I have a 16 ft Glasply boat and looking for some suggestions on what to use for a tackle box (soft or hard side) and how do you set up your boat with locations of fishing net, filet knife, extra rods, downriiger balls and other needed items. What do keep in the back of the boat abd what up front. Where do you place your Lowrance.

I also fish out of a 16 ft boat. We converted the seats so they have storage units underneith. Keep fire extinguishers, extra cannonballs and tackleboxes in them. For bait I use an old coffee can and keep that in the back corner of the boat (can't trip over it there). I screwed 5 pieces of pvc to the back wall and we keep extra rods there and the net when we are running. It (the net) gets in the way when fighting fish so I keep that upfront with the handle sticking out so I can quickly grab it. Filet knife and spare oars (always carry oars) in the gunwells and that's about it.
For tackle boxes I like the hard plastic ones because alot of the gear I carry has sharp hooks on heavy jigs and it tears up soft stuff. Also try carrying 3 20 oz. weights in a soft box. Not pretty. The fish finder is on the passenger side right behind the front windshield on a swivel mount. This is a good spot because you can see it from the back or the drivers seat.

I run a big tackel box for all my misc gear,spoons,plugs ect. A few things I have been using that might help is a soft case cd holder, I use it to put all my pre-ties in. Helps keep them together and very acessable. The other thing to look at are the soft flasher bags made by Xtream. They save room and keep the flashers in good shape. During the summer if you stuff them in the box they get hot and warp, you might as well toss them at that point.I have a floor storage in my sea-ray where I store all my down rigger balls, helps to keep the spares out of the way. As for the net I use a small tie down to hold it along the rail of the boat and keeps it out of the way. Hope this helps.

The key thing to remember is open floor space. When you got that 'nook kicking your ass, its no time to be trippling on tackel boxes & spare rods. To achieve this you need to keep things very organized in smaller boat like this. Don't know the layout of your boat but spare rods almost always along the side rails, net anyplace up front, top of bow, in a cuddy etc. , all else fails along the side. I always modify my saltwater boats with some sort of wood cap over I/O motor well or on top of stern rail. This for cutting bait on and if big enough, where I set my crab pots when I pull them up. That Lowrance, up front on that size of boat. But think of where/how people will be sitting when the rod fires off. Make sure it's not placed where will obstruct someone (or get knocked off) making a mad scramble for "fish-on". Again, keep the aisles open for that mad dash.

I have a 15 foot Smokercraft Alaskan, and space is really tight. There are a couple things I do that make life pretty convenient, however, particularly with the downriggers. I mount them pointing up at about a 45 degree angle. This eliminates having to hang over the side to retreive your booger ball or reach your release - really nice on a rough day! Also, I mount a plastic booger ball holder, the square kind you get at Sportco, right under the reel, so when I retrieve my ball I just set the cable in the spool and slack the line, falls right into place. The upward angle does put them a couple feet closer together, but unless I turn 90 degrees, like I do occasionally to miss the Bayliner that can't see me, things don't seem to tangle too badly. And actually I can turn it 90 degrees to the right and get away with it, just not to the left, as then the lines cross.

I troll with either the motor (I only have one, 4 stroke) or the oars, especially use the oars when I'm drift mooching or fishing kokes, sockeye, lakers, etc. So I mount my fish finder on the seat next to me on teh left side, right about in line with the tip of my rod when trolling with the motor. When I'm on the oars I turn it to face forward so I can see it easily.

For a tackle box I like a big trunk style, and I stick it behind the motor seat next to the gas tank most of the time to get it out of the way. Also throw the knife and cutting board back there - I wholeheartedly agree that you want absolutely nothing on the floor that you can step on when fighting a fish!

My oars get strapped to the gunnels with a bungee cord on one side, and my rods get slipped into the bungee and rest on the oars - really protects them well as you can't break them unless you break the oars too! The fish box usually gets strapped down in tbe bow, and the bag of the net sits over the fish box with the handle pointing back at me if I'm alone. I have 3 swivel seats in this little boat and can fish 3 people just fine if the weather behaves - not a lot of room to run around but enough to streatch out. I may have the littlest boat in the fleet but I can also fish an 8 hour day on 3 gallons of gas

I fish a 19' Custom Weld. I had a custom "roll bar" type thing welded up, it goes up and over the canvas, I have one plastic tube mounted vertically on the outside starboard side to hold the net vertically, and two on the port side mounted at an angle to hold two rods & reels. I have four other plastic tubes at the back of the boat to hold other rods & reels. I usually run three Scotty downriggers.

I bought the boat used, and it came with four swivel pedestal seats. I removed the rear two, replaced the starboard one with a 150qt cooler, and bought some bench seat "seconds" from the Custom Weld factory when I was there. Had a friend weld up an aluminum box to fit under the bench seat, made it a sort of "couch" on the port side. The people sitting on the cooler or the couch have to face the center of the boat, but I can fit two people on each if I have to.

I keep all my tackle in the hard plastic "Plano" style boxes, and have a soft bag that fits maybe six of the big ones. I keep all my flashers pre-tied to spoons and hootchies in the X-Stream style flasher bags... I have four or five of those, couldn't live without them. Most of the time I'll keep one bag tied up with an assortment of sizes of terminal gear, for exploring if I don't know what's going to work, then each of the other bags contains gear of a similar size, so once I zero in on the "hatch" I just sitck with different colors and styles from the one bag.

I bought one of those open toolboxes, the kind that is plastic and just a handle with a tray around it, no lid or anything (hard to describe), I keep all my round halibut weights and such in that, and use the 1qt Tupperware containers as dividers within this box, for the smaller weights.

I use long (4'-5') lines on my downrigger release clips, and keep at least two hook-out dowels, (one on each side of the boat) to use to unhook unwanted fish, and to grab the release clip lines, so I don't have to lean over the side of the boat to get them.

I keep the downrigger balls (15lb) in the gunwales in the rear of the boat, they stay there and don't roll around. The gunwales towards the rear also carry the Smelly Jelly, a rag or two, knives, WD-40, hook files, etc. The gaff hook, oars, rear light, and stuff that isn't used that often are stuffed in the upper parts of the gunwales. The gunwales forward, under the canvas have the rags, paper towels, maybe some drinks, batteries, flashlights, stuff that doesn't neccessarily like to get wet.

I like using the plastic "Plano" type boxes because I can organize my gear for what style fishing I'm doing, and either only bring what I need, or only have the boxes out that I need. The uneeded ones stay under the seat or in the soft takle bag. One box will have plugs, one will have mootching stuff (herring helmets, etc.), one will have extra spoons, etc., then I have smaller ones for swivels, extra downrigger crimps and hardware, that sort of stuff.

Boy, you're making me think of what a mess I have in the basement right now, I need to get some stuff organized!

-N.

Great ideas guys thank you for all your reccomendations