Yesterday, I decided to make a better mount for my Livescope.
Previously, I made one using a shaft and clamp base from a trolling motor. I spray painted it silver to look "factory"...
It worked great, but when we moved, it tilted up across the boat, blocking a big area. For long runs, it was easiest to just take it off and then put it back on when at the next. Not super-difficult, but kind of a pain.
So I bought one of these:
It does a GREAT job of holding the Livescope pole. I removed the clamp mount but kept the depth stop and it's excellent,
I don't want it sticking up all the time, so to mount it to the boat, I cut a square piece of 3/4" thick PVC board as a base. I rounded the top and corners with a router and drilled 1/4" holes to match the holes in the baseplate. Then I set nuts into the bottom of the PVC base for a super clean look.
To set the nuts, I partly widened the bolt holes to just smaller than the nut, so that only the tips of the nuts went beyond the edges of the holes. Then, I spun the nut onto a bolt and then used a hammer to drive the nuts into the holes. It worked perfectly! They set in tightly, no adhesive or anything needed.
Then I mounted the plate onto my gunnel, nice and clean. It just looks like a puck. When I want the Livescope, 1" bolts with lock washers secures the mount solidly. Also, I'm thinking of getting some 1/4" thumb screws to make it even easier to attach and remove.
Besides being easily swapped from one boat to another, this mount swivels in several directions, so that when fishing, I can lift and swivel the pole out of the way for short runs, or just turn the knob and lay it down for long runs.
It's been storming, but I'll take some pictures when I get a chance.
