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Expert Advice for Rigging Your Boat and Catching More Fish

Here are handy tips for improving livewells, securing gear, prolonging the life of trailer tires and enhancing deck safety.
  • Updated: January 24, 2015

Here are four helpful tips that can help keep your live bait healthier, make your boat deck less slippery, prolong the life of your boat-trailer tires and keep gear in place in rough seas.

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If the baitfish in your livewell dart about frantically or continually nose against the walls, they won’t fare well throughout a day of fishing. A solution I learned from Capt. Billy Harbaugh while fishing off of Islamorada can help live bait relax and mill about peacefully, Harbaugh, who also sells live bait, places dark-blue interlocking Kendall Dri-Dek flexible panels in the bottom of the tank. The theory holds that something dark below them gives baitfish the illusion that they’re in deep water. I experimented with the technique on the Pacific Coast with sardines and mackerel, and found that the blue mats calmed the bait noticeably. I found the biggest improvements in tanks that are wider than they are deep. Dri-Dek panels retail for about $6 or $7 for each square-foot section, which can be snapped together with other sections, and cut to fit your bait tank. Photo by Jim Hendricks Jim Hendricks
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Quick Nonskid

Nonskid soles wear down from foot traffic and scrubbing, leaving you and your crew with a slippery deck. If you don’t have time for applying a coat of fresh nonskid, you’ll find a quick solution in the form of 3M Safety-Walk slip-resistant, adhesive grip tape.It comes in a variety of widths, grit-grades and colors. The black 3M Safety-Walk Step and Ladder-Tread Tape offer the greatest traction, but the color makes it hot underfoot. The Safety-Walk Medium-Grip is not as aggressive, but it’s available in lighter colors such as gray and white – better for most boats. A 60-foot roll of the 4-inch wide medium-grip tape retails for about $75. The peel-and-stick backing makes 3M Safety-Walk easy to apply. Cut to lengths you want and clean the deck with a solvent such as acetone to ensure lasting adhesion. It works so well, you might put off that application of fresh nonskid for a long time. Photo by Jim Hendricks Jim Hendricks
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Cover Up

The tread on boat-trailer tires rarely wears out from too many miles on the road. More often, the sidewalls rot away from constant exposure to the sun’s UV rays, and your tires die a premature death. To help prolong the life of your tires, keep them covered while the trailer is stored. There are a number of tire covers available. I like RV Wheel and Tire Storage Covers from Classic Accessories (about $25 a pair). While you’re at it, cover the spare tire, too, with a product such as the C.E. Smith Spare Tire Cover ($19 to $21). Photo by Jim Hendricks Jim Hendricks
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Fiddle Around

Items on horizontal surfaces such as the top of a console or bait-rigging station tend slide or roll off when the boat’s at sea. To keep pliers, sunglasses, terminal tackle and the like from falling on the deck, think about adding “fiddles” – the nautical term for little fences that keep stuff from sliding off a table or counter. I cut some ¾-inch-square strips from white King Starboard high-density plastic lumber (about $75 for a 12- by 27-inch, ¾-inch sheet) to create fiddles for a little tray behind my helm seat. I drilled and countersunk holes in the fiddles to secure them to the outer edges of the surface. Now I can stash lures and boxes of hooks there without fear of them sliding off, if the boat rolls or pitches. Photo by Jim Hendricks Jim Hendricks
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