How to Make: A Poor Boy’s Fishing Pole

Do you enjoy fishing?

Have you ever felt the urge to go back to a simpler time?

 To get away from machines, computers, and the stress of daily life?

To make something using your hands and be proud of it?

 While it may not really be practical for most of us, there is something  you can do which harkens back to a simpler time of living. In the old days of life on the American frontier many people used handmade fishing poles, fish traps, and nets to catch fish with.

Making a simple fishing pole is fun and can give a young lad a sense of achievement, especially if he catches several good sized fish and is able to take them home, clean them, and have them for a meal.

(Image from Pixabay.com)

First, he will need to find a tree limb which is fairly straight or a young sapling tree which he can cut down. A good piece of bamboo can serve very well for this purpose also. Be sure the selected future fishing pole has a greater diameter than your thumb does. If the young boy is below the age of about 10, then maybe it should be twice the diameter of his thumb. Also be sure it is at least seven feet long. If it is as long as nine feet, that would be good.

Next, find a piece of fishing line which is about eighteen inches or so longer than the selected pole. Tie it securely about four or five inches from the tip of the top of the pole. Then tie a fishing hook of about size 7 on the line. About three to four feet above the hook tie a piece of a stick about four or five inches long onto the line to serve as a bobber. Then put fish bait on the hook and drop the line into the water. Hold on to the fishing pole and wait. The piece of stick you tied onto the line should float and if it begins to go away then a fish is pulling the line!

Of course, this is overly simplistic, but sometimes it is fun to try the simpler things in life.

While you are fishing I hope you will remember the Bible story of Jesus and the time He instructed the disciple Peter and some other men to throw their fish net into the water. They had fished all night and had caught nothing. They were tired. They were about to return to the shore. But rather than argue, they decided to do the thing Jesus said. The net filled with so many fish that it was almost impossible to pull it in! A simple story, but it shows us that if we do the things Jesus says we should do, life is better for us.

Hope you have good fishing!