【Fishing DIY】With the "rod clip" from the 100 yen store Seria, I can now create a car-mounted rod holder that looks good

To safely load fishing rods that I'm afraid might break, I want a rod holder inside my car. However, my beloved car already has a bed kit for car camping, which seems to limit the space available for a standard rod holder. At such a time, I found something perfect at the 100 yen store Seria!

The in-car space is narrow, but I want a rod holder

I’m considering installing a car-mounted rod holder for my life’s work of stream fishing. However, thinking about the existence of a DIY bed kit for car camping made it difficult to take the plunge. The standard rod holders are the type that install in the ceiling space, and in my car's environment, I’m scared that I might break a rod while turning over.

Reusing Seria's rod clips for the car-mounted holder

While researching to see if I could easily make a holder that fits my narrow beloved car, I discovered Seria's "rod clips" (110 yen). These are for attaching to fishing buckets (to keep the fish alive) or toolboxes to hold rods at the fishing spot.

I tried to see if I could fit them into the electra pipes used for the bed kit as a mounting location, but the clips have a width limitation of 1.5 cm, so it was impossible.

Product name / Plastic joint
Item number / J-129
Compatible pipe / Φ28 Electra pipe
● Yazaki Chemical

In fact, there are similar shaped parts in the Electra pipe series, and I thought this one (upper image) might suit the author better, but according to the official explanation, it requires glue and the size of the U-shaped part is small, so I decided to pass this time.

I tried to install it on a soft cooler used as equipment storage

A practical method I tried was to attach two rod clips to the soft cooler. When I actually tried it, I was able to barely avoid it while keeping the bed kit frame set up, and the stability was perfect.

Since the soft cooler is used for camera equipment storage, I carry it around all the time. Also, since I can move the cooler box itself, I can create a rod storage space on the ground, making it seem well suited for fishing camps.

A little ingenuity is needed to place it on top of the bed kit top plate.

One potential pattern is shown in the image above, where the bed kit is placed on the top panel. In the case of traveling while camping in the car, this setup will be used, but during turns, the box may fall over due to centrifugal force. It seems necessary to secure it somehow.

Therefore, I decided to secure the cooler box's strap to the assist grip. I believe this will provide some stability against centrifugal force during turns.

A comfortable fishing environment leads to a bountiful catch.

Thanks to being able to create a rod holder environment, I was blessed with a good catch and felt very refreshed. There may be different problems when actually camping in the car, but since the layout can be changed freely, I should be able to adapt. I want to travel around various fields with my precious fishing gear, trying different ideas along the way.

Interview/Article by Kazuma Tanaka

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