Patent Pending...

I’m not sure if my off-topic posts are going to be a rarity or something I enjoy doing, but I figured I’d throw one out here and leave it up to the reader to decide whether or not to put the info into their valued memory. I think one of the things an active outdoors person is always doing is looking at his/her equipment and weighing whether it’s the best choice for the occasion, that is, the best construction or design for the activity they’re doing. A lot of times lately it’s none of the above…we are forced to buy whatever we can get at the time we need it, rendering us equipped but not necessarily “well” equipped. I often think back to when I was a kid riding my bike to any lake my little legs would pedal me to, carrying only a fishing rod. A cheap yellow rod and reel I got for selling Christmas cards and knick-knacks to my neighbors out of a catalog to build points to turn in at the end of the summer for “prizes.” Equipped with only this rod and a hook, I would scour the grass and the banks looking for anything to toss into the dark unchartered frontier. Somehow this tactic worked time and time again; summer after summer, I had a way of finding success. But I digress; the point is this is in stark contrast to the present. I now work long into the night fixing, building, tweaking and adapting tools, equipment and gear to do EXACTLY what I need it to at the moment that I need it to without failure. Recent posts have told you about the long nights of shrimping and the occasional flounder pounding. All activities that hold true for the requirement of a lot of gear. During the flounder gigging experience, I happened to snap a borrowed gig handle; don’t worry, I assure you it was eaten through with termites-- there was no “misuse” involved. That near- catastrophe brought me to think about the primitive type of things we’ve be doing lately: gator hunting (spears and snatch hooks), gigging, bow fishing… and how each one requires a different type of apparatus and how no one man could possibly obtain the permission to gain possession (from the old WIFEY*) of all the required tips, gigs and gear. How nice it would be if there was a single piece of equipment one could grab and throw in the boat that would be legal, cheap to build, dependable and easy to use. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!!!! Now I have only created one such tool to write about to date, but I will keep you posted on the designs and effectiveness of the prototype that will be field- tested. I’ll also do what someone in their right mind wouldn’t do for my modern day fellow followers of the seasons; I’ll post as detailed directions as I can give for building your own. The bare minimum requirements are as follows… Apparatus requirements: 1. Light weight 2. Sharp 3. Able to adapt from large prey to small prey 4. Have an ability to integrate a water proof light into it when needed. 5. Inexpensive 6. Survivability / Durable 7. Adaptable to use from a boat or underwater Well, at least you get the idea of the type of thing I’m looking to build. Here is a prototype that I made the other night. It’s a 1 inch wood rod with some galvanized pipe fittings adapted to it so it can retain the ½ inch aluminum rod that was turned into a dart by drilling it out with a ¼ inch bit. Also on the rod I put a halogen light that I set into a PVC- fitting nightmare… long story short, it works but it’s not “the one.” CONS: 1. Heavy 2. Does not sustain a sharp edge, can’t use aluminum for the dart 3. Light has to stay cooled, too hot for the PVC *Editors Note: for someone who has an “old wifey,” the author surely seems to have found his way around obtaining permission to acquire equipment. The proof is in the two sheds and spare bedroom’s worth of guns, gigs, rods, traps, decoys—not to mention the four boats, kayaks, etc—that reside on the author’s property. Permission, my ass.