Rod Holder/Gunnell Dillema for Rental Boat

[romertrain]

Here's my problem,

We're going to be at Leech Lake this summer. We are renting a 20' Misty River and plan on doing a lot of trolling with planer boards, dipsy's, jet divers, etc.

The boat has side gunnels that eventually become part of the hull. No lip. The transom has a narrow splash guard, nowhere to attach there either.

I don't feel like holding planer board rods all day!

Are there any solutions here? I was even thinking about using a cinderblock, setting it on the floor of the boat and securing PVC to it to hold the rod(s). Am I crazy?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.......thanks......romertrain

[Bob G2]

By your description, I will assume you mean that the boat has a wide gunnel. I don't know the boat to say for sure, but here are a few things that may work(?).
1) I think last year, someone was marketing an attachment that adapted a standard Tempress-type rod holder to the cleats.
2) Cut a 14 inch square piece of 1/2 plywood. Mount two 12 inch pieces of 2 inch PVC pipe to the plywood using short screws and locking cap nuts. Cover the back of the plywood with Duct tape, so as not to scratch the inside of the gunnel. Take one or two C-clamps, and a bit of foam rubber to the clamp so as not to scratch the rental boat and clamp the bottom side of the plywood to the inside bottom edge of the gunnel.
3) If the boat has pedestal seats, I have seen where Bass Pro has rod holders that will attach to the pedestal. Whether they are OK for trolling boards or dipsey's ?????

If all else fails, use your imagination. The cinderblock/PVC pipe was inovative, but if you are towing boards/dipsey's, even that may be a recipe for a rod overboard if you troll in the rough stuff.

[perchjerker]

Heres a similar idea a friend of mine did once.

Get a 2X6 plank as wide as the transom. Place it across the transom on the 2 rear cleats, use u bolts to secure the board to the cleats. Then you have a wide board to mount whatever you want to it. My friend mounted downriggers to a setup like this (I thought he was crazy at the time) but it held up.