GOTYA GADGETS?
Over the years I have come across many ‘gadgets’ and ideas that have made the fishing, boating or camping experience a little bit easier. Just the other day a guy from Dampier introduced me to the ‘Vaso Wasp Plug’. He used to keep a jar of Vaseline in the shed as part of his boat clean up kit. Some may think this was to lube the battery terminals or some other moving parts on his boat, but no, this was smeared on the motor telltale to stop wasps building a nest and blocking the outlet. As soon as the motor starts the vaso blows out and you’re on your way.
For a while now I have used a hook remover on larger fish that are destined to be returned, especially when the hooks are imbedded a bit deep. Anything gut hooked and I just cut the line, but a small stainless rod, coiled on the end is great for a clean hook removal when the long nose pliers can’t do the job. Then there is the ‘Boom Gate Card Swipe Extension Holder’, which I saw a bloke using last year, so just had to make one. Don’t you hate it when you can’t quite reach the caravan park boom gate activation with your swipe card, unless you get out? Problem solved by putting a split in the end of an old fibreglass tent pole, insert the swipe card and you can reach it from anywhere. Also means it’s that much harder to lose the damn swipe card too as it is now two foot long, but Viv reckons that hasn’t stopped me. I have now upgraded to the bamboo rod model prototype, just to be more environmentally sensitive!
And what about the ‘Fish Measure Tape’ eh? No more sticking smelly old stickers along your boat gunwales, just pull out the measuring tape like you would to build a cupboard, only this one has real bad jokes at the end of tape for when the fish aren’t biting. Like the one, ‘What do you call a deaf fish? Anything you like, he can’t hear you.’ Ummm!
Now don’t get me started or this article could become like one I wrote about ‘Stuff’ years ago. Just won’t know when to stop. I mean there are rear tilt cradles on boat trailers for easy launch and retrieve, kick up swivel mount transducers so you don’t rip it off on a beach launch ( so long as you remember you got one ), lip grips for easy fish handling, floating water proof VHF radios and I reckon I have tried just about every ‘dickhead’ head lamp on the market. I finally have opted for the AY UP LED cool white tint output with over 700 Lumen-sound speccy and you’ll pay through the nose on this one too!
Now I can hear you old salts saying what a waste of time and money, ‘cause you’ll never keep up with the gadgets and, like computers and phones, they will do your head in eventually. So, when I saw a guy scaling a fish on facebook last week, I realised that getting back to basics was a great idea. He wasn’t using the back of a fork, or a finely designed serrated edge, stainless steel device that looked more like an ancient Roman torture tool. No, he was using an egg beater and I intend to try it next week!
In answer to last week’s question, one of the causes of magnetic deviation is magnetized iron in a ship’s structure. This week’s question is, “Where did the word ‘Jet Ski’ derive from?”
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