Floyd... while I'm no expert at engineering, I think you got lucky the rod holder did not break already. A planer board actually creates quite a bit of pull, espescially on a choppy/windy day. My gut feeling is that if you pin your "makeshift" mast in place inside the rod holder the combination of pull and twist on the base of the unit will break it. I'm guessing you were right in thinking that the mast "freefloating" in the holder took away some of the strain. The last thing you want is to have all that stuff break off and sink.
Now, if I were you, I'd mount the mast and reel up in the bow. You only need to let the line out/bring it in once each way. After that, the mast is now completely out of your way. This is where it is located on my boat... in the bow. What I have done to keep from having to climb up front each time I hook a new release to the planer line is as follows.
I let my otter boat out to where I want it and then as I come back to the rear deck, I keep the planer line in my hand. I then hook a small stainless steel "carabiner" to the planer line. This carabiner is light so it won't pull the line down at all and it slides easily up and down the planer line. Attached to the carabiner is a length of lightweight nylon line tied to a hook on my gunnel at its other end. Once clipped, I let the planer line go. The planer line is now out away from the boat at a good angle. BUT, when its time to add a release all I have to do is pull in the nylon line I have attached to the gunnel, grab the planer line and hook on my release. (My nylon line is like 4 or 5 feet long to allow the planer line to go out in its normal position without drag.)
This setup worked really well for me this year and kept me from having to continually climb around the cuddy cabin to get to the planer mast/line. I like it because the mast is completely out of the way.
Good luck to you.

i had to look up " carabiner" . it sounded more sophisticated than it turned out to be.
thanks for your input slipknot. sounds like a simple solution. I just have to come up with the bucks for the mast set-up. and a couple carabiners!

Can I ask a couple more? Did you reinforce the bow deck ( mine's plywood I'm pretty sure ) before you installed the base for the mast ?? Did you use a mast type that fits into an existing chair mount or one that screws into the floor? and, regarding the hook to which you tie the cord, did you just screw it into the top of the gunnel?

Floydo - my two cents is to reinforce the deck wherever you mount anything that will have a lot of force pulling on it (antenna, downriggers, planer mast etc.). I use 1/4" thick solid aluminum plate cut to size with holes for the planer-mast base pre-drilled using the baseplate as a template. Slip should have answers to the rest of your questions. -Eric

You lost me Craig ???? But that easy. But one thing I noticed with Popeye, he uses 150 test mono instead of the nylon, seems to side down real slick.

John S.

My mast is the Big Jon style. It sets in a cast base about 3x5 inches. Under the area it (the mounting base) sits is accessible from my cuddy... I did add a 1/4" thick plate of aluminum there this spring. You could see that it was cracking the fiberglass floor a bit before I added the backer plate. So, yes, I'd definite support it as much as possible.

The boat end of the nylon cord is attached to a stainless eyebolt mounted to my gunnel. Its just washered and nutted on the back side as there really is no weight or stress being put on that cord. Even when I let the planer line out that cord has a bit of slack in it.

I actually don't use a true carabiner, but I didn't know what else to call it. Its just a simple/cheapy stainless "carabiner type" thing I bought at Home Depot for like a dollar. (Maybe 2" long?) Nothing special. My nylon line is just 1/8" or 3/16" clothesline. Cheap and easy.

John... I know we used the planer boards a few times while you were on my boat... guess you didn't notice my "system"? Not high tech, but it keeps me from running up to the bow at each release.

I'm headed out tomorrow morning. See you guys in a week.

I guess I didn't notice the mounting end that much, only the busines end and I didn't notice anything any different than my own. My wife says I'm not very observant, she's right.

I think it's a good idea to reinforce on the underside where anything that puts allot of stress on the boats structure is mounted.

I'm going to try the mono next year my nylon stuff is getting a bit old, I do have a brand new planer board reel with all new nylon as a back up should the mono not work for my application..

Have a good trip, talk at ya later.

John S.

thanks to all of you for great input.