Your Fishing Bike Setup Guide

By Jeff Bogle

Sep 22, 2022

Learn how a fishing bike setup, with a bike fishing rod holder, and the best bike trails for fishing, can enhance your fishing life.
 

Many of the finest freshwater fishing rivers and the best fishing lakes in the U.S. are easily accessible by car or on foot, but to reach some of the more isolated and dare we say, magical fishing holes in America, you need to have a fishing bike setup complete with a bike fishing rod holder, and then head out on the best bike trails for fishing. The results can be pristine, isolated locations, like little secrets every angler dreams of telling stories about someday. With a portable fishing rod and a fish-ing bike setup, these stories could soon be yours to tell!

The Benefits of Using a Bike To Go Fishing

Depending on your everyday fishing holes, and those lakes, rivers, creeks, and streams you hope to visit while traveling, relying only on a car could limit your options and your potential to catch fish. You may also need to pay parking fees and have other limitations that a fishing bike setup will help to eliminate. Having a portable fishing rod and utilizing the best bike trails for fishing, you can find your own private patch of shoreline, and your own supply of hungry fish to reel in!

Your Fishing Bike Setup Guide

Just as with almost anything in life, you can make your fishing bike setup basic and utilitarian or as adorned and elaborate as you wish. Fishing bikes can be fancy, outfitted with multiple bike fishing rod holders, baskets, crates for tackle transport, and even containers to carry fish back home. But, at the same time, they can also be just a bike, like the one you already have, with a lone bike fishing rod holder or one basket to carry a portable fishing rod. The choice is yours, and your fishing bike setup can evolve over time, as you get more comfortable biking out to rivers, lakes, and beyond.

Finding a Bike

Maybe you already have a bike that you love, and that you’d like to outfit for fishing trips. If not, focus your energy (and money) on a used but high-quality bike that fits you and your body well, is com-fortable, and also is sturdy enough to be built upon with a fishing bike setup. Many who decide to try bike fishing, not just women anglers, and will traverse the best bike trails for fishing with a portable fishing rod in tow tend to go for women’s bikes, and for good reason. The sloped, lower bar of a women’s bike can make it easier for you to get on and off of the bike, especially if still wearing fish-ing boots, or waders.

How a Bike Becomes a Fishing Bike

In order to carry your fishing essentials, like tackle boxes and more, you’ll want to attach a crate onto the back of your bike. Using just a basic milk crate and extra-large zip ties, you can easily mount and secure a crate. Next, you will need to secure your fishing rods as you pedal toward the water. A bike fishing rod holder, like this two-rod fishing bike holder from InMotion, will keep your important gear and you safe. With two sizes of padded clamps included, this fishing bike rod holder will fit perfectly on nearly any bike frame, and it can be mounted on either the back or front fork and adjusts to the angle of your choice, keeping you comfortable as you bike on the best bike trails for fishing.

Once you’ve got your fishing license in hand and your fishing bike setup complete, you’ll be able to reach previously unreachable locations, maybe even miles from the road and parking lots, and start to catch fish that the regular angler can’t and won’t. Plus, think of the extra exercise you’ll be getting as you pedal to and from your newest favorite fishing spots!

Consider biking with your portable fishing rod to one of the best fishing lakes in New Jersey or the 5 finest fishing lakes in Texas!

Jeff Bogle
Jeff Bogle
Jeff is a dad of teen daughters, avid traveler, photographer, and freelance writer. He’s penned stories on family travel, outdoor recreation, the environment, parenting, and more for Fodor’s, Reader’s Digest, Parents Magazine, Good Housekeeping, PBS, and Esquire, among other publications. Find him on his blog, OWTK.com and on Instagram @OWTK. Jeff is also the publisher of the quarterly literary zine, Stanchion