Has anyone made a fishing pole rack for the front grille of their trucks? I just got a welder and figured this would be a cool and easy first project. Looking for some imput on the best way to mount this and make it and whatnot. Or any pix of ones made if you have seen em.

Another Idea I would like to create is a Cooler basket that could link into the trailor hitch or something of that sort. I have a 156 Quart cooler so It would be pretty heavy with bait or beer and ice, so it'd have to be deciently strong.

I do some fishing down on the Cape Cod National Seashore beaches so these would be sick for freeing up space and keeping fish outa the truck.



AK

 

AK,

I've seen notched bars inside that run parallel w/ the bumpers so that you can rest your poles on them. i believe cabela's sells them but i dont know if htey have one for the 1st gens

bob

 

Making something for the trailer hitch is way easy, or you can just buy one.
I made one for my 4Runner for camping equip and cooler for wheeling trips.

But if you want one for surf fishing rods and stuff wouldn't you want it on the front of the vehicle ? At least that's where we mount them for surf fishing down here in MD.

 

Yea thats the plan on the front. I guess they make special pvc tubes with cutouts for the reel and you are supossed to use them. I have also seen the invisible hitches that go on the front, so you can put a cooler on the front also. Any of these would be cool. I also had an idea for a spare tire carrier that went into the trailer hitch and tilted down when you wanted to pull the tailgate down. maybe it would work, maybe it would be stable enough? At some point i'll draw it up and post it, i'm back at schoo now and dont have as much free time so it'll be a while.

thanks,
ak

 

I just used PVC tube from Lowes and notched it myself.

 

jersey surf racks, gene reynolds racks, anglers aluminum, rays racks many to chose from. If you have really good surf rods, forget about putting them on the bumper and use a top rack with ski mounts, and avoid broken tips due to power lines and low tree limbs.

 

Fish-n-Mate your talking about something like these right? Lots of people run these around the OBX and they don't look hard to copy at all.

 

Basically. It's soo easy to fab something yourself, and you sure don't want any of that chrome plating at the beach.
Just got to make sure the vehicle cooling system is OK. Those big coolers block the rad.

 

http://www.mulletmarine.com

Check out the 6-Pack rod holder.

The Rod Basket is cheaply made (bolts together). If you have the machine/ability to weld aluminum, you can make it worthwhile by welding it together in lieu of bolting it. Otherwise, be careful if you buy this and use it on bumpy beaches. I tweaked the heck out of mine while carrying a few rods, a cooler, and going over a few big bumps on the beach.

Here's my 6-Pack on my Samurai:



BTW, I built that bumper for it also...

What are you fishing for? Reds/Stripers/Blues? Or are you a shark fisherman? We get a little bit of everything down here in TX, but I am usually chasing the sharks. Here's my website: http://www.lonestarsharkers.com , also check out http://www.extremecoast.com for a few more east coast fisherman. We kayak fish the gulf quite a bit, from 0-3miles offshore, sometimes a little further, but usually no more than 3miles. Sharks, Snapper, Cobia, Grouper, etc...what a blast!



Here's a 6' Bull Shark (we catch and release all sharks, after tagging, unless they are too tired/injured to survive):




Good luck with the rod holder/basket. Like I said, the 6-pack is the best...the basket is a little cheap.

SQ

 

Good catch man. I'm kinda an ammatur now but up here its all stripers and blues man. On a good day u can pull a lota blues at the right spot out on the cape and islands. That rack looks pretty sweet though and I look forward to start fabricating all this stuff when I'm back from college next week.

 

nice fish, shawn! but arent bulls dangerous sharks? i thikn i read that somewhere. anyways, dont your rods get all mucked up by the debris and bug guys when they are up front?
bob

 

I'm going with the homemade version to plug into a hitch for my rods and reels. But since I don't do much surf fishing, its mostly for fresh and Chesapeake.

But its a later in the year project since I'm too damned busy to fish right now...

 

Supposedly Bulls are the most dangerous sharks in the ocean that account for the majority of bites and deaths. I didn't and haven't had any trouble with others. The blacktips are the frisky ones that like to spin and nip at you. The bulls just lay there and wait for you to get the hook out.

In the water, the bull is dangerous when it is feeding because it will eat anything and it is usually in the areas where a lot of people are swimming/fishing. They supposedly have a testosterone problem that makes them mean as well ,weird.

"The bull shark's well-documented bad attitude is traceable, at least in part, to a heavy dose of testosterone -- more per unit of blood than any other known animal, Hueter said. "

http://www.sptimes.com/News/091001/S...us_shark.shtml

SQ

 

at any rate you must have some pretty big balls to walk one out to let it got after pissing it off.