The legend of the Batpole, part 1
So I'm fishing up at Evergreen Lake about a week ago. As I'm walking around the edge of the lake, looking for a better spot, I find a grey cone with "Batman" written on it. Hmm... I wonder - it looks a little like the end of a reel. It's cracked, so I put it in a plastic bag to pack out and throw away.
A little later, I needed to... ahem... use a tree. Hey, it's the wilderness! So as I'm finding a spot, I look down, and here's the matching pole! The reel spool is missing as is everything else but the button. A closer look shows that the receiver of the reel has a crack in it also. The original, new, looked like:
I figure that a child was fishing in the area, dropped it, it broke, and the parent decided to just leave it as litter. But, even though a child's rod less than three feet long, it is a Shakespeare rod in apparently good condition.
So I got home, sheared the built-in parts of the reel off with a hacksaw and file, bought some hose clamps and a Shakespeare spincast reel that I found at Wal-Mart for $5. So, for less than $8 (not including buying a new file...) I made a new short and lightweight fishing rig.
"Yes, but does it work?" you ask. Well, ironically, I spent a few hours fishing this last weekend in the same spot that I found the Batpole, and since Nikki dropped me off and later picked me up, I had her cast it a couple of times. And, here's a shot of Nikki after catching her first fish ever, a small Bluegill - you'll notice she caught it with my Batpole. ;)
And here's a shot of the fish itself:
The camping was most excellent, too! I think Nikki will post more on that later.
A little later, I needed to... ahem... use a tree. Hey, it's the wilderness! So as I'm finding a spot, I look down, and here's the matching pole! The reel spool is missing as is everything else but the button. A closer look shows that the receiver of the reel has a crack in it also. The original, new, looked like:
I figure that a child was fishing in the area, dropped it, it broke, and the parent decided to just leave it as litter. But, even though a child's rod less than three feet long, it is a Shakespeare rod in apparently good condition.
So I got home, sheared the built-in parts of the reel off with a hacksaw and file, bought some hose clamps and a Shakespeare spincast reel that I found at Wal-Mart for $5. So, for less than $8 (not including buying a new file...) I made a new short and lightweight fishing rig.
"Yes, but does it work?" you ask. Well, ironically, I spent a few hours fishing this last weekend in the same spot that I found the Batpole, and since Nikki dropped me off and later picked me up, I had her cast it a couple of times. And, here's a shot of Nikki after catching her first fish ever, a small Bluegill - you'll notice she caught it with my Batpole. ;)
And here's a shot of the fish itself:
The camping was most excellent, too! I think Nikki will post more on that later.