FloridaBrit

I'm totally new to the site & to offshore fishing & have lots of questions. Here's the first one. I'm about to buy a new Robalo 246 Caymen bay boat with a hard T top & I'm not sure what outriggers I should have installed. Can anyone advise me on size, make etc..
Many thanks

Bly

No permanent outriggers. Most of my customers are going with portable kingfish outriggers that are 14 1/2 foot long and do not have to be in the way when on a strictly casting day. It requires kingfish rod holders looking out the side of the T top. If you do go with permanent mounts I would go with a retractable so it can be out of the way when not trolling.

LureM In

I've got a pair of Bly 24' collapsible silver CF ones, and they are epic. I highly recommend them

MayhemFT

Not many bay boats with outriggers. What kind of fishing are you going to be doing?

MARSH TACKY

Nice rig! That boat's capable of getting to pelagics quickly when the weather isn't bad, so I'd say you'd greatly benefit from being able to pull some lures or baits outside of your wake and get your lines up out of the water for better presentation.

I agree with Bly in that fixed traditional bases may not be the best approach.

They certainly would not be extraordinary to see on a boat that size, though. I'm very familiar with the company here in SC that builds T tops for about 10 different boat companies, and your top appears to be made by them or at least cored and skinned in the same way. If you went with traditional poles and mounts, you will need to have an aluminum backing plate on the underside of the hard top because it's design does not incorporate a reinforced outrigger mounting area. The core material is 1" 2lb/4lb density foam, which will easily crush and fracture when compressed with an outrigger mount's thru bolts without a backing plate. Even with the backing plate on your surf-board style hard top, I would not stress it with riggers longer than 16ft, and they'd have to be light-duty carbon fiber to keep the weight low.

Light duty riggers that mount in your rocket launcher holders on the top or clamp-on mounts would be ideal. I am nearly done developing a set of super light weight, light duty 12ft retractable carbons that will come with adjustable (angle) clamp on mounts coming shortly if you're interested. For THT members, they will be under $600.00 with the mounts, and the mounts will come with a no questions asked lifetime warranty. A 10ft option for about $200.00 less per set will also be available.

I'd mount these to your top's pipework just outboard of where the 4 rod holders are located on the rear.

Shoot me a PM or email if I can be of any assistance.

FloridaBrit

I guess a lot of my fishing will be trolling for Dolphin..

Bly

pathfinders, small Yellowfins and many other choices. Rick Ryals who owns a bay Boat and does many seminars on fishing has a set of my Kingfish outriggers, The term King fish outrigger is a really a bad analogy. since most do not use outriggers king fishing. I started building them on THT because of request to use outriggers in king fish rod holders occasionally. I just built what the members wanted on here. Nothing more , Nothing less. They said established outrigger companies would not do it. I did. That is why I have so much respect for THT.

spearbimini

I've used your riggers on LureM ins boat and they are pretty dang awesome!! Highly recommended.

FloridaBrit

Thanks for all the input guys. You make it so much easier to understand all this & make a decision..