Posted by Ted on October 21, 2002 at 14:26:15:
In Reply to: Re: pay the cash, get a guaranty against leakage, trust me. posted by brad on October 21, 2002 at 12:10:08:
It's one thing to put rod holders in your kayak and those of us who prefer to, do it becuase it gives you greater flexibility to point the tubes in the direction you would like. However, the hatches are a different story. I took the front round hatch out to reseal it and I could tell that the installation does not have much room for error. As Brad says the rectangular hatch is a tight fit as well. Check with MOS, because you might void your warranty if you do it yourself.
This goes with the rod holders as well. If you have them install the rod holders, make sure to tell them to point the center holders straight out from the kayak (perpendicular) When you are trolling it is better to get the rod tip as far as possible away from the side of your kayak, so you can paddle and not have the lines get caught up, especially in freshwater fishing when you tend to use smaller equipment. As far as the back rod holders go, I tried to angle them out on a 45% angle instead of pointing them straight back so if I had two lines out I could keep them away from each other.
If you plan on going solo, you dont' need the hatches right away, save your money. Pick up a milkcrate, some bungies and those cheap karabiners. You can run a small rope through the pad eyes on one side of the kayak and clip dry bags, tackle bags etc with the karabiners to the rope. You can get pvc pipe for a couple of bucks and zip tie it to the milk crate for cheap rodholders and bungie the crate down to the deck. You can jam stuff in the milk crate and with a few bungies across the top secure it in the milkcrate. That will get you going for cheap and then you can save up for the hatches, and good seats.
Milkcrate - free behind most grocery stores
PVC pipe - 10 feet for $5.00
Zip ties - $5.00 for a dozen or more
Bungies - $5.00 or less for assorted
Rope - a couple of bucks.
Karabiners - 99 cents each at Home depot.
Come to think of it the 99 cent only store probably has the zip ties, rope, bungies and maybe even the karabiners for less.
One other thing to think about is instead of getting rod holders you can get the Surf to Summit fishing seat from Seirra Outdoor Sports (their link is at the top of the message board) for probably the same price of the regular deluxe seat and flushmout rodholders. The seats MOS provides in the package deal are great starter seats, but if you spend alot of time fishing the better seat will be a better deal.
Even though I bought mine on the package deal I have had a milkcrate strapped to the back, the middle and the front. I use to mount my fishfinder on it with a motorcycle battery. Go to allkayakfishing.com and look in the rigged kayak section. Perry has a picture of my kayak with the milkcrate up front and I am sitting in the center.
-Ted