Another track question/18" Horizontal Pedestal mounts

[tj13825]

I currently have two 36" Traxstech tracks mounted on the port and starboard sides of the back third of my Lund. I currently have a downrigger and two ratcheting Bert's rod holders on each side and love the set up for D/R and Dipsy's. The problem is that in the fall the layout really wasn't conducive to planer board fishing. Last year I trolled using the ratcheting holders in the rear and a couple adjustable holders I have mounted next to the windshield. This year I want to add to my boat to prepare for the spring and utilize my planer board mast and big boards. I would like to add three rod holders to each side up near the windshield for the planer boards.

 

I already have a pair of 18" mounts with a 12" risers and was thinking of mounting either a short 6"-12" track or another pair of 36" tracks. If I do mount the 36" it will give me more adjustability over the 6-12" but half of it will be covered by the 18" pedestal and kind of useless. At this point I am thinking I might just add the 36" track and not use the pedestals at all. Is there an andvatage to elevating the rods up the aditional 12" off of the gunwales? (see attachement not my boat but looks like what the set up would be) . I have seen guys rotate the pedestals to face the rods rearward but I have not bought rod holders yet and can achieve this with dual axis rod holders.

 

I break down my entire set up every night and cover the boat so storing the additional 18" pedestal is one more piece to handle/carry/store. A Vertical tree is not in the cards as I do not want to have to carry two of those to the car every time.

 

I have also thought about just taking the 18" track off of the pedestal and mounting that to the boat and then adding two more 18" tracks for a total of 36"

 

Looking for some advice based on your experiences with your set ups do's/dont's lessons learned. 

 

Thanks

 

Terry

[Egoody]

Hi,

I've just started to use big boards and planer mast last season so i don't have a lot of experience but so far my set up has been working fine.

I have the Lund 18ft Sport angler with the sport track. My planer mast is located in the bow where the front pedestal seat would be. I bought 2 Cisco rod holders for each side of the boat that mount into the tee slots of the sport track. The Ciscos are easily removed or repositioned anywhere along the track. 

In the pict, the rod that is straight up is the one to the board.

Don't know if this helps, but just another idea for you.

Thanks and Boat Safe

Egoody

[LakerTaker]

I've been using track mounts for years. To me, you can never have enough track since it adds versatility. I always tend to go overboard (no pun intended) with using more track than I need. I find that shorter track can be somewhat unstable (6") unless you can mount with a back plate. I currently have 8 feet of track on each side of my boat. Like Egoody, I also have Cisco rod holders (and several other types/brands). I picked up 6 used Cisco holders for about 1/2 the price of new. I've used just about every brand and always come back to the Cisco as my favorite. My next purchase will be a couple of cradle style Ciscos. To answer your question, I don't think you gain anything by adding a horizontal track on a riser if the rods are all at the same height, especially if you have plenty of room for longer lengths of track. Risers are generally used if you don't have room for longer pieces of track. Vertical rod trees offer good rod separation because of the height difference. Keeps the rods more manageable. On a horizontal application like yours, just having each rod at a different angle would help when running boards, with the rod closest to the bow being the most vertical. I tend to like my rods lower (in height) so they are easier to pull out of the tubes. If you want height separation, Cisco makes riser tubes which can be placed under each rod holder. Reusing the pedestal track is a good idea, even if you have to drill more holes to mount them. Hope this helps.

[Buckmaster7600]

I run a Rod tree on my 16'er and I can run 8-9 rods with a 36" track on both sides when I'm running big boards. My trees have 3 Rod holders and the top is open so it can run 8 rods between my 2 trees and they take up minimal room. I then have 4 other holders down the track on each side. On a smaller boat I think a Rod tree is a great tool. You wouldn't need to add another 100+$ piece of track on each side and if you price out 6 more Rod holders and the tracks the trees are a lot cheaper.