My family and I have been talking about going canoeing sometime soon. We went canoeing for the first time about two years ago and had a great time, but after it was over there was one thing we all wish we had brought on the boat ride: a fishing pole! All we wanted was a small fishing rod so we could just have a line in the water as we floated along the river. It’s not for serious fishing, just for fun. So now that we have been talking about going again, I have built a couple of small fishing rods to bring with us.
Over the summer I saw at a yardsale a small fishing rod called a pocket fisherman. It was really cool, and it was only about 14 inches in length. At the time, I had no need for a pocket fisherman, so I didn’t buy it. The two mini fishing rods I have built are inspired by the pocket fisherman.
To begin this project I dug out my old fishing reel and a few broken fishing rod pieces. The reel I am using is a Zebco 33. To build the mini fishing rod I took a piece of fishing rod that had the handle on it and cut the fiberglass tube right pass the end of the handle. I cut the fiberglass tube because for this mini fishing rod I only will be using the very end of a fishing rod, not the large diameter part. To cut the fiberglass rod I unscrewed the nut that holds the reel on, wrapped the fiberglass tube where I was going to cut with masking tape, and began to cut with a coping saw. I moved the coping saw fast, but I used very little downward pressure during the cut. This yielded a very smooth edge on the fiberglass. After putting the scrap piece of fiberglass tube away for future projects, I began to work in the reel.
My plan is to mount the end of a fishing rod to the reel with the eyelets facing down. So, to begin I cut a piece of fishing rod that had the just the last two eyelets on it the same way I cut the fiberglass tube earlier. I then stuck this cut piece of fiberglass into a piece of brass tubing (about 2″ long) that was just the right diameter to make it snug. After the mini fishing rod piece was stuck in the brass tube, i roughed up the brass tube with a file. I did this so that when I mount the rod to the reel with plastic, the brass will ‘stick’ to the plastic a bit better. To mount this to the casing of my reel I used some InstaMorph Plastic. I molded the plastic around the top casing of the reel and around the brass tubing and then let it cool down. When it was cool, I riveted the plastic to the casing of the reel. At this point I put some fishing line on my reel and a sinker to try it out.
I really like the mini fishing rod. I think it is just the right size to put in a canoe and just have the line trailing behind me. I also made a second one with a much cheaper reel. You can see in the picture that the rod is mounted to the reel in a slightly different location. All in all, I think it’s a pretty cool rod that I hope I’ll be able to catch a fish with.
