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Stick It!
(Somewhere)
Storage space is at a premium in small boats. Here are some of the things we
did in Toy Boat 2...
Background
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Gear
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Rods
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Working Tools
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Safety
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Future Projects
So far we've covered gear and rod storage. What about the tools and tackle
that we use during the course of a day?
Tackle
 Center
consoles have a lot of walk-around room for fishermen, but very little
counter-top space for rigging tackle and holding used lures. Toy Boat 2 is
especially bad because most of the counter-top space is occupied by the sonar,
the GPS, the compass, and the two cup holders. To provide a little
more room, we fabricated this tackle shelf, which is strapped to
the console handrail with zip ties:
The shelf is about 28" long, 6 inches wide, and 1 inch deep. It's
worked out well for us. We use it to hold used lures, temporarily hold pliers,
etc. It makes a convenient place to hang trolling feathers or jigs as well. We
drilled some drain holes in the corners, so at the end of the day, we leave all
the lures and hooks in the tray, then rinse them off and let them dry.
Tools
 We
used to carry a pair of pliers in our pocket, or in a belt sheath. With Toy
Boat 2, we stopped doing that. We added this vertical rod holder
to the back of the bait tank, but not to hold rods. One tube is reserved for
the bait net, one for a flashlight, and one holds the extension handle for our
electric motor (not shown).
The rack has holes and slots for pliers and knives. We use it to hold a
needle-nose plier, a pair of dikes, a pair of scissors for cutting
spectra, a Braid plier for crimps and opening hook eyes, a fillet knife, a
file for sharpening hooks, and a place to clip the Boga Grip. Flatline
clips are looped over one tube, and a small club goes over another. Just
about every hand tool we use on a regular basis is readily available from
this spot.
 We
added this binocular box to the console mainly to cover the
hole that the radio used to be in (see
the note in Issue 3). However,
it's also turned out to be a convenient place to stuff odds and
ends. We keep the sunscreen and lip balm, contact lense wetting
solution, spare cotter pins and zip ties, and the drain plug wrench
in the box. When we use the binos, they just sit on top of the junk.
We also drilled drain holes in this guy as well.
 The
"End Game" tools like the gaff, release stick, landing net and tagging stick
sit in pole holders mounted beneath the rod racks. Convenient and
out of the way. Gaff and release stick on the port side, net and tag
stick on the starboard side.
We use a Fenwick landing net with a folding hoop that collapses into a
fairly narrow profile (see right). We wish we could get a
knotless mesh bag for the net, so it would be less damaging to small halibut
and other fish, but have been unable to find one that fits. The
net is strong enough to handle at least a 15 lb fish (the largest we've tried
to use it on so far).  And believe it
or not, you can actually open the net with one hand!
As a convenience, we added a plier and knife holder (shown to the
left) to the front of the console. This holder could also take a
small knife.
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