[AZ_squid]

Anyone have their under gunnel rod holders eat into their rods? My 8wt is showing some pretty serious wear from my horizonral rod storage on the skiff. Took a dremel to the holders to soften the edges today, considerig looking for some type of rubber insert to save future rods. I'm pretty convinced my not so cheap fly rod is going to break on the next solid fish I hook into due to the wear, I can see the graphite on the blank. Anyone else have an issue like this?

 

[jay.bush1434]

Have not heard or seen this. Can you post a pic of your rod holder, especially the suspect rod eater? Mine on my Vantage, and soon to be EVOx, are simple polyethylene plastic, routed out. I use the middle bungee loops to hold the rods tight to the holders. Maybe some weatherstripping or SeaDek if you have a few pieces laying around.

 

[bryson]

Is it the holders under the gunwale or the tubes that go into the front bulkhead?

 

[Backwater]

Yes I've seen it and have experienced, lots of times. You must have the tubes bend with the bow of the boat. Even just sliding them in a straight tube, up under the gunnels will do that to them.

The main problem it does is just scratch off the clear coating on the rod in certain places, especially where you have high spots like raised ferrules or guide wrapped spots. Your rod will not break at those spots where you see the blank, it's only taking the clear coating off and really just makes the rod look used and worn. Where you have problems with rod breakage is smacking with a fly while casting or doing stupid things like high-sticking a fish, smacking the gunnel with it, smacking the poling platform with it, slamming in the car door, etc... I've seen it all.

I've considered putting some sort of interior reversed sox (made out of some material that would be easy to slide rod guides without hanging it up or scratching the blank) in the tube, because I can get to the end of the tubes in my skiff in the front anchor hatch, to tie wrap that over the end. But can't figure out how to attach it to the front bulkhead side unless I attach a ring with screws where it sits over the rod tube hole, to clamp the sock to the outside edge and then just trim off the sock around the outside of the ring. But the one thing that can't happen is have a fly, hook or lure go in the tube with your rod guides, or you'd be screwed trying to get the rod back out of the holder.

Or maybe gluing the end of some sort of rubber or rubber foam or vinyl sleeve up in the tubes.

I'm in the process of re-doing my skiff and will be doing something like that. So I'll report back to what I ended up doing to solve that problem. I've been thinking about doing it for the last 20yrs and have never gotten around to doing it. But it will get done and done right, even if I have to re-do the tubes to get it right.

Ted

 

[AZ_squid]

Thanks for the replies gentlemen, rod tubes are basically pvc or something very similar and run aft into the bilge area. The outer edges were pretty sharp so i sanded them down with a dremel and by hand last night. The seadek idea is a pretty good one, I'm going to try that maybe a 1-2" strip near the mouth of the tubes. @Backwater please post pics if you figure out an insert that works.

You can see in the bottom pic where the color from the rod has been rubbing.

 

[Backwater]

You can see in the bottom pic where the color from the rod has been rubbing.

With that setup, you could wrap the sock around the tube and plaze a plastic PVC rod tube flange over it to clamp it down. Just have to be able to get to the tube on the other end to wrap the sock around the outside of the tube and zip -tie it on.

 

[bryson]

I did the foam thing and it worked well until the crappy adhesive came off. I think a 1" wide strip of thin seadek wrapped around the inside would be best, but you need to make sure both edges are beveled so that it doesn't catch guides on the way in and out.

 

[Water Bound]

I'd bevel those tubes quite a bit. Also I'd try to clean the inside of the tubes, maybe there's sand, grit, salt etc. built up inside

 

[sidelock]

Try to find the right size soft plastic caps that fit over the outside of the tube, like the caps used on clear drafting tubes. Trim the caps to the same depth of the protruding lip of the pvc tube and drill a hole in the center of the cap then make a cut the shape of X with the hole being in the center of the X. The X cut in the soft plastic cap will allow it to flex and prevent the rod guides from hanging up when you insert and remove the rod and the hole will keep the rod supported and suspended in the center of the tube without making any contact with the edge if the tube. However having said all that if you don't want to go through that trouble, if you put a good bevel on the inside edge of the tube you should be ok. If you glue anything other than thin tape inside the tube, the guides are most likely to get hung up when you pull the rod out and that can get annoying quickly.

 

[dan_giddyup]

My Hyde drift boat had rod holders that were lined with a soft cloth insert. Made things nicer on the rods for sure. One thing Backwater mentioned is true though. Had a buddy insert a rod with a large stonefly nymph hooked up high on one of the guides near the tip. Broke of 2x tippet to get that rod out and never saw that fly again... Maybe send a note to Hyde or Clackacraft drift boats in Idaho to see if they'll share how they do it.

 

[jay.bush1434]

One of the guys I fish with uses those plastic webbing rod socks. They work really well and are cheap. He just gets the 7' ones and slides his fly rod in and then into the tubes.

 

[K3anderson]

I used the foam from gurglers and laid it inside diameter of the rod tubes in one of my skiffs.

 

[byates]

My old super skiff had a bezel around the tube hole, with small rubber flaps that extended into the opening. Was super at keeping the rods safe. If I can find who made those, I'll post here.

 

[byates]

found them:
https://thmarinesupplies.com/collec.../products/utility-grommet-fishing-rod-grommet

 

[TheAdamsProject]

I have had people smirk but never had an issue as I run a rod sleeve on my flyrods while trailering.

https://www.mudhole.com/MHX-Casting-Rod-Sleeve

 

[AZ_squid]

All very good suggestions. I'm gonna measure the tubes and find a rubber cap that fits and go from there. I really appreciate the help.

 

[Bonesonthebrain]

Put moleskin on the inside of the tube edge.

 

[sidelock]

found them:
https://thmarinesupplies.com/collec.../products/utility-grommet-fishing-rod-grommet

Wow I never knew such devises existed and wasted half an hour trying to explain to the OP how to make something similar. The only problem is that the smallest manufactured grommets a 2 3/4" dia. and the OP's rod tubes look to be about 1 1/2" however they can easily be made once the right size rubber or soft plastic caps to fit the tubes are found . At the very least the pictures of the manufactured grommets give him a good visual idea what to do.

 

[AZ_squid]

I think that the posts that suggest beveling the leading edges are good advice also.

I agree, I did that with a dremel earlier today.

 

[AZ_squid]

Wow I never knew such devises existed and wasted half an hour trying to explain to the OP how to make something similar. The only problem is that the smallest manufactured grommets a 2 3/4" dia. and the OP's rod tubes look to be about 1 1/2" however they can easily be made once the right size rubber or soft plastic caps to fit the tubes are found . At the very least the pictures of the manufactured grommets give him a good visual idea what to do.

2" but good eye, I just went out and measured them a few minutes ago. I'm definitely going to search for some rubber caps and I'll use the x idea on the . Thanks again for the idea, love how many ideas get thrown around this site. Definitely a great place to learn and share ideas.