clip on center rigger

[FINZ UP 1289]

anybody have one? thinking about getting one-

[Seh34]

Hey RJ,

I've heard of them, but i haven't seen them, nor do i know anyone who uses them. I've never had any luck with clip on/bolt on devices when offshore fishing; it all seems to break with hard use.

When we went out on our 25 Mako I set up an old rod to put in the rocket launcher up high.

I got one of the roller troller clips, but any of them would do, then put 400# mono through the top three eyes of the rod and through the release clip and then crimped everything together. What I ended up with was a loop of mono going through three eyes and the release clip. the release clip was on the outer part of the loop and moved anywhere from the third eye up to the top. Then I'd run the line from the leaning post holder up to the rod/release clip in the t-top rocket launcher. It wasn't as pretty as a center rigger, but it pulled from 12 feet of the deck of the boat and accomplished what I was trying to do. Originally I did it because I wasn't sure our top would hold a 50W and the weight of the fish, but realized quickly that there's no managable way to bring a rod down from 7' high with a fish on anyway.

at the end of the day, take it down, wash it off and store it for next time.

[ 01-09-2004, 10:10 AM: Message edited by: Seh34 ]

[captainbadfinger]

That sure was a good idea,I will have to remember that one

[SSawed]

Tried that same method, using a 7' Penn Slammer 50lb rod and a roller troller clip. The line failed to pull from the clip, even at a light setting. I assumed rod flex was the culprit, and scrapped the whole idea. But then again, most of the fish I catch are rather small, so maybe that's the real problem

It was a real circus trying to get the so-called center rigger down from the roof top rocket launcher to manually release the clip - even with only a 30lb yellow on the end of the line.

[makorider]

I did a similar thing, only instead of an old rod, I used an 8' piece of aluminum tube. Anodized it to make it look as good as possible, put a stainless eye on the top and epoxied a piece of 1 1/4" pvc to the bottom which happens to fit perfectly tight and snug in the holders on the t-top. Rigged it with mono, a clip, and loop on a bungee which gets clipped on under the t-top so the glass eye is at the bottom of the rod holder when done.

Works well, can even drag mats without a problem, and its not in the way when I dont want it/need it, stores nicely in the in-deck box in my 26.

[captainbadfinger]

SSawed,Steve did you decide if your buying a new boat yet?...btw the fish we were catching near the big metal boats would rip your rocket launcher off your boat if the clip didn`t pop

[FINZ UP 1289]

one of the guys on ourdock usesit,i didnt get that much feedback from him though. we used our second rocket-rod holder with a 50tw Okuma titus and trolled that, we backed the drag down to about 9 pounds so we cud grab that rod.I would like to run 2 long lines and i feel that a center rigger is the only way to go

[diger]

We did sort of the same thing also.

Just took 2 sections of a old damaged outrigger pole and attached it to the radar arch with hose clamps. Works great, cost zero.

[SSawed]

Hey Scotty! How's it goin?

Decided to hang on (literally) to the boat for another season, unless someone wants to make me a whale of a trade-in deal at the AC show (not likely). Just can't be bothered with the whole process right now, and don't even know what I would buy.

I would say that one of those metal boat brutes would likely tear that fake center rigger (or any for that matter) to shreds if it got wrapped or the clip stuck.... I must say that I did mount the rocket launcher rather stoutly , I didn't want it taking my head off on the way out of the boat

An aluminum pole in the launcher sounds like something I'm gonna have to try next season. 'Til now, I've just been pulling the WWB from the top holder of a side launcher. It's caught some fish, but still doesn't get the line quite high enough to be effective, especially when pulling a bird.