rod holder placement

alright gang.  I need opinions.  Last Sunday I had three fish on.  Lost one by my own fault.  Lost another that I am not sure was even large enough get the whole hook in his mouth.  The one that is killing me is the one i lost trolling.  I have my rod holder in the center of my rod pod, all the way forward at a high angle and angles forward to about 10:30.  I have to have it here to be able to paddle.  I had a huge hit...wham...wham...wham....by the time I could get the rod out of the holder and try to set the hook, I basically pulled it out of her mouth. I was pulling a spinner so I did not have time to let her eat it. 

Where y'all position your rod holders so you can get to it quickly enough?  I have a couple ideas but I am curious as to  what others are doing.

That sounds like the way I have mine set up except for the "high angle" part. The rod is not horizontal but tilted up slightly.  I don't know how other people do it but when I started fishing from the kayak a couple of years ago, Noah, I believe, advised me to speed up after the fish bites before touching the rod. So that's what I have been doing i.e. take a couple of hard paddle strokes and stash the paddle before grabbing the rod. I can think of a few occasions when I just grabbed the rod straight away and lost the fish, once just recently. I see a variety of ways people here have their rod holders oriented so there could be some more experienced folks with better insight. I even do it the way I described for kokanee and it seems to help with getting them hooked.

What kind of kayak are you using?  It's hard to get specific about rod holder placement without that information.  Since you refer to a rod pod, I suspect that you have a Trident of some kind, but let us know what kind of kayak you're using.  But in general, if you have a paddle kayak, your paddle and your arms sweep over a large area of your kayak with every stroke, and in order to avoid whacking your rod and rod holder while paddling, you need to mount your rod holder pretty far forward.  When trolling I put my rod in front of me so I can monitor its tip.  I don't feel that mounting a trolling rod behind my seat is a viable option.

In my experience, pulling a fish through the water at trolling speed isn't going to pull the hook out of the fish's mouth, even when you catch a soft-mouthed fish like a kokanee.  You and the fish are going to end up putting much greater tension on the line as you fight the fish up to your kayak.  The big advantage of getting the rod out of your rod holder promptly is that you can set the hook and then keep tension on the line, which makes it less likely that the fish will be able to shake out the hook.

If you're worried about a fish putting too much tension on your line in the few seconds after it hits your lure, loosen up your drag and put on the clicker.  An advantage of turning on your clicker is that if you happen to be looking away from the tip of your rod or daydreaming when a fish hits, the clicker will alert you to the situation. 

A friend bought a GoPro camera and mounted it on the bow of his kayak.  When he reviewed the footage from the first day, he was amazed at how many strikes he failed to notice when he was trolling.  I suggested that he make a "trolling bloopers" video showing all his missed strikes, but for some reason he never did it.

My input.

A) You don't need to set the hook while trolling if its in the rod holder.  Take a few power strokes/pedals and let the kayak set the hook for you.

B) In addition to the positioning (which is kayak and style specific as stated previously) I think a rod holder like the folbe or the new Scotty Orca (I think) allow for easy release of the rod from the rod holder even when there is a ton of pressure on the rod. 

Yeah,  no need to set the hook,  just paddle or pedal hard for a second or two and then grab the rod.  Sometimes I hit record on the gopro before taking the rod out of the holder. 

Start watching about half way through

Getting tension on your line and setting the hook are more important when downrigger trolling, because when your line pops out of your downrigger release, there are several seconds during which the line isn't under tension and the fish has an opportunity to throw the hook.

Just recalling the admonitions of a couple of guides I've been with on boats , as well, "don't touch the rod until there's line peeling off." Same principle and they were right.

Just recalling the admonitions of a couple of guides I've been with on boats , as well, "don't touch the rod until there's line peeling off." Same principle and they were right.

That says it all.

-Mark-

Yeah,  no need to set the hook,  just paddle or pedal hard for a second or two and then grab the rod.  Sometimes I hit record on the gopro before taking the rod out of the holder.

Just like plugging for steelhead when I was a kid....use the oars.  Thanks guys.  I guess I lost both good fish for the same reason. 

I tend to run my rod flat or slightly up from flat which puts my rod tip above the water when pulling lead.I'm assuming your chasing trout? Or salmon ?

If its trout I would suggest a rod change if yours is a tad to stiff.for trout I like a moderate action.a rod with bend through most of the rod.fast action rods pull to many hooks for my tastes.softer rods soak up the thrashing.the rod I use is a diawa heartland.6"-30"+ fish rarely come unbuttoned.

I tend to run my rod flat or slightly up from flat which puts my rod tip above the water when pulling lead.I'm assuming your chasing trout? Or salmon ?

If its trout I would suggest a rod change if yours is a tad to stiff.for trout I like a moderate action.a rod with bend through most of the rod.fast action rods pull to many hooks for my tastes.softer rods soak up the thrashing.the rod I use is a diawa heartland.6"-30"+ fish rarely come unbuttoned.

I have a really soft rod.  I was trolling for Silvers....mostly human error.  I need to tighten the nut that holds the paddle.

I use a Scotty Powerlock rod holder on a Gear head mount and both a regular and mini rod holder extender.  I also use a few Scotty slip discs for fine tuning.  It's a lot of gear, but it lets me keep the rod right where I need it.  Out of my paddle stroke but still within reach.

I run my rod horizontal pointing slightly forward.  The Powerlock is tilted ever so slightly towards me which helps me see my line counter and also helps when I need to grab the rod out. 

Also, I wait until the line is peeling before grabbing the rod out of the holder.

Here's a photo..

Holy crap! I have net envy!  What were you fishing for with that net?  Whale sharks? 

I know it may be camera perspective, but it looks like you could use it as a hammock too.

You can not have too big of a net when fishing for salmon.