Cockpit comfort

[PeterPalmieri]

Spent the day yesterday jigging 15-25lb bass all day the action was insane. Nothing I do to the boat is going to help my hurting hands and spagetti arms but man do my knees hurt. I don't see a lot of the guys rigged for fishing have combing pads, is the real solution getting rid of the side panels or will combing pads help? Not something I really want to add to the boat just becomes another thing to upkeep but bruised knee caps suck. Getting rid of the side and aft panels is obviously a bigger job.

Any thoughts?

[CaptPatrick]

Knee pads? Whole lot cheaper and only use 'em as you need 'em....

[Stephan]

You caught soooo many big fish that your knees hurt and you problem is what????
For those of us who haven't seen a Bass on the end of our line in, in... c'mon... pictures please.
S

[Kevin]

I could think of worse problems to have!
I think I spent about 500 on combing pads for the boat in 2006ish. They really looked good for about 5 years. Unless you do a lot of fishing I do not think they are worth it. This is coming from a free diver though. They are now taking away from the look of the cockpit due to the sun damage. I will be removing them before too long and filling the holes and painting again.

[PeterPalmieri]

Kevin do you have side panels? Leaning in for balance may be more of the problem. I just had that area filled and painted so I'm hesitant to start adding more holes. From past experience the pads are nice until they fade and crack which is where you seem to be.

Stephan my problem is I have a job a mortgage, 2 kids, and a wife. Otherwise I'd be chasing fish everyday!

Here is one shot, notice later in the morning I couldn't hold the fish out for that bigger look. Layed her head up on my gut

[Kevin]

I do have the side panels. I could see where the old knees or legs would hurt without some sort of pad.
I have never been hands on with this or a similar product but have heard people say they are good.
I may give something like these a try on the next go around. No drilling needed!

http://www.seadek.com/c-8-coaming-bolsters.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tougher than vinyl and foam I suppose. I always had to turn a blind eye when folks were getting on and off the boat with shoes as the vinyl pads would scuff with black marks.

[PeterPalmieri]

Kevin,

Those are nice, I have heard a lot but never seen them as combing. I know the deck pads hold up pretty nice.

[lenco]

was that your blue bertram returning from fire island inlet at around 11:00am today 10/19/13. if so how did you do out there?

[JohnCranston]

Peter,
We took off the side panels on Reel Cowboy and installed bolsters. By taking off the panels, you now have room for your little feetys to move around, without your toes getting crunched and less pressure on the knees. My fish box in the transom is also elevated off of the cockpit floor for foot room...all this makes a big difference on fishing comfort.
John.

[PeterPalmieri]

was that your blue bertram returning from fire island inlet at around 11:00am today 10/19/13. if so how did you do out there?

That was me. We were in the ocean at about 6:15 called in quits at 10:30 as I had to go home and put on my daddy clothes. The bass bite was great early but the tide slacked out and it was like a lake with no drift. We managed a couple of big blues on the surface at slack. I heard it turned back on around 11am.

[PeterPalmieri]

John,

It's a big job in my case because my teak deck doesn't meet the gunnels but I'm thinking long term that's the real solution.

Pete

[lenco]

i was out there at 7:00am and caught 4 monster blues and 1 30" bass. alot of boats out there. i was leaving
the grounds and could not keep up with you. i was doing 20kts. you were flying.

[PeterPalmieri]

What boat were you in? I never did over 22kts mostly I'm running between 19 and 21 kts. I came back on a 1/4 tank yesterday.

[lenco]

i have a 24ft rampage named jenny. i dock in bayshore on the west side of maple ave.