Goose52

I started a thread a while back about the box I built for transporting rods in a car/SUV. Here's a cut-n-paste of that post: I recently posted this photo of my rod box in another thread and there seemed to be some interest in this rig. It's raining here now (and might snow later) so I thought I'd take the time to post some details about this rod box. I took photos of the final box upon completion of construction last summer so will post those up as well. When fishing from the bank I drive around and hit multiple lakes, with sometimes different presentations at each lake, so I end carrying a number of different rods. When fishing from the boat (car-topped canoe), I needed a way to carry 5 or so rods to the lake, organized, and leave room in the trunk of the car for the other boat gear. Answer for both needs? A rod box. I made a prototype box out of cardboard and ended up using it for three years. I finally made the "production" box out of wood last summer. Result? Rods are organized, don't slide around, and the two-level feature lets you carry five rods in a narrow width. Get home from fishing and all you have to do to "unpack" is to lift out the entire box and you're done. Some design considerations: Upward inclination of the rods - you have to do some measuring to assure that the rods will clear the folded-down rear seatbacks in the car. "Tapering" of the rods in the box. The rods should have enough lateral separation at the rear for the reels to clear each other, but the rod tips have to be angled inward so they fit between the front seat backs. Left-handed or right-handed reel handles (primarily for spinning reels). If you plan on carrying one or two spinning outfits, you want to offset the rod position in the box to assure that you end up with enough room for the handle. Example: my spinning reels have handles on the left side; I would set the rod position for the first spinning rod close to the right side of the box, leaving enough room for the rotor to clear the inner box wall (this will be clear in a following photo). Height of the rod supports at the rear of the box - you have to take into account the size of the spinning reels that you use to assure that the rod is supported high enough so the reel will clear the bottom of the box. I fish from three different cars so that meant some measuring to assure that the final box design would work in all three. Here's some photos that show the details. The prototype box - made of cardboard; used for three years. A cardboard box is recommended as the first step since you can easily change dimensions and angles (and if you make a mistake, just get another box ). Note the upward inclination of the rods. The final design, made out of wood. Note the divider across the width of the bottom of the box - the area in front of that divider is for the reels. Some measurement needed here to determine placement of that divider based on the size of the reels. The compartment at the right-rear is dimensioned to hold four 3500-size boxes vertically (or an alternate configuration shown in the next photo). On the right-rear inner wall of the box, note the double-ply cardboard - this is an area to hang single-hook baits like spinnerbaits and buzzbaits (if the cardboard wears out, cut the zip-ties and replace the cardboard). Note the grab-handles on each side of the box. The left-rear compartment is dimensioned to hold bags of soft-plastics. The right-rear compartment alternate configuration - one 3500 box, one tray for tossing in used plastics, used baits, etc. Note the "notch"/rod support position on the right side of box; it is offset as far as possible to the right to give clearance for the spinning rod handle on the left side of the reel. Test fit in the Z-Car with three rods - good to go here. The right and center rod positions are set to provide clearance for spinning reels. Note the tips of the outer rods are angled inwards to fit between front seat-backs. Also note here the two (empty) "upper-level" rod positions. Test fit in the Toyota - good to go here as well. Now with two more rods on the top level. The top two rods must be BC rods; the BC reels DO end up resting on the lower rods, but no issues with damage/abrasion to either the reel or rod. Note here the spinnerbaits hanging from the cardboard. Finally, when you get home from fishing, lift the box out of the car to unpack. Note again the upward inclination of the rods. I'm fortunate to have a tackle bench where I can place the rod box. Here, I can check all the rigs for frayed line, trim-back, and re-tie all knots. There you go. A carboard box, a knife, and some measurements will get you a usable box. Have some time on your hands? Make it out of wood. I made my wood box from scraps left over from other projects, even had the screws on-hand so my direct cost was $0.00...

Spring Creek outriggers come in several float styles and prices vary depending on the float selected and the width of the canoe.

A very fine cranking rod - arguably the best value in it's price range. They go on sale several times a year and are then an even better value. If you search this forum, you will find a number of threads on this rod - most with pretty good reviews. I now have 5 of them (4 in the photo below) and they were hard to resist at the $59 sale price that I purchased them at several years ago.

Hey A-Jay - I installed a Kipawa (model 314 - 3 1/4" hub) prop on my MK Traxxis 45lb TM. I was primarily going for more speed on my canoe. I might have picked up at most .5mph on the GPS...or not. I think I'm hitting the theoretical hull speed on my canoe at about 4.5 to 5mph and I'm not going to get past that without going on plane. So, for me, no real speed advantage. I didn't try it in heavy slop so I can't say if it is any better than the stock MK prop. I did notice a slight vibration in the Kipawa at higher revs so it may have a small balance issue. I ran it for about 1/2 a season - pulled it off, and it's been hanging from a peg above my fishing work bench ever since....

These outriggers are from Spring Creek Outfitters.

Lots of line types, and pound tests, will work fine with lipless cranks - sorta depends on whether you're in open water, ripping in grass, rod power, weight of the bait, depth, etc. For general purposes, I usually use 10lb Yo-Zuri Hybrid with 1/2oz and 5/8oz baits. It works, brings in fish...

I bought that exact rod when St. Croix was clearing them out in their Bargain Room. The rod is an attractive, finely crafted, very sensitive, top-quality.....................pool cue with recoil guides (and is a bit tip-heavy as well). It is by FAR the stiffest "M" rated rod that I own. That "XF" action to me seems like an "XXF". I have a problem with tennis elbow in my casting arm and this rod aggravates the heck out of it. This is not a rod for distance casting baits....I tried up to 5/8oz and couldn't really get the rod to load. This rod seems to be made for shorter range, side-arm casts with single-hook baits like spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, maybe shakeheads, light jigs, etc. It would probably be good as a shorter range pitching rod as well. I tried to figure out how to fit this rod into my arsenal and still haven't found a "niche" for it. Right now, I have a Scum Frog tied on it - it might make a nifty short range frog rod.... FWIW

I am an old guy and I wouldn't say that purple is "best"...but I will say it was one of the most popular colors when I started fishing plastic worms in the 1960s. They caught bass then - no reason why they won't now. I occasionally still fish Mann's Jelly Worms in black grape - they work - catch fish. A coincidence that just yesterday I got this 21" 4.38lb LMB on an 8" Jelly Worm in black grape...

I car-top the canoe and all the gear fits into the trunk and backseat of a compact sedan. It takes about 12 minutes or so from the time I pull up to the lake with the canoe on the roof until I'm pushing off the bank and going fishing. That speed can be attributed to the modular nature of the systems, including the dashboard...

Any sonar unit will show you bottom contour, depth, and usually surface water temp. Let your budget be your guide on any additional features that you can afford. Regarding mounting - lots of suggestions above. You can get a 1-piece unit like Felix77 mentioned, or a typical 2-piece (head unit and transducer) system. Lots of ways to mount the head unit, and several ways to mount the transducer including side brackets and suction cup mounts. In my case, I built a "dashboard" for my canoe (see photo) that includes the sonar head unit and the transducer (mounted on a hinged Slide Trax Transducer Deployment Arm) and also has a Scotty rod holder and two tackle trays. With everything mounted on a dashboard, it makes the canoe easy to rig lakeside and all you need is a power source - in my case the TM battery. Or, the sonar can be powered by a small (7-8ah)sealed lead-acid battery as referenced by moguy1973. Lots of ways to go about it - let your budget and creativity be your guide.

.....and then a margarita!

I only fish my local neighborhood lakes; closest is 2 miles, farthest is 6 miles. Smallest pond I fish is about 1.5 acres, the biggest lake I fish is 200+ acres.

Red Eye Shad when I'm in the boat or on the bank in "safe" water. H2O Express when fishing from the bank in "dangerous" water (high probability of snags and bait loss). My stash of H2O's cost me about $2.25 ea. shipped and if I'm gonna lose a bait, I'd rather loose a cheap one... BTW - my PB in my avatar was caught on an H20...

I can't speak for the entire Cumara A series, but this particular rod is not tip heavy at all - the balance is excellent. With the Core 50 and spooled with line, the entire combo weight is 9.6oz so it's very light as well. I have fished this rod quite a bit now, caught 40 bass up to 4 pounds with it and it is a terrific rod........................except for the tiny grips which I a now getting "used to". When switching back and forth between rods, it takes a couple casts to "adjust" to the grip spacing on the Cumara but after that, it's also somewhat of a non-issue. As I mentioned in the earlier post, perhaps it's this extended grip spacing that gives the excellent balance.

Good tip - thanks!

An update to this report: After 4 years of faithful service, my primary scale, Unit 1, has died. It recorded over 500 weights, was turned on and off over 500 times, and was banged around the bank and boat all that time. It was never inaccurate, the failure is that it won't power-up - even with a fresh battery. I suspect the power switch (that was always a bit dodgy) finally failed. So, 4 years of service for under $5.00 a year. Not bad. So, I purchased a replacement - now labeled Unit 4. AND, I finally got a "bad" scale - this one is off by a whopping .14 pounds (~2 ounces) on the 9.804 pound test weight. Still, close enough for my purposes. Unit 4 is now the back-up scale and won't typically be used much for now anyway. In any event, any scale I use to weigh a PB is checked against a test weight once I get home and I adjust my recorded fish weight based on any error I see in the scale. $17 bucks for Unit 4 - within 2 ounces - good enough for me...

Cast, let sink for a few seconds - if no immediate strike either swim it back with twitches under water, or bring it up to the top and bring it back as a topwater. This presentation is for the top 3-5 feet of the water column. You can also toss them onto and around slop since they're rigged weedless. Use a twin tail grub and you have a miniature frog that's also good for working over slop. Not a big-fish bait, but since the little lakes that I fish have mostly smaller bass, it's a very versatile bait. And, some of the bigger bass go for it as well - the 4.7lb LMB I mentioned hit a Kalin 5" that I was retrieving on top, parallel to the bank, in very shallow water. On rigging, I forgot to mention earlier that a weightless single tail grub will spin like crazy on the retrieve. I tie the 1/0 EWG to an 18"-24" leader and a ball-bearing swivel. You will still get some line twist even with the swivel.

Stability, stand to fish, two people, chair seating, trolling motor capable, low(er) cost = 10 foot Bass Raider type boat. A 10 footer is about $600-$650, above your budget, but you could wait for a sale or buy used. The only downside is weight/transportability - these boats weigh 130-140 pounds. Since you didn't mention what type of vehicle you have, this could be an issue. PFD = Personal Flotation Device = life jacket

You are making a good start by setting some initial criteria: trolling motor, no trailer, easy to transport. Now, the next step - what vehicle will be using? Car, truck, van, SUV, etc. Your type of vehicle, whether you will be alone or not, and how much weight can you handle will help narrow your selection. Some of the factors to consider: Stabililty and standing capability (moving around, landing fish, another person or kids or dogs in the boat, standing to fish, etc.) Cargo/gear storage (how much stuff do you want to take) Storage at home - how much room do you have to store how much boat? Inside garage, on driveway, storage shed, outside on the lawn, etc. Number of people in the craft Etc. Also, you didn't mention kayaks or canoes - have you already ruled those out? I faced the same decision as you are tying to make now and I was open to all types of small watercraft from float tubes up to bass boats. The best solution for ME, was a heavily accessorized canoe. I only fish my local, small (1.5 to 201 acres), no-wake lakes. Some of these lakes don't have boat ramps. I needed something car-topable without a special rack, modular, very light weight, with as much capability as possible. I wanted stability so I could stand and fish all day, lots of inboard storage, motorized, and little to no maintenance. I didn't want to have to buy a truck or other tow vehicle, I didn't want to consume a garage bay or driveway space with a boat and trailer, didn't want high expense and high maintenance, and didn't want to use gasoline power. Taking everything into account, I ended up with a light-weight canoe, trolling motor, and outriggers for stability. My rig is quite a bit over your budget, but will all these boats, you can start with the basic boat (and maybe a used one) and accessorize as you get the funds. AND, remember that your most important purchase is a PFD !

Watermelon Green Orange Flake rigged weightless and weedless on a 1/0 EWG. 422 fish so far this season on that bait. Usually a dink-magnet however; of all those fish - nothing bigger than 3 pounds (yet). In addition to the Fat Albert, I also have another 138 fish so far this season on other brands of grubs (Kalin, BPS, Gander, Mr. Twister). Biggest bass on these was a 4.7lb LMB on a Kalin 5". I like grubs...

For northern latitudes, a 21" fish is a whopper so it's a good catch indeed. Down here in Tennessee, I've only caught 10 21" fish in the past few seasons since I've been recording weights. According to my handy Excel spreadsheet, the average weight of those 10 fish is 4.70 pounds with the heaviest fish 5.46 pounds. On 16" fish, I have 87 weights on file - with the average weight being 1.83 pounds with a heaviest of 2.31 pounds. Fish are a bit skinny in my little lakes though....

$500 is a steep price indeed. I got mine NIB on eBay for $400 shipped so there are some deals to be had. I got it 'cause it looked cool in the BPS catalog and I could afford it; plus I like light tackle. It can't be price justified on performance - it won't catch "X" more fish than a cheaper reel. It doesn't necessarily do anything better than a quality spinning reel. It's main forte is tossing lighter baits and there are other, cheaper ways to do that with BC reels (especially if you buy a used reel). It's just a nice, high-quality reel that is a pleasure to use. On matching it with a rod, the Type R has a stout drag and will handle all sorts of presentations, assuming the reel gives you enough line capacity for your needs, so it could be matched with all sorts of rods. In my case, I bought it specifically to toss lighter baits so I matched it with a light-power rod - a Phoenix Recon (1st gen) PHX-C682L. I mostly use mine to toss weightless 5" grubs. It works, catches fish, as evidenced by this 4.7lb LMB - great fun on a light-power rod...

I still have one Mitchell 408 and one Conolon rod that I bought about 1966. I fish them once a year or so for fun but they go back on the rack after that. The 408 reel still fishes fine with my only complaints being the lack of a convenient manual close on the bail, and the clicking from the AR pawl and associated back-play that goes with it. The Conolon rod, a 6'6" light power, is just hopeless by modern standards; however, it was pretty fancy for the day - being a hollow-glass rod when solid-glass models were still being sold... A coincidence is that I fished the Mitchell combo just over a week ago for it's yearly outing. It still works, catches fish...

My report was on a CUC-72MA in the worm and jig series. I never suggested that all Cumara A's have this issue. BUT, this one rod, in the rod series that most people would purchase (worm & jig) DOES have blank contact. Under any significant load, the line touches the blank at every spot between the 2nd and 8th guides. This is with a fast action - I imagine the extra fast action would probably only have contact in the upper guides. Does it affect fish-catching performance? Who knows - but it's' a factor that will bother some folks.

My report on a CUC-72MA (7'2" medium-fast casting) was here: New Cumara A Casting Rod - Initial and On-The-Water Reviews In a nutshell - the rod is very sensitive, I like the reel seat, I very much dislike the minimized grip, and the overly long grip spacing...but for that you are getting somewhat better balance. I am also not very keen on the microguides - quality is OK, but when they went to microguides, they did not increase the quantity of guides - this means that the line rubs on the blank when the rod is under load.