Does a transom mounted swim ladder get in the way playing fish?

Bent-Tip

Well-Known Member
Looking for input from those that have a "permanently" attached swim ladder on the transom and whether or not it gets in the way while your're playing salmon.

Many thanks!
 
After thinking about it, it's probably no more in the way than the transducer, leg for the main or kicker.

And they never seem to get into any of those..... :rolleyes:
 
I have a boarding ladder starboard side (my kicker is to port, obviously). It is permanently attached, but has a joint that swings up and locks it in half. So none of the ladder is in the water unless being actively used. It tucks up quite nicely and has never been in the way for me.
 
Congrats. on your new hull Warren. If you are planning on doing lots of swimming, water skiing or scuba diving off the boat it would certainly be nice to have. Beats having to step on the cavitation plate of the main outboard (turned off of course) – from my water skiing days. If you don’t really have a significant need to be entering the boat from the water a lot, there is something else to consider. With a wood under glass transom, the less mounting holes drilled into it the better. There are lots of boats with rotted out transoms and each additional hole drilled through the transom into the wood is another potential water entry to get rot started, despite ones best efforts to seal them.

Except for the smallest of boats, the Federal Regs. require you to have a re-boarding device of some sort, so the fixed ladder would meet that requirement. For my boat I have a removable plastic and rope marine ladder that can be hung over the strongly reinforced rigger mounts on the boat although with a pod just above water level they could just slide up on it and then climb over the transom. Another re-boarding option is to have a rope tied from the bow to the transom which can be pushed down into the water about 20 inchs with your foot, which makes it possible to climb back up on some boats amidship without assistance.

As for getting hung up while playing a salmon, that has only happened to us once and that was on the transducer bracket. It was a decent played out Chinook out the side of the boat about 15 feet. We got it by hooking onto the line with the boat hook and pulled it in close enough to net. I can't see adding a fixed ladder would be a significant hazard to playing fish., On our boat at least, there is already lots of stuff back there, - main motor, kicker, transducer, trim tabs etc and it has only been an issue the once out of countless numbers of fish.
 
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We always net fish over the side on my boat, not over the transom.Seems to be the practice for most or all of the guide boats I've observed, and less drama. This is out of necessity as there is a kicker on one side of the main and a swim ladder on the other.

In the early stages of the fight I prefer to play Chinooks off the stern. When they are close to being done, we have moved out of the trolling pattern and then we can turn the boat to bring the fish in. When we can lift his head, we go to neutral and net over the side.

Sox and pinks get hand bombed straight up beside the motor most times except with larger Sox.

Of course when there are seals around the whole plan goes out the window as soon as you hook a fish!
 
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Swim platform probably makes you compliant re: regs however if we start diving again.. mine has to be from the side as well.
 
Thanks for the replies folks. The hull and transom this is going on is all composite so no rot from too many holes in the transom.
This is the model I'm looking at made by Garelick and folds up nicely when not in use. Netting fish happens at the side of the boat 99% of the time when they're sufficiently played out. I've also had coho so squirrely they can wrap around anything it seems. As for seals......well, you all know how that goes....
swimladder.jpg swimladder2.jpg
 
Pretty much have the same swim grid not a problem at all, way nicer to get in then on the cavitation plate in rough seas
 
Thanks for the replies folks. The hull and transom this is going on is all composite so no rot from too many holes in the transom.
This is the model I'm looking at made by Garelick and folds up nicely when not in use. Netting fish happens at the side of the boat 99% of the time when they're sufficiently played out. I've also had coho so squirrely they can wrap around anything it seems. As for seals......well, you all know how that goes....
View attachment 36709 View attachment 36710
I have one of those and it’s never been a problem. It’s easy to just fold down and hop in.
 
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