32 DIY Fishing Rod Holder Plans and Ideas

Fishing is one of, if not the most, relaxing hobbies you can have, but no one can relax if their fishing rod breaks because of improper storage.

However, few can afford a commercialized rod rack, so we put together this 32 DIY fishing rod holder list.

These ideas present both a challenge to your DIY skill and a chance for you to save quite a bit of money. Also, some of the ideas are quite simple and easy to make.

1. PVC Fishing Rod Holder

You can easily find remaining PVC pipes in your storage to start this less costly project. Based on how much you have fishing rods, you will prepare the corresponding number of pipes.

Cut the pipes into the necessary length (here, you will cut 5 feet of 1.5-inch pipe into 8 pieces, 7.5 inches each). Next, screw them into a supporting piece of wood.

Not only is this holder handy for a small storage area, but it is also so inexpensive that you will not feel anything if you happen to lose it.

Project details: instructables.com

2. DIY Fishing Rod Holder With Storage

A fishing rod holder alone is not enough for all your storage needs? Well, to combat this issue, we would like to introduce this 2-in-1 DIY fishing rod holder.

The first thing you see is the usual holding system, which can fit 9 rods at once. But that’s not all, as there is also a multi-shelf cabinet.

To begin with, perform some dado cuts on the 2 12×36″ panels so that the storage boxes can fit snugly and firmly, and you can easily slide them.

Utilizing these plastic boxes is way more economical and time-saving, as wood shelves call for more wood and screwing jobs.

Then, drill some holes on the top panel to store the rods. And you’re almost there.

Project details: protoolreviews.com

3. DIY Rod Rack By Scott Bonner Outdoors

Fishing gives you a sense of relaxation and achievement as well, so prepare yourself on this rack to display your pride.

You can coat this rack with the stain matched with your interiors and spice it up with 2 big fish on top – your victories. Place it in your living room to add a personal touch and show off your interest.

If you store big offshore conventional reels, which need huge space between each hole, you will do 8-inch gaps. Smaller spinning reels, however, only require 4-inch gaps.

4. Build Fishing Rod Rack By How To Specialist

A fishing rod rack’s support can make or break its storing capacity. And this rod rack gives you just that – some incredibly efficient support pieces.

To reduce the chance of the rack toppling, you put in the shelf supports for the bottom part. Aside from improving the structure’s integrity, it also gives extra weight for a firmer and more solid stand.

The whole shelf only requires two 1x6s ( 22 -½” long) and one piece of 3/4″ plywood sheet. It means that you can put it in the corner of any room because it does not take up much space.

Project details: howtospecialist.com

5. DIY Fishing Rod Holder By Diy Joy

This guide is the first one on this list to consider hanging the rods on the wall. The idea behind it is actually quite simple, as you only need 2 straight wooden boards and some screws.

Drill round notches into both boards but cut some extra slots into one. With these cuts, you can have an easier time sliding the rods into the holder.

Finally, you just need to screw both boards either onto a wall or into a frame, depending on your need. If you have many fishing rods, you can choose longer boards and drill more holes.

Project details: diyjoy.com

6. Basic Fishing Rod Holder

As its name suggests, this project focuses on being as basic as possible with a detailed plan. You can use this rod holder for outdoor as well.

The list of the material consists of only 2 wooden planks. You will need basic tools as drill, rafter square, tape measure, and handsaw or a jigsaw. All of these are things most woodworkers have.

You start by cutting all the boards to exactly 34-1/2″ long. Draw marks onto the 1×6 piece, drill holes according to those marks, and cut 45-degree slots. Put the cross bracers together to finish the whole thing.

Project details: instructables.com

7. Wall-Mounted Fishing Rod Storage Rack

The most impressive thing about this fishing rod storage rack plan is, of course, the side shelf and the trout carving.

The side shelves are obviously inspired by the classical gun rack design with all the curves. You can achieve the same curves for the side shelves either by drawing with a jigsaw.

As for the trout, you just need to trace the design with carbon paper. Then you carve according to the traces using a Dremel tool.

Project details: instructables.com

8. Easy Fishing Rod Holder

For this project, it’s very simple to make. You don’t need anything skills, with less than $10 you can build this. It will not get much of your space to hold fishing rods.

The instructions are also among the easiest to follow. After all, the whole thing consists of only 3 parts: cutting the pipes into 3, putting the end caps on, and hooking them onto the wall.

Project details: tingedblue.com

9. DIY Cheap Fishing Rod Holder For Car

People traveling around must have faced the issue of not being able to carry all their trusty fishing rods with them before.

This issue will never bother you if you follow this guide, as the finished product is a fishing rod rack attached to your car’s ceiling.

However, due to your car’s space limitations, it’s basically impossible to cut out holes from wooden planks to store the rods.

Instead, you will be getting rod clips, which cost about 7 bucks for a pack of 20. This will be your only spending for this project.

10. DIY PVC Fishing Rod Holder

The advantage of this project is the fact that once you have cut all the pieces, you can quickly disassemble and assemble them.

As such, you can easily carry all the pieces with you and put them together at the fishing site. You can hold to 14 fishing rods.

To make this detachable rack, prepare four pieces of 1-1/2 -inch 90° elbow, 15 Ts, four pieces of 5-foot straight pipe, and glue. Then, it’s time for the assembling game.

11. DIY Vertical Fishing Rod Rack

At first glance, you will think that this rod rack is flimsy. That is far from the truth, as it is arguably the most stable, capable of storing even the longest of the rod.

The secret to this stability lies in the way you cut the holes of the support racks. Instead of cutting them right down the middle, you will leave one part wider. This wider part will be at the bottom when you put the whole thing together.

Doing this ensures that the rods do not have any room to wiggle, improving stability to a whole new level.

12. Fishing Rod Holder By DIY Packraft

Fishing rod holders have always been strictly on-land due to various limitations. With this project, having a rod holder placed on the side of your boat is no longer a dream.

It is the heat seal that works the magic in this project. After you have cut out the flaps of the raft, heat seal the tubes into the inside flaps.

To make sure that there is no escaping air, patch the inside with double-sided TPU fabric.

Ensure that this patch will not fold or wrinkle to fill up to its maximum capability. Once the heat seal is completed, the rod holder will stick rigorously.

Project details: diypackraft.com

13. DIY Fishing Rod Rack From Scrap Wood

This fishing rod rack, while having scrap wood as the main material, is all about being sturdy and dependable.

To achieve this kind of sturdiness, you need to start correctly with the measurements. From the base floor to the top wall gap, you need to be aware of the distance between each wall stud.

As this is a vertical rack, there is a high chance that the rod will wobble out of the slots. To limit this risk, put thumbtacks on the top rack and run a rubber band across it.

Project details: wildrevelation.com

14. PVC Modular Fishing Rod Stand Holder

The rod stand holder is made out of PVC and is very modular so you can adjust it to fit your needs. This makes it perfect to take on your trips to the lake.

You can easily add or remove sections to make it just the right size. You don’t need any adhesive, just press fit the pieces together. This stand has room for four frames and four rod holders.

If you have a different number of frames, you can adjust accordingly. This is a great way to keep your fishing gear organized and in one place.

Plus, the added bonus is that you can mount these rod holders almost anywhere. So if you are using a wagon as a fishing cart, you can easily attach these rod holders to the sides. This makes it very versatile and convenient.

Project details: instructables.com

15. My Outdoor Plans’ Fishing Rod Holder Plans

There is no denying the fact that this fishing rod rack is the best at accenting professionalism.

Despite having a commonly seen procedure, it has a much more stable and sleek appearance. The difference comes from all the small details.

Rather than fitting and locking the rack’s sides right away, this plan requires you to first drill some pocket holes into both ends. This step results in the sides fitting perfectly with no gap left.

After finishing, you should apply paint or stain it to increase looks for your fishing rod rack. It also protects components from decomposing.

Project details: myoutdoorplans.com

16. Pallet/Scrap Wood Fishing Rod Stand

Project details: instructables.com

17. DIY Fishing Rod Storage Holder

This fishing rod storage holder makes from square aluminum and PVC. It is very light and easy to make.

The holder can hold up to 10 fishing rods. It is 18 inches wide, 15 inches tall, and 13 inches deep. The holder is easily assembled by drilling the cross beams and PVC, then bolting them together.

Project details: instructables.com

18. Homemade Fishing Rod Rack

Most rod racks are not capable of storing anything other than fishing rods. That is not the case with this project, as it allows you to customize shelves according to your needs.

After you have cut out rod slots on the sideboards, you will notice that there is some unused space. All you need to do is fit in some boards, and you will get a lot of extra storage capacity.

Project details: fishing.scoutlife.org

19. Instructables’ DIY PVC Fishing Rod Holder

This project does not make a full rod rack but a single rod holder, which is perfect for casual fishermen.

Due to the locking mechanism on the back of the holder, you can easily attach it to your kayak’s crate.

The whole rack also does not take any time to finish, as you simply drill some holes, sand them over, and put the screws in. All in all, even the newest DIY-ers can complete the project in less than 20 minutes.

Project details: instructables.com

20. Wood Fishing Rod Rack By S&Scustoms

It’s rare to see truly portable fishing rod racks. That is exactly what this fishing rod rack brings you, though, with its base of wheels.

Of course, you cannot just slap on some wheels and call it a day, as fishing rods are all delicate. Even a little wobbling while moving can result in significant damage.

To make sure that no rod will slide off, there will be no rod slot. Instead of cutting the slots, you will leave the holes as is and put the rods in through them.

21. Make a Simple Collapsible PVC Fishing Rod Holder

Project details: instructables.com

22. DWS Outdoors’ DIY Fishing Rod Stand

Not all of us are fans of the drilled holes most DIY rod racks possess. If you are in the same boat, you will love this fishing rod stand. After all, it makes use of the popular horizontal rod rack slots. You can buy them from stores online like Amazon or Walmart.

With these slots, you no longer need to drill anything; just focus build a basic frame and solid. Then, slap the slots onto this frame, and they will fix the rods in place.

People with less time and energy can finish the whole thing in one single afternoon.

23. DIY Rod Rack For Garage

You may think this rod rack calls for the glue to join the components, but you won’t have to spend a penny on this stuff.

All the parts dry-fit together tightly. This ensures reasonable structural integrity for the whole rack.

Moreover, no glue means that you get the capability just to take the whole thing apart easily. Thus, you may add in more storage whenever you get a new rod. This kind of customizability is only seen in Lego structures.

Project details: bdoutdoors.com

24. DIY Boat Rod Holder

A huge fear that all fishermen have is their rods slipping out while they are boating. This plan will give you peace of mind, as it offers you a holder tightly attached to your boat.

All you have to do is insert the ore lock on your boat and the bolt on the pipe cap. You can even tighten it by hand or a wrench, but the nut remained sturdy with a long bolt of 2.5 inches.

While the boat rocks back and forth, the holder must be able to stick to the boat as well as the rod. Our recommendation is to add construction adhesive under all the bolts you use.

Project details: insourcelife.com

25. Make A PVC Fishing Rod Holder By We Go Fishing

Your fishing rod collection will only grow bigger the more you fish, so you need a storage method that can grow alongside it.

In this aspect, this rod holder rack design is unarguably the best, as it can theoretically grow infinitely with enough T pieces.

You must remember, though, that some fishing rods tend to have huge butts. As such, only ½ inch PVC pipes with thin walls can serve as the rod rest.

Cut some pipes into equal sections of 3 1/2 inch length. Put them in conjunction with the T pieces to build 1 rack section. The number of T pieces is the same as the number of rods you want to keep on each section.

26. DIY Fishing Pole Holder By Eric Lindberg

You won’t get a portable yet flimsy fishing rod rack out of this project, but a bulky, reliable, yet still stylish one.

The reason for this bulkiness is due to this project being the only one on this list to make use of 1×8 boards for the bottom support.

This rack is especially strong, as it has the structural integrity of 1x8s. The 2 bottom braces on the side of the bottom parts improve the whole structure’s reliability even more.

Instead of the usual pine wood, this plan makes use of poplar wood, which is the reason for its stylish appearance.

27. Horizontal Fishing Rod Holder Rack

The horizontal holder rack is perfect for keeping your rods out of the way. It can store up to six rods, and the angle of the holder can adjust to fit your needs.

The wall hanger is also adjustable, so you can make sure your rods are securely fastened.

Moreover, you should sand the wood beforehand will make sure there are no splinters when you put the holder up and down.

Project details: instructables.com

28. Boatsales’ Fishing Rod Holder For Home

Lots of fishing rod racks unintentionally scratch the rods due to not having the correct alignment. This project can solve that issue with its design.

The biggest requirement of this fishing rod holder project is that the holes in the top and bottom racks must align perfectly. By doing so, the chances of the rods getting scratches are limited to effectively zero.

You must make sure to line the 2 wooden planks up together perfectly, clamp them, then cut them at once.

Remember to cut the pipes slightly longer than the height of rack. Doing so prevents the straight butt rods from rubbing with the timber.

Project details: boatsales.com.au

29. Easy DIY PVC Fishing Rod Holder

This is a cheap and easy way to store your fishing rods, using PVC pipe. It can easily customize to fit your needs.

To get started, you’ll need to cut 10 4-inch pieces and 6 8-inch pieces of PVC pipe. Next, connect the 4-inch pieces with tee pieces to create two sides of a rectangle base.

Finally, connect the 8-inch pieces with T pieces to create the holders for the fishing rods.

30. DIY Fishing Rod Stand

The rod stand is designed to store a lot of hold fishing rods and hold them very securely.

To build this fishing rod stand, the author first marked out the drill points and cut out the circles using a hole saw. He then used a rip saw to cut out the slots for the rods.

The author prepare the bracing blocks and attached them to the stand. Next , he then added two stabilising legs, then bracing blocks to the top section. The stand was finished with a hand sander.

This stand has slots that allow you to easily slide the rods in and out, and the braces that keep the stand from sagging.

Project details: instructables.com

31. Fishing Rod Storage Rack By On The Water

There is no better way to show off your rods than to attach them to your ceiling. Once they are there, you can easily point at them and boast about your wow-worthy collection.

As simple as it is, this plan is all about equipping the hangers on your ceiling.

But we do want to note that this project is not a cheap one, as you will need to fork out some cash for pipe hangers. Even the cheapest hanger, made out of PVC, still cost around 40 bucks.

Project details: onthewater.com

32. Outdoor Life’s Fishing Rod Rack

This rod rack design values efficiency above all else. It can fit the most rods with reels at the same time while taking up the least space. This incredible capacity is thanks to the design of the bottom rod rest.

Rather than using the usual 1-row design, this plan has 2 rows. It makes use of smart rod placement gaps to fill in as many rods as possible.

The decision of leaving the rods facing outward, essentially saving space by not letting the bulkier parts meet, also helps tremendously.

Project details: outdoorlife.com

Conclusion

The fishing rods when not properly stored then it can take up quite a bit of space either in your garage or your house. With this DIY fishing rod holder guide, we have ensured that you now no longer have this issue.

Each of these 32 projects has its own unique advantages. That is why it can shine the most in unique and specific circumstances.

For this reason, we are confident that there is at least one plan capable of satisfying your requirements.