Does anyone have experience with the Berkley rod holder? I use them on my fishing kayak and they work great because they are small and very simple to use, but I mostly use them to hold rods while I am using another. They seem like they would work well for trolling also, but the mechanism for locking the rod in is different and I wonder if it can take a strike from a big Pike or Lake Trout.

I've used one for the last 5 years on trips and never had an issue with a fish pulling it out of the holder while trolling. Agreed that they are quite compact and easy to use and retrieve the rod by just lifting it straight up.

Been using the Berkley holders for years, and never had a rod get pulled out of one. That's including multiple instances of forgetting to loosen the drag before trolling, resulting in snags that looked like the rod was going to tear the gunwale off the kevlar.

HotDog: "Been using the Berkley holders for years, and never had a rod get pulled out of one. That's including multiple instances of forgetting to loosen the drag before trolling, resulting in snags that looked like the rod was going to tear the gunwale off the kevlar."

...so I'm not the only one? :)