Amelia Island Fishing Articles

When I got my Jeep Wrangler, one of the first things I noticed was it didn't have an over abundance of storage room. It's great for scooting around in the sand, but I was going to need to get creative on where to put the fishing gear.

I usually use two rods when I surf fish, so I figured that rod storage for four rods would be sufficient; my two, and two more for anyone that I took fishing with me. I also need storage for a bait bucket and another bucket to hold a cast net, and the front bumper seemed like the right place for the storage. It would be much easier to get to the bait bucket on the front of the Jeep than in the back seat.

I looked around on the net, and didn't find much in the front bumper rod holder department; the usual metal rod holders, not exactly what I had in mind, and in the two to three hundred dollar price range. So I decided to make my own.

The basic frame was constructed of 3/4 inch plywood. Not because plywood is the best material for the job, but because it's what I had laying around that needed to be used up; I had two old 3/4 inch shelves that had been removed from the garage a while back so I decided to recycle them. I stained the plywood, and then added three coats of marine polyurethane to make it as waterproof as possible. The wooden frame was assembled using weather proof deck screws and wood glue.

The four rod holders were made from two inch schedule forty PVC pipe, as were the two short "rocket launchers" (sand spike holders) on either side. I used the larger PVC pipe because they needed to hold the rods in two pieces; it's OK to drive around the beach with a twelve to fifteen foot rod sticking up out of the holders, but it's not a good idea to drive around the island with them in one piece because surf rods don't make good tree trimmers. The rod holders were spaced to allow the two buckets to fit on the front of the rack. The height of the rod holders was based on the butt of the longest surf rod I have.

The rod holders and rocket launchers are held on with U bolts. Stainless U bolts are very expensive, so I used the non-stainless steel type bolts, and painted them with two coats of cold galvanized paint and a coat of black rust preventive paint. I had a large bag of stainless nuts and washers left over from a previous project, so I used them on the U bolts. There is a one inch diameter hole drilled in the plywood frame under each rod holder which keeps water from collecting in the holders.

The sand spike holders serve two purposes; they can be used either for hauling long sand spikes to the beach, or they can be used as holders for short PVC spikes (1 1/2 inch) I made that I can fish out of if I can get the Jeep close enough to the water to fish using the holders on the bumper instead of sand spikes.

The four main rod holders are slotted at the top to keep the rods from spinning around (and allowing the reels to bang on each other). The slots are staggered to keep the reels separated; the two outer slots point out to either side of the Jeep, and the two inner slots are at ninety degree angles from each other.

I covered the back end of the U bolts with rubber fuel line hose (from the local auto parts store). These make excellent attachment points for bungee cords which hold the buckets, and short bungee cords that I use to keep the rods from jumping up and down in the holders on the way to the beach. The fuel line protects the paint on the U bolts.

The rack is attached to the front bumper of the jeep using stainless steel bolts. Unfortunately, access to the center of the front bumper with it on the Jeep is nonexistent, so I had to remove the bumper to attach the rack, and then reattach it to the Jeep.

Since I had some of the materials in the garage, the total cost of the project was less than $50. The rack could also be used to hold rods and a small cooler instead of the two buckets. A good weekend project and a neccessary addition to the beach buggy.

If you decide to build a rod holder for the front of your truck, some of the things you'll need to take into consideration include ground clearance, how far it sticks out in front of the truck (if it's permanent, like mine is), and how much, if any, it blocks the radiator air flow. This particular holder doesn't seem to have any effect on how cool the engine runs even with the buckets on, and I haven't hit anything with it. Yet :-)

Article By Amelia-Island-Fishing.Com Staff