Fishing with balls

It would seem that fishing is not water polo: fish love quiet and calm. However, balls will also serve well those who prefer to spend their day off somewhere on a pond with a fishing rod. Especially where the banks are overgrown with reeds and algae: just try casting your tackle. Even using a bottom rod or spinning here is risky: while you are landing a caught fish, it will tangle a hundred times and come off the hook.

You need a boat. Store-bought ones are often bulky. Not even all inflatable ones fit into an ordinary backpack. So what is the way out?

Sometimes the solution to a particular design comes completely by accident. Roughly the same thing happened to me. A TV report about a water polo match suggested that an ordinary inner tube, the kind inserted into a ball, could be used to build a boat. I decided to try placing several tubes in one cover.

We set to work. We bought 20 tubes and obtained waterproof material. First we sewed a sleeve from it (see the figure) and pushed inflatable tubes into it. We joined both ends so that no water would get inside. And again a problem: but how do you remove the tubes? We made cuts closer to the inner side of the future boat for lacing or a “zipper” and closed them with flaps.

We made the bottom from the same waterproof fabric, giving the whole structure the shape of a boat.

Already at the first trial we were convinced that this was far from enough: under a person’s weight the boat folded lengthwise and crosswise, although it stayed on the water quite acceptably.

And again the way out was found completely by accident. Once, before spring fishing, I bought two three-piece rods, but when fishing in open places I did not use the first section. What if these unnecessary sections are used as longitudinal spacers, inserted into flange retainers? Cross spacers, which can always be found at the assembly site, are also best installed in retainers.

We made the paddle from the same tube, cutting off about one third of it (see the figure) and tightly stretching the remaining part over a forked strong stick. It turned out light and quite convenient.

Materials: 18—20 football tubes, waterproof material (canvas, rubberized fabric, etc.), 4 “zippers”, 3 pieces of thick bamboo (1.5—2 m). If the fabric lets water through, treat it on the outside with natural linseed oil.

Note. The figures do not show dimensions: they depend on your height or the intended capacity of the boat. You can build both a two- and a three-person boat: the only difference will be in the number of tubes, the length of the longitudinal spacers, and the area of waterproof material. The number of paddles will increase, of course.

«M-K» 7’78, M. NIKOLAYEV