7ft rods in 15ft boat with kids?
 

I have a 4 year old and 8 year old who love to fish with me. Problem is I have a small 15ft aluminum boat with tiller handle with little room.

Any suggestions on how to carry 7ft rods and other junk without them stepping on them? A new boat just isn't in the budget right now.

Make vertical rod holders out of pvc and clamps

Attachment says it all. With the proper application of rod holders, I often have eight 7-8 ft rods and two or three children in a 16 ft boat.

I'd put them close to rear of boat so they aren't in the way when casting.

And twin 20s nice.

I thought about the vertical holders, I guess I figured with constant casting they might be an issue. I've had to learn that I don't need 5 rods for myself....2 can do fine.

My experience is that children need lots of practice and experience before being able to safely cast from a boat tons of times. Most boat fishing is with bait (or trolling) in the early years, and they get most of their casting experience from the bank until they can be trusted to avoid the other parties in the boat and the rods, etc.

This has taken me out of the game for fish that really need to be hunted, there isn't much successful trolling going on with my 5 and 8 year old especially if its windy. I stick to shrimp tossing and perch jerking now, hard to leave them behind at all with my conscience so bass and trout are by the wayside!

I buy cheap equipment and stick to 2 rods. Vertical rod holders are nice, but get in the way at their age. I lay mine down and don't get worked up when they step on them too much because they are cheap, if they were standing vertically it would be more stressful dealing with the snagging and untangling than it is when they bend a eye that can be bent right back to normal most of the time - I bring 4 little rods with me for them and I can pick one up and go to fishing if daddy's rod gets broken... The main thing is to keep it fun, caring too much about equipment and going off on them makes it miserable for everyone!

Horizontal holders would be my next route, but the last ones I bought didnt hold up for long - gotta spend more money I guess.

Bigger boat

Saw a 15' boat that guy drilled small holes in rear seat near side wall and inserted PVC pipes inside. This allowed 7' rods to go inside PVC tubes while still being strapped to wall. Looked very cool and worked great.

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i did somthing like this on my ol 15' but i just cut a slot out without putting pipe in it and it worked great

Great ideas

No kids here but have a 14ft boat.. Great ideas and will be using some of them

I just buy the cheap rods at academy... $5.99ea when they get mangled I just buy more, no tears. they are actually decent rods too!

4-5 foot long rods are good for the kids. They will be able to handle that size rod better and not have it get in the way as much.

I still have a 4' rod hanging in my shop that I used when I was very young.

I let the little ones use 6' rods and I can get those strapped to the side wall. It's my 7' rods that I worry about. Between the suggestions here and some creative thinking I may have managed to figure something out.