Usually it does a very nice job of just keeping stuff out of the way. If you have a net up there, sometimes the hoop tangles with some of the rods.. Be careful removing the new, or else you might lose a rod overboard if you yank the net out too fast. We found that one out the hard way. I now have my net holder sitting at an angle to the rest of the rods using a y-piece of pvc connector… This keeps the net hoop angled away from the rods to minimize that problem. The salmon club also sits at an angle towards the middle of the boat, within easy reach when needed.

This secures the rods and accessories extremely well, no need to tie them down or anything. 40mph, big waves, whatever… They stay put.

Mike

I wanna hear about those crappies!

Rainy Lake, Ontario. Unfortunately, its not a secret Wissota hotspot or anything. Wish it were closer!!!

Mike

Here are a few pics of some of the PVC creations I have in the boat.. Again, not the prettiest things in the world, but they do the trick. I wouldn’t run a dipsy off of them (although they could probably handle it), but they are great for getting rods, nets, etc out of the way buy still accessible.

What I like about it is the flexibility.. Removable in an instant, and you can add or remove pieces and connectors to suite whatever need you have at the time.

I went out to the boat this am and just started shooting shots.. I’ll just upload them all..

Mike












<img src="/wp-content/up

Photos….












<img src

Post deleted by whittsend

You wouldn’t happen to be a plumber would you??

No, but I’m sure it would look much prettier if I were!!

Does the trick, though, just mainly to get those big, long trolling combos, nets, and other accessories out of the way both while trolling and while up and running.

I did find out, though, that my long trolling rods don’t quite fit under the Wissota/chippewa river foot bridge.. I almost found it out the hard way. Caution luckily won over idiocracy that day..

Mike

[quote Caution luckily won over idiocracy that day..

Mike

---

Idiocracy is one of my favorite movies!!

Seriously though, way to be inventive. It will get the job done, and you can do something like this fairly inexpensive.

Update on the report..

Water temps were in the mid to upper 60’s on Tuesday pm when I got out. I managed 4 17″, 2 16″, and a few unders on the lake. No overs. Bright colored jigs, either crawlers or fatheads were working. No real patterns found. Nice night to get out, although the wind did pick up and make things somewhat more difficult.

Mike

Thanks for the pictures Mike!

FDR