A rod seemed like a lot of trouble to me when I use to fish from my rather small touring kayak. I used a hand line. Actually, my monofilament was wrapped on a line winder with a leader and lure (usually a spoon) already attached. I would hold the line against the paddle shaft as I paddled (my paddling speed was a good trolling speed) which sort of jigged the line (I forget the term). I did some bottom fishing also with a hand line. This was in Long Island Sound. My typical catch was bluefish. I kept a small cutting board, a filet knife, and a squeeze bottle of mezcal, along with the line winder, and a small single tray tackle box in a Sealine Baja Bag. So the whole system was very compact.
I just did the dreaded hole drilling for a Scotty mount. 4 holes, stainless steel bolts. Without the rod holder it is small (2"x3"?) and doesn’t really upset anything on the deck. Zoom in on the deck of the orange kayak to see the impact.
Yeah that’s a nice set up to. Was going to resort to this if couldn’t figure out the platform method.
But yeah I’m almost done with the platform, I think I should be done tomorrow. Did a quick mockup sitting in my kayak and it feels so great where it’s positioned, forward and out of the way.
Hey everyone I am back with my copycat creation. Not the prettiest around the slits I made but it seems to fit well! ! Will have to test it out on the water. Costed me around 50$ Canadian excluding the rod holder itself.
2 Likes
Looks great! Nicely done.
2 Likes
Nice job!
Reminds me of the hoop platform native Inuit hunters often have on the foredeck of their kayak to coil the harpoon line into. This old illustration shows one.
4 Likes
Haha wow! Love the picture.
It looks a lot like my West Greenland replica hunting kayak (that’s it below). I made a target harpoon and norsaq (the launching board, sort of like an atlatl) in a class at kayak camp 2 years ago to “properly” accessorize the boat. It’s also fun to do target practice in the water. And I thought it might be handy to have one to put the fear of God into the obnoxious jet ski guys who think it’s fun to run near misses on paddlers on the busier local lakes.
Though the harpoon floats, it’s kind of a pain to have to paddle after it and retrieve it after every practice throw. So I’ve thought about making a line to attach to it, then maybe I’d need to make a line rack to keep it coiled and secure on the deck.
3 Likes
That’s a gorgeous kayak…sorry kajak! 
Thanks. It’s been a real pleasure to use – very fast, tracks like an arrow and only weighs 31 pounds at over 17’ long and 21" beam. Though after 15 years it’s not as pretty and I need to replace the nylon and epoxy skin soon. The stern “tail” got broken when it blew off my roof rack while I was loading it a couple of years ago and I had to cut away the frame there and stitch up the skin – so it looks like a baidarka now! I’ll restore the tail when I strip off the old skin, though I might make it a little shorter. That tail made it difficult to flip the boat and lift the bow to drain the hull after paddling without somebody to hold the stern up.
As a kayak fisherman, you may enjoy the videos from skin on frame boat designer and builder, Brian Schulz, of Cape Falcon Kayaks. He engineered and built a convertible pedal-drive skin canoe that can also be sailed and he and his girlfriend have been fishing down in Baja and posting videos about it for about a month.
If your DIY success with the rod platform makes you feel DIY ambitious, Brian sells plans and instructions for his boat designs. This one is pretty cool because the pedal drive is removeable and also reversible and you can see he made a detachable outrigger for the sail rig.
1 Like
(I just noticed, per your site avatar, that you are a BMW Motorsports fan.)
Haha yes, well I love BMWs and M cars, and cars in general.
1 Like
BMW: “Breaks Many Ways, Bring Money With you”
I owned a '78 320i 5 speed set up for gymkhana for a while – fun to drive but I would not have owned one had I not been living with the owner/mechanic of a foreign car repair shop (free service) who specialized in Bimmers, doing perverse things like converting a 7 series to a twin turbo for one wealthy customer. He had his own 2002ti he had modified for street racing and also an R90 bike and was heavily involved in local chapters of the BMW car and bike clubs. I know more about the marque than I care to. Dumped the 320i when I dumped the mechanic and switched to more reliable and practical vehicles.
That said, I almost bought a Z-3 roadster the year they came out – dealer let me test drive one (a manual transmission) on my own (on a sunny day with the top down!) for over an hour and I came back admitting it was a blast to drive, but was relieved it wasn’t a stick because I would have been TOO tempted. One of the other salesmen piped up that he had a Z-3 five speed about to come onto the lot on trade and I wisely backed out of the dealership before I went down that path of no return.
1 Like
Ohh that’s pretty cool! But yeah hahaha for sure, I’ve put a decent chunk of money in mine. I am my own mechanic so don’t pay for service either (unless it’s something I have no choice) but just in parts alone… more than I expected or wanted to that’s for sure. But hey, still cheaper than half the car when it was new factoring in my purchase price so for me I’m ok with that. No car payment on it. It’s a 2011 E92 335is, had it a few years now.
Those Z-3 definitely look fun to drive. Not a fan of convertibles but a car like that wouldn’t say no!
Here’s a picture of it stock hauling my yak before I did a few modifications to it. It’s my only car I do everything with it, great all rounder. Honestly originally I wanted a an actual M car, a used F82 M4 but I couldn’t quite afford that yet… but for now I am pretty content with this one.
1 Like