Like many of us, Hayden Speed had a bit of time to kill during the recent lockdown, so he decided to get his fishing gear organised and build himself a rod rack…

During the recent Covid-19 lockdown, time was something I had plenty of, so I thought why not create a rod holder for our ever growing gear collection using some recycled materials lying around the house?

After a bit of a stocktake with Dad to see what materials we had at our disposal, we had a design session to map out how we could construct something without leaving the house. We came up with a simple design and luckily had a handful of screws, a battery drill and a hole saw available to execute the plan.

My design consisted of two long boards of the same length for the top and bottom, with two shorter boards to stand vertically, connecting the two. We were fortunate to have an old plank of 140mm by 40mm dressed timber that was ideal for the project. To create the longest rod holder possible, we settled on a design that was 1150mm long across the top and bottom and 360mm tall. It’s important to measure the butt length of your shortest rod as this will determine the height that your holder should be. 

I first marked out these dimensions with light pencil, before proceeding to cut along these lines. Dad’s comment of measure twice, cut once was a pretty simple tip to make sure all my boards were the required length. For those lucky enough to own a skill saw, it will save you some time and hard work, but In my case, I became rather familiar with the hand saw! 

After finishing my cuts, I positioned the top board over the bottom and screwed the two together. This ensured that when I drilled my holes, they would line up perfectly. I then proceeded to mark out the centre of my holes. It’s important to measure and evenly space these holes as there’s nothing worse than drilling these only to realise that they are uneven or off centred. My holes were drilled at 130mm centres.  

I then used a 44mm diameter hole saw (which would be big enough to fit the butt section of our largest rod) to drill entirely through the top board. The pilot bit of the hole saw left a small hole in the bottom board which marked out where I then needed to create a hollow for the butt to sit in. 

A hole saw was used to drill holes in the top board.

Once you have drilled entirely through the top board, you'll be left with a small cylinder wedged inside the hole saw. This can be pushed out using a screwdriver.

Once I had drilled all of my holes, I separated the two boards so I could create a small hollow in the bottom board – this would house the butt section of the rod. Using the same hole saw, I drilled approximately 10mm into the bottom board, before hollowing out the centre of this using a 24mm ‘Spade Bit’. I was then left with a ring of wood inside the circle, which I chiselled out. It was super satisfying when a piece chipped out nicely! There may be other ways to create this hollow, but using what we had available to us was effective enough. 

Hayden chiselling out of the hollows made in the bottom board.

All that was left now was to give the timber a thorough sand and to assemble it. Fortunately, we had some sandpaper lying around so I could do this by hand. A blast with a belt or orbital sander would have saved some elbow grease!

When assembling the holder, I pre-drilled the screw holes with a 2mm bit, which ensured that the screw would run straight and wouldn’t cause the timber to split. 

It was finally time to put it all together!

This was a great little project for a day in lockdown – and should we end up in another lockdown I’ve now sorted out enough timber to make a larger ‘Mark 2’ version that will hold up to 20 rods! 

Here it is, the finished product.

November 2021 - Hayden Speed
New Zealand Fishing News Magazine.
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