Rigging a used fishing kayak

Start by finding every hole

A used fishing kayak arrives stripped. The seller took the rod holders, the fish finder, the transducer mount and probably the seat — and left every hole those things were bolted through. Replacing the electronics is the most expensive of those and the least urgent, and the honest cost of a working install — battery, box, transducer arm, mount — is on the budget fish finder roundup.

Before you add anything, go over the deck systematically. Look at the gunwales, behind the seat, in the tankwell, and around the bow hatch. Include holes that still have a bolt in them, because a bolt without sealant is still a leak.

Then check whether water is already inside. Lift the bow and listen for sloshing. Water in the hull cavity means an existing leak, and finding it now is much easier than finding it in August. The full inspection is on what to fix on a used kayak.

Seal what you are not going to use

Every abandoned hole gets closed. Two options:

A plastic hole plug bedded in marine sealant, for holes you will never want back.

A stainless bolt with a rubber well nut, also bedded in sealant, for holes you might use later. A well nut expands as you tighten it, which both seals and grips from one side — useful in places you cannot reach behind.

Do this before the first trip. A slow leak into the hull is exactly the fault that is annoying to trace once the boat is wet all the time anyway.

Measure before you drill: you may not need to

This is the trick worth knowing. Manufacturers publish their bolt patterns.

Scotty publishes 1 5/16 inch by 3 3/16 inch for the 230 Powerlock’s side/deck mount, along with overall mount dimensions of 4 by 2 by 2 inches. Measure the holes the previous owner left. If they match, you fit a new holder into an existing pattern and the boat gains no new holes at all.

This is common in practice, because Scotty mounts are the default in kayak fishing and a lot of used boats were rigged with them.

The no-drill rigging that covers most of it

The gear track, if the boat has one. Most fishing kayaks made in the last decade have at least one length of accessory track. Track-mounted holders, camera arms and fish finder mounts slide on in seconds, move between boats, and need nothing drilled. RAM publishes track-compatible bases for exactly this. A boat without a track can have one added for one set of holes, which is the whole argument in the gear track and accessory rail roundup.

The crate. A milk crate strapped into the tankwell, with rod tubes or a bolted holder attached to the crate rather than to the hull, gives you most of a rigged fishing boat with zero holes. The crate setup covers it in full, and it is the single best move on a boat you might resell.

Existing deck rigging. Bungees and deck lines are attachment points you already own. If they are perished — and on a used boat they usually are — replacing all the cord is cheap and restores the places you stow things.

If you do drill, do it once

1. Check you can reach behind before making the hole, not after. Well nuts and rivet nuts exist for blind locations, but that changes your hardware choice.
2. Mark, then measure again. Sit in the boat with a rod and check the position is actually reachable and does not foul your paddle stroke. This is the step people skip.
3. Stainless hardware, large backing washers or a backing plate. A small washer against soft polyethylene pulls through under load.
4. Marine sealant on every bolt, both sides.
5. Snug, not tight. Polyethylene creeps under sustained pressure. Re-check after the first trip.

Rig in this order

1. Seal the old holes. Before anything else.

2. Fit a seat, or fix the one that came with it. Comfort determines how long you stay out, and a used boat frequently has a perished strap or a cracked buckle rather than a dead seat.

3. Add the crate. Instant storage, instant rod tubes, no holes.

4. One rod holder in the working position, on the track if there is one, on the crate if there is not.

5. Anchoring, once you know whether you fish shallow or deep.

6. An anchor trolley, eventually. It is genuinely useful and it is a job to do when you know where you want the attachment points — which is after a season on the water, not before.

What is deliberately not on that list is outriggers, which is where a lot of people start. A rigged boat sits differently from an empty one, and a crate and a cooler in the wrong place account for most of the tippiness that sends anglers shopping for stabilizers. Rig the boat, fish it for a season, and then decide — if you still want to stand and cast, that page covers what each mounting system costs a second-hand deck.

Two things specific to used boats

Scupper plugs will be perished. If the previous owner left them in for years, the rubber is hard and cracked. Cheap to replace, and worth understanding before you refit them — see scupper plugs.

Carry a bilge pump. A boat that has had water inside it once will again. Attwood publishes up to 8 gallons per minute for its hand pump, and it belongs under a deck bungee within reach rather than in a hatch.