Bike Seat, Traditional Seat or no seat on your bow?

[keek]

What are you guys doing up there on the bow? I usually just stand and run the trolling motor and cast or jig but I'm getting tired of that. I got the Swivl-Eze 2 1/4" mounts (something like that) and I'm looking for a way to make something work before I just go out and buy a new pole set-up.

Anybody got a homemade bow seat?

[chamookman]

Steve - When casting/jigging, I use the a pro-pole with a bike seat - never really sit on it, more like leaning. Trolling (do most of mine from the front of the boat), I swap the pole with one of the regular seats from the back of the boat - more confortable and easier to control the TM (Maxxum) on the long trolling passes. C-man

[teamlund]

I have a bad back and standing without support kills my back, but a regular seat is uncomfortable to jig, cast from. At least for me. I have lund casting seat. I just lean aginst it and take some of the weight off of my feet but not really sit on it. It makes my day alot less painful. It also takes up less of my view while I am driving than a regular boat seat. I paid $200 dollars for mine but have seen noce seats at fleet farm or scheels for 50-75 dollars that would serve the same purpose

[Ristorapper]

Pro pole with bike seat. I usally lean on it 50% of the time and sit 50% of the time. Lean when I'm livebaiting and sit when I'm jigging. If it gets rough up front where it is a little dangerous to be leaning or sittting on the pro style pole seat, I'll switch out a seat from the back of the boat. With that seat I'm able to sit lower (lower center of gravity) in the bow and still maintain controll of the Trolling Motor.

[REW]

Keek,
Since I always have the bow seat in my boat, i.e. I never take it out for any reason, I removed the original mounting plate and replaced the seat, plate and pole with a permenant helm seat with an adjustable height.

One of the big issues in using a conventional seat and pole is that it is typically too short.

Conversely, the pole type seat is too tall to normally use a conventional seat.

As one of the other posters mentioned, I also have a back issue which disallows me to stand for long periods of time without extreme discomfort.

In addition, in spite of trying many different replacement bases and pole arrangements, I would find that the seat would always rock and be unstable in rough water.

As a result, I removed the factory base, and threw it and the pole away.
Then, I installed a large solid based, BELL bottomed captains seat base with a vertical adjustment of 20 inches.
In the retracted position, the seat is about the height as a standard seat, and is used when the waves are really kicking up and you need the lower center of gravity to be more stable. But, it will extend and lock into a height that may be as much as 20 inches higher than the standard seat. I adjust it so that with my foot on the trolling motor pedal, my leg is sitting flat on the seat and my other foot just gets to rest nicely on the floor. As a result, I am at complete comfort for easy rigging, jigging and or trolling with maximum support for my back and long term comfort for trolling motor operation, with maximum seat stability.

The factory installed screws were removed and when the new seat was installed, large backing plates and washers were used with stainless steel bolts and nylon locking nuts to give good long term stability to the bow seat.

This method won't work for the folks who have a need to remove the seat for any reason, since the seat base is permenantely mounted. Of course, the seat can be unclamped from the base, so only the seat base bell and vertical 20 inch post are left, if the top of the bow area needs to be level for any reason.

Note: the following mount is similar but not the same mount that I installed in my boat and its specifications are similar:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...equestid=15053

Take care
REW

[I Walleye]

I use a regular seat with an adjustable air ride. I put the seat all the way up to make it comfortable, I can control the TM and still make casts. I don't use a pro seat because most of the time it's to windy and and the waves are to big. I like the security of the seatback when being tossed around. Now on the nice calm days it would be nice for a pro seat but I don't have one and don't think I need one bad enough to get one.