New UL fishing gear

Nice setup.  love the grill. Daggerfish is the brand? How long is the pole when it is set up, and what does it look like? How does a “hand reel“ work?

Here’s a nice article about it and if you google Daggerfish hand reel it will bring up some videos on techniques for casting and general use.  I’m excited about trying this out!  Nothing like fresh fish to grill in the backcountry!

https://www.post-gazette.com/life/outdoors/2020/08/27/fishing-handline-hand-reel-pittsburgh-pennsylvania-daggerfish/stories/202008270091

Now THAT is a minimalist rig.  You mean I don’t need all of these different fishing rods and reels and flies and lures…?????

I don’t know how many of you have seen this but this is quite a minimal fishing set up:

http://ultralightinsights.blogspot.com/2017/02/a-simple-minimalist-and-ultralight.html#comment-form

Very interesting. I wonder whether a MYOG version could be made lighter out of plastic/pvc materials? What does the Dagger Fish weigh without the grill?

It’s really hard to beat wood for strength-to-weight.  The original composite material, it takes being blown back and forth a million times in the life of a tree.

I did a hand-line rig out of foamed PVC for a Baja kayak trip (and caught a tuna on it).

In Kotzebue, they haul in 10-20-30 pound sheefish on, basically, a curved branch.

What does the Dagger Fish weigh without the grill?

Mine is 3.1oz with my tackle inside the handle. Just the daggerfish with no tackle comes in at 2.9oz.

Even without a lathe, one could simply drill out the center of a pre-turned replacement chair/table leg from Home Depot (for the ridges to constrain the line).

The cork plugs are a clever and pretty light way to plug the ends of the tackle compartment.  Another option would be threaded plug.  National Pipe Thread is pretty fine for wood, something more like screw-end broom handles would (obviously) work in wood.  A google search found these taps and dies:

https://www.garrettwade.com/wood-threader-tap-and-die-set-gp.html

Mine is 3.1oz with my tackle inside the handle. Just the daggerfish with no tackle comes in at 2.9oz.

That’s nicely light! Probably not worth the effort to MYOG for another 0.25 oz :)

I’ll be curious to hear your report on its functionality next year.

Merry Christmas…

A plastic airline alcohol bottle with the bottom cut off makes a nice backcountry fishing outfit. Wrap the line around the outside and use like any handreel and keep lures and such inside.