It seems like just about every fishing boat I’ve been on has the navigation lights stored in some inconvenient location. Most often I see the nav light poles strapped into rod holders – taking up space we could use for fishing rods. Sometimes they are just loose in the boat.
After having one of my lights roll around loose in the boat and break its bulb, I started looking for a better way to store them.
For more boat and trailer improvement projects I’ve done check out this page.
I found these pole storage clips which can securely hold the navigation light poles.
My boat has rod trays on each side of the boat. The space under the rod trays is largely unused space. I thought this would be an ideal place to mount the storage clips, so the nav lights would be secure and out of the way, but yet be handy when needed.
Installing them were pretty easy. I use stainless steel nuts and bolts. I pulled back the carpeting in the rod tray, drilled the holes, and then attached the storage clips. The carpet then covers up the bolt heads.
I installed 2 pairs. One spaced close together for the short pole for the front nav lights. And another pair spaced farther apart for the rear nav light.
The poles snap in pretty easy, and I have yet to have one fall out – either while on the water or while towing the boat. The lights also have not gotten in the way of our fishing either.
Below you can see the 2 navigation lights being held in place under the rod tray.
Even if your boat doesn’t have that under rod tray space, likely there is some location that these storage clips could be mounted to keep your nav light poles safely out of the way when not in use.
