Dukdog

Harbor Freight has a hydraulic tubing bender on sale for under $100!! Comes with a bunch dies up to 2"

Soundown is the way to go,not cheap but very effective at cutting the noise,and made for marine applications.You can but it direct from them,although it can be less money at places like Hamilton Marine.

 

http://www.soundown.com/index_Marine.htm

 

http://store.hamiltonmarine.com/browse.cfm/sound-reduction/2,720.html

 

Hamilton Marine was exactly who I was going to suggest!! I got their catalog in the mail last week and noticed they had a bunch of soundproofing stuff. HamiltonMarine.com should get you to their website. 3 stores within an hour of me here in Maine. Rockport, Searsport and Portland! Love them!! Their in store bargains on rope ends are amazing! I've bought decent length pieces of double braid from 75 cents to $6.00!! I got a beautiful 108' piece of 3/8 camo for under $5.00. You can't even buy garbage rope for that!!!

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Looks good Dukdog

 

As far as lynch pins, they work great if you can get the right id and od's to match.....I used a hydraulic hose crimper to tweek the sizes before drilling out for lynch pins.....they work great and don't rattle

 

Here's the rod holder sets I made last year out of aluminum

Yours came out really nice Willy-C!!! Mine are a little cruder but functional. My son lives in Nashua, New Hampshire about 2 hours from me. He's got all the metal working stuff to make what I wanted but he's always busy with metal fab for Hot Rod stuff. He's even got a big powder coating oven he built!!

I think I need to take some stuff down for some prettying up!! Maybe get it all coated the same camo as my boat!

Very nice! Have you considered those long tractor lynch pins and multiple holes for making adjustments on your rocket launcher? They would also work where the fold down joint is. Be faster than using an allen wrench, but the holes could elongate over time and get sloppy.

I did think of possibly lynch pinning them but haven't done it for the reason you cited. I think it would be really wobbly and probably quite noisy after a while. The allen heads aren't anymore of a pain than the pins!! My duck blind uses pins and I lose or misplace about 3 or 4 a year while hunting. Just can't keep track of them in all the carnage and decoys.

Right now I've got 4 different 3/16 allen wrenches in the boat so hopefully I won't lose them all at once

That's a nice high mast for a planer reel...near the lights!

I was thinking of that but I've got a Cannon Planer mast that goes on the bow right now. I'm thinking of adding another rod holder on each side on the uprights that go to the launcher. I don't know though, the 31 rod holders on the boat right now should be enough!! LOL

I dragged my mudboat back from Ca in 2010. Long drive but uneventful! Went through Yellowstone, the Tetons and the needles state park in So Dakota! Tight squeeze in the tunnels there! Also have a picture of it on the Bonneville salt flats!! Took 8 days with the side jaunts and some cutthroat fishing in the Teton National park! Even got a milfoil inspection at the Wyoming border!

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I've been thinking about it! Tbulhead. Good idea!

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I'm envious of your garage space I need something that sized to store my camper our boat.

Sent from my thinking chair...

When we decided to move to Maine 12 years ago, I was assigned the job of finding us the right place. I drove by this one, saw the size of the barn and for all I cared the house could have been a tarpaper shack!!! It's 24 x 44 and was built to house the previous owners giant motorhome. I finished off a man cave that's 10 by 20 with cable TV, heat, mini fridge, and my LayZ boy!!

I go out there after the wife and I have coffee and watch the news in the morning!! Come back in for lunch and again about 5 PM just like I'm coming home from a job!!! Life is good!!!

I added a Youtube link to my reply above showing how easy it is to adjust and reconfigure!

Here it is in case you missed it above:

I can adjust the angle by loosening a set screw on each end fitting and the launcher section will rotate to anywhere I need it. I initally set it where you see it! I appreciate the tip on what will work better!

 

Here's a little video I made on how it works.

 

 http://youtu.be/YejtMKWgJyY

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I've seen a couple articles lately on small boat fishing on the big lakes.  My boat has already has most of the gear recommended in those articles and one addition of my own that I'm really pleased with. 

 

Being in my mid 60's and not having the balance I once had, Safety made it necessary to rethink how I was doing business, especially when fishing alone.

 

That's when I came up with the idea of installing a rail across the back to lean on or grab for support when setting my downriggers. The rear rail worked so well that it quickly evolved into something even more handy with the addition of side rails!! 

 

I loved everything the way it helped it but recently I struck upon the idea that I might add a rocket launcher and get my rod storage up and out of the way. 

 

I bought the material to build the rod holders and had a local welder weld it up for me.   I liked those so much I decided to add another rod holder on each upright and 3 more across the back mid rail.  I think they came out great!!!

 

Something I didn't discover until the project was underway was that the launcher top bar makes the perfect place to attach my GoPro camera for shooting videos of the fishing action!! A couple of these photos were taken with the GoPro in still mode and will give you an idea of the view from above!!
 
Additionally, The rocket launcher section will hinge down and lay flat for traveling down the road.  All that is required is to loosen two  3/16" allen head set screws.  
As a matter of fact, the whole rail system and rocket launcher can be disassembled and removed in less than 4 or 5 minutes when it's time to get the boat ready for mounting my blind for duck season!!

 

Original real rail section 2011

 

 

New and improved side rails added! 2012

 

 

The whole meal deal!! 2014  6 rod Rocket launcher and 5 more rod holders below!  

 

 

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The Go Pro view

 

 

Another GoPro view

 

Folded down for travel

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Rails used as a Duck hunting Layout boat transport rack for Sea Duck tending!

 

 

 

Ready for Duck Hunting!!

 

 

Fall fun!

 

Me too!! My 5 year old grandson will be up for ice out landlocks in Maine!

I'll start dipping smelt for bait on April 1st if the ice is pulling back from the shoreline by then!

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I've got a Raymarine on my 18 foot Lund Alaskan. $2000 off ebay and I installed it myself.

It's great but AP on a light boat isn't good in wind or waves at trolling speed. It's invaluble for setting up or picking up gear when conditions are good though. Other than that, I rarely use it.

At speeds over 5 mph it works nice.

It's a big investment but worth it if you fish alone a lot. Cheap it ain't!!

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I didn't come over for browns last Spring and I heard I didn't miss much!

I was told it was due to some hatchery problems in a prior year.

Does anyone have any insight into how this Spring might be??

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Grimmly deep!

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Fun meeting you too thun!! That 32 pounder was fun!!

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Tough week on the big lake for us but we managed a few big ones.  We caught a lot of small kings, one steelie and a small coho.

The fish kept busting up tackle on us!  We had 4 other big fish on and lost them pretty quick each time as they snapped 30# test flouro leaders.

We had trouble finding cold water and ended up having to run out 10 miles offshore to get some temps in the 40's!  Long haul in sketchy weather and wave conditions so we lost some time dealing with them.  When the waves settled down it was cake and we could get out and running gear in about 45 minutes!  Highlight of the trip:  A whopping big 32 pound male!!!

The Lolight of the trip was a massive 8 rod tangle when the a 300 ft copper fouled a stainless dipsy rod and the horror spread to the rest of the rods.  Too tight a turn!!!
90 minutes and about $150 bucks worth of gear lost or ruined in the turmoil and we were back fishing!!  This time, we ran a 6 rod spread which is easy to run.   Only lost one downrigger ball this trip!!  Of course it was a 15# Shark and there went another Benjamin!!

Costly but fun trip with 2 old navy buddies! Lots of good chit chot!!  ;D

 

 

We went 3 for 4 today. Slow but decent! Small shaker went back. 4 # coho we kept. Hooked one other biggie that broke a 30# leader on its initial run.

We've lost 4 big fish due to broken gear! Drags are backed way down yet the bulls keep cleaning our clock!

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My buddy landed this 32# about 30 minutes ago!!! Spoon, 110 down over 225 ft just NW of plant!!

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that is what I thought! so why trailer

Last year we fished the first morning out of Catfish and it was not good. We trailered to Fairhaven that afternoon and things were better

We hit Sodus the next day and absolutely wailed them. Hi teens and 20's Kings! Spanked the steelies too! One topped 16#!!! Fished the next day at Sodus again. Same thing! Back at Catfish the Kings had moved in but we were headed home so never got after them there.

Thanks for the more promising report than I've been seeing on here lately!!  I'm headed up Sunday to fish the week with a couple buddies.  Fishing out of Catfish Creek to start but if it's too slow, have trailer will travel!!   

It may sound silly but make sure the battery is installed in the probe correctly. If the polarity is reversed it won't work.

I'm a big fan of Catfish creek!! I stay in the cabins too! We did a trailer once. Went back to the cabins after that. I've been there a dozen times. I never worry about my boat or gear. Never had a bad trip fishing there. Great lake access but as mentioned, watch out going in and out. Stay left going out! I too dinged my prop!

Dream fish!! Congratulations! !!

Dag's in Auburn Me is selling out their inventory of Yeck's spoons for 4.79 each with a buy one, get one free. They also have Northern King spoons, same price but buy two, get one free. I picked up a few today.