Six tips for setting up a boat for fishing

Modern trailer boats are far better designed for fishing than they once were.

Today’s alloy and fibreglass boats have more fishing features, larger, more spacious cockpits, and transom layouts providing better access into the transom corners and over the stern.

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Most good fish boats also have a number of other design features which improve the “fishability” of a boat.

Some of these include wide side coamings for easy placement of rod holders, full-length and above-floor side storage pockets, above-floor battery and oil tank platforms, toe rails for secure footing in the cockpit, removable rear seating, recessed coaming rails and stern cleats, and high freeboard all the way around the cockpit.

The inclusion of the above features makes modern trailer boats quicker and easier to rig for fishing.

Many will have the basics, but nothing beats making a few modifications to set a boat up for your favourite fishing application.

Let’s check out some of the most desirable gear.

Being able to keep bait alive is a requirement of almost all types of fishing – so you will need a live bait tank.

Larger-size trailer boats often come with a live bait tank, but if your new boat doesn't have one, then you may need to buy an aftermarket tank, or make one up yourself.

Live bait tanks can be made from everything from old plastic acid containers through to large nappy buckets.

The key is that the capacity of the tank needs to be a minimum of 50 to 60 litres, and you need a pump capable of supplying at least 360 gallons of water an hour.

Rule and Johnson-branded pumps are readily available from marine chandleries. Most pump makers also produce ready-to-go kits with all fittings supplied so you can install the pump kit yourself.

For keeping baits alive, and supplying water to the live bait tank on the run, you will need to fit a water scoop to the transom.

This may not be necessary if you fish close in waters, or are able to stop regularly to top up the tank, but if you make long runs to the continental shelf you will need to be able to feed water into the tank to keep the baits alive while underway.

A relatively recent invention is the “tuna tube”. While a tuna or live bait tube looks similar to an overgrown rod holder, it has a completely different purpose – it is intended to keep a single, fully rigged live bait alive indefinitely so that it can be cast out to a hungry sport fish at a moment’s notice.

The idea is that a bridle-rigged live striped tuna, slimy mackerel or other baitfish is lowered head-first into the tube while seawater is pumped into the tube from underneath.

Water flowing over the gills of the bait will keep it alive and more importantly “lively” for some time.

Berleying basically involves drip-feeding small pieces of fish meat or bait into the water to attract or lure fish up to the stern of the boat where, hopefully, they will snaffle down your baited hooks.

Berleying can involve manually throwing bits of bait and fish regularly over the side as above, or you can use a special berley bucket mounted on the stern.

Berley buckets are usually cylindrical or semi-circular in shape and are most commonly made from polyethylene, aluminium, or stainless steel.

There are models that clamp directly to your boat’s transom wall, and others that can be flush-fitted into a swimming or boarding platform.

The berley bucket is filled with a mixture of fish meat, tuna oil, sometimes chicken pellets, fish frames, and so on.

This mixture of juices and bits of fish flesh is then allowed to leak out into the water through holes at the bottom of the berley bucket. The berley then streams out behind the boat to form a berley trail, or slick, that can stretch for miles on calm days.

Every now and then, you will need to stir or mulch up the contents of the berley bucket so that fresh fish "goop" dribbles out behind the boat. It is worth investing in a dedicated "chomper", although a piece of PVC pipe can serve almost as well.

A splash of tuna oil into the bucket every hour or so will help attract and keep fish in the vicinity, and will also help maintain the berley slick.

Having somewhere onboard to cut up or prepare baits and clean the catch is essential in a fishing boat.

It's easy enough to make a cutting board from plywood and bought mounting brackets, but a marine chandlery or boat dealer will have them ready-made.

Most store-bought cutting boards are made from fibreglass or polyethylene.

They come in various sizes and most have brackets underneath that are designed to fit into a pair of vertical rod holders mounted in the side deck or transom coaming. Rail mount models are also common.

Cutting boards can be as simple as a flat cutting surface, or they can have separate recesses for knives, hooks and sinkers, cup holders, tackle trays and more.

Rod holders come in all shapes and sizes and in a variety of materials, including polyethylene (plastic), alloy, bronze/alloy composites, and stainless steel.

For river and estuary fishing, it’s a bit hard to go past some of the more recent, well-designed poly rod holders recessed into the topside or gunwales of the boat.

These “plastic” rod holders are also available in models designed to be clamped onto a railing. They are versatile because they can be angled in different directions.

Another alternative is to make your own holders out of plumber’s PVC tubing and attach them to the internal sides of your boat using appropriate clamps bought from the nearest plumbing supplier.

DIY models are cheap, effective and with a little care taken on the throats of the tube, can be quite gentle on the rod.

On more sophisticated offshore fishing boats, stronger, stainless steel rod holders are the only real choice.

Rod holders are great for holding the rods while you’re fishing, but they are less than ideal for rod stowage at other times.

A better system is needed for storing rods while transiting to and from the fishing grounds.

Most serious fishermen use “rocket launchers” to safely stow their rods – a vertical rod rack mounted slightly above head height in the boat to keep it out of the way of the fishing area.

Rocket launchers are commonly mounted above the boat’s windscreen, as well as behind the rear bimini top.

Usually made from alloy or stainless steel, a good rocket launcher will have about eight vertical rod holders, spaced evenly apart across the boat.

This allows multiple rods to be stored without their reels banging into each other.

The “launcher” can also be used as a base to mount running lights, radio and GPS antennas.

Better-designed rocket launchers have quite long rod holders, angled just slightly aft of vertical. This ensures the rods will not fall out and removes the need for safety cords on each of the rods.

A rubber sleeve or insert on the top of each rod holder is particularly important in a rocket launcher because the rods tend to bounce around, especially when mounted up high.

A rubber sleeve or some form of padding around the inner rim of the holders will prevent serious damage to the butts of your rods.

If the boat has to fit in a garage, a fixed rocket launcher rack is not ideal. A better system, perhaps, is a series of small vertical rod racks mounted inside the boat at floor level.

They are easy and cheap to make yourself using PVC piping and clamps, and can fit anywhere in the cockpit that is out of the way.

Most anglers intent on chasing sport fish such as marlin, tuna, mackerel and more will benefit from a pair of outriggers.

Outriggers make it possible to troll extra lures or baits behind the boat without them tangling up.

Outriggers can also be used while drifting or anchored to keep live baits clear of other lines.

Most anglers fit two outriggers, one to each side of the boat. A centre or “shotgun” outrigger can lift a centre line or lure up high and clear of other deck-based fishing lines.

An outrigger is essentially a 4.0- to 6.0-metre pole attached to the side of a boat (at the gunwale or along the cabin sides).

They fit into a bracket or some other folding mechanism that allows them to rotate out and down form vertical so they angle directly out from the boat, usually between 30 and 40 degrees.

Outrigger lines, or halyards made usually from venetian cord or heavy monofilament and running up the pole via a series of runners or fishing rod-style rings create a "pulley" system running up to the tip of the pole, and then back down to a clamp on the side of the boat. A release clip is attached to the trolling line.

Simple outrigger systems allow you set the lure or bait at an appropriate distance behind the boat, attach a fishing line to the outrigger release clip, and then crank the halyard on the outrigger so that the outrigger clip (carrying your fishing line) rises up to the top of the outrigger.

When a fish strikes the lure or bait, the line is jerked out of the outrigger release clip (at the top of the outrigger) so that you can then fight the fish with a rod.

It does get more complicated than this, but that's the basic idea.