Small boat trolling

[zarogers1]

I’ve got a 12 foot John boat and I wanna optimize it for walleye trolling any setup ideas I’m also trying to avoid drilling into the boat 

[skinny420]

 My Jon is a 14' and waves can get dangerous real fast. The front deck section has a wood board screwed down to hold the trolling motor and a rod holder on each side with heavy bottom bouncers. Middle seat holds a fish finder and 2 rods on planer boards and back section gets lighter bottom bouncers. Can be launched anywhere and have limited out many times in it but 1 bad wave and it's over. Screwing into the metal is your best bet. Any clamp on or weighted rod holders will be nothing but problems.

[zarogers1]

8 minutes ago, skinny420 said:

 My Jon is a 14' and waves can get dangerous real fast. The front deck section has a wood board screwed down to hold the trolling motor and a rod holder on each side with heavy bottom bouncers. Middle seat holds a fish finder and 2 rods on planer boards and back section gets lighter bottom bouncers. Can be launched anywhere and have limited out many times in it but 1 bad wave and it's over. Screwing into the metal is your best bet. Any clamp on or weighted rod holders will be nothing but problems.

I only go on smaller lakes on nice days I mainly fish Whitney point lake 

[skinny420]

I actually use it mostly on the Erie canal or small lakes. With an ipilot it's a fishing machine. 

[zarogers1]

Just now, skinny420 said:

I actually use it mostly on the Erie canal or small lakes. With an ipilot it's a fishing machine. 

Yeah I don’t have balls enough to go on anything bigger I’ve got a clamp on down river for the back and it works amazing but want more rod holders for planer boards 

[skinny420]

I used to have a cooler with 3 pipes screwed to it I kept in the middle for board rods and the net. Then the guy in the front and the back just leaned the rods over the side and held them in place with a foot or held one. It's been out on Ontario once but usually just use it cause it's easy and can launch anywhere. Those down easter holders are good heavy duty holders but expensive. There the only clamp on I've used that I'd recommend. But I still recommend drilling everything down solid.

[Cody191]

I only go on smaller lakes on nice days I mainly fish Whitney point lake 

I’ve got a bigger boat but when I fish Whitney point I just run 3 rods off the back. A 9’ rod off each side and an 8’ chute rod. As long as you have a trolling motor it’s pretty simple since I pretty much troll up and down the main channel.


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[zarogers1]

58 minutes ago, Cody191 said:

I’ve got a bigger boat but when I fish Whitney point I just run 3 rods off the back. A 9’ rod off each side and an 8’ chute rod. As long as you have a trolling motor it’s pretty simple since I pretty much troll up and down the main channel.


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Yeah I’ve ran 6 rods off my boat but it was a cluster I figure more rods the better 

[Cody191]

You can definitely get more rods out but if your trolling the Chanel I feel it’s to narrow and to short to bother with a bunch of lines. By the time you get them all out your turning around and re setting. I’ve had 9 rods out there with planer boards and it wasn’t worth it. You will probably have to compromise with a 12’ boat


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[glh456]

How many people can you fit in your boats? I thought the rule was 3 rods per person.

[Crayfish]

I've used the Downeast clamp ons for planer boards on my 14'.  I had to flip it over and put the clamp on the outside of the boat to get it near vertical, but it worked perfect. 

[zarogers1]

On 4/4/2022 at 7:57 AM, glh456 said:

How many people can you fit in your boats? I thought the rule was 3 rods per person.

It is three per person but 6 rods with two people in the boat get cramped and hard to not get everything tangled