I have a plastic ice fishing sled. I like plastic ice fishing sleds because they are light, low cost, low maintenance, and highly versatile. They can transport a lot of gear over snow, slush, and ice with ease. I have expanded my ice fishing methods to include jigging. Hence, I have customized my plastic ice fishing sled with a multi-functional rod rack.

My ice fishing sled rod rack exploits a simple design and uses 1.25″ PVC pipe and 4 stainless steel eye bolts with stainless steel flat washers, lock-tight washers, and nuts. This is a low cost and multi-functional design that can be adapted to just about any plastic ice fishing sled on the market.

The first feature is the rod holders. Based on the width of my sled, I was able to fit 4 rod holders such that the reels do not bump into each other as I am dragging my up, down, and all around the ice. When building this part of the rack, be sure to use a flat surface and a rubber camping mallet to drive the PVC segments and fittings into each other.

The second feature is the built-in ice skimmer holder. Using the backbone of the rod rack to store an ice skimmer allows for easy access while keeping it out of the way! You can put use one of the rod holders; however, when transporting your sled, the ice skimmer can rotate and collide with your ice rods.

The third feature is the eye bolts. The primary purpose of the 4 eye bolts is to secure the rod rack to the sled. The secondary purpose of the 4 eye bolts is to function as anchors for elastic tie downs. Elastic tie downs in an x-pattern helps to keep gear in place when traveling.

This simple and inexpensive ice fishing sled rod rack passed all of my field tests. In fact, this rack has transformed my sled from a “bucket” into an “Ice Utility Vehicle”. 😉