Making Paddletail fishing Lures and messing with lollipop sticks

So the final thing I have to shoot to finish this film is some footage in the bath, not of me thank god but the lures. The only problem being is my small underwater camera is dead, it flicks on and off randomly, then it demands a charge and shortly after refuses it. I resort to finding a clear watertight box I can fit another camera into. The only other problem is I have only one very wide angle lens and my youngest son decided to throw it across the room so it no longer focuses. I sit down with lens and some micro screw drivers and an hour later after finding which piece of glass inside was out of its seating and putting it back the lens is working.  For the enclosure I empty one of my wife’s clear acrylic storage boxes that houses a collection of tea that smells like it has been stored since the opium wars. On request my son brings me a pair of underpants to pad out the box and I press the movie button, place the camera inside, close the lid and hold it just under the surface of the water. Lights, action, camera and I am sitting on the toilet holding a camera  while pulling a piece of soft plastic through the water as my fingers go numb; all the glamour of Hollywood.

Later when I have finished editing and six hours have past while it uploads I sit down once again with my micro screwdrivers and this time with my original broken underwater camera. When it is stripped down I remove the battery, it is a Samsung and looks like a mobile phone battery. I ask my wife for her old mobile and take the back off it.

The new battery from the phone is the same length and width, it even has the pins in the same place, its voltage is the same, but its amp hours are a little lower and it is 2mm thinner. Having made a film about lollipop sticks I know that they are about 2mm thick. I reach for the tub of sticks and snap one in half and slide it under the battery then put the camera back together. When I press the button the camera fires up, it has all its bars and I wait for it to fail, but no it is working perfectly. 

Lollipop sticks, bloody lollipop sticks, I have decided to carry them on my person at all times. 

The Handmade Fisherman

I have finally made a start on building my new website, “The Handmade Fisherman” hopefully this will be a base for visitors to land on and explore. At the moment it seems still like I have a couple of thousand things to deal with before everything is up and running and I can get back to making some videos let alone doing some fishing.

I also did a bit more experimenting with my real minnow, adding another hook hanger and a diving lip. I may get chance for a couple of testing sessions next week, it swims great in the bath but that is never a judge of how it will work out in the real world. Weight wise I have ordered some tungsten 4mm fly tying beads which I think will work out better than lead free shot I am using at the moment. Carving the balsa is still a bit of pig so I made up a face out of layered paper covered with foil, this feels like cheating a bit. Another great thing I discovered about working on something this small is when I go back to making larger lures like the crank bait the feel massive by comparison. 

Possibilities

Above: Mario Doiron painting a beach scene

I don’t often know what to make of the internet, it seems like a place of infinite possibilities. If I wanted to get up tomorrow and build a high powered rocket to attach to a bicycle it wouldn’t be a big ask to a least find some instructions and possibly a video floating about the web. I wonder where those possibilities will take me. 

Early next year I plan to start another series of videos, with better production thanks to some new camera equipment, editing kit and help from a video making course I have been attending  part time for a couple of months. Content wise I want try some new stuff, stuff that is new to me and dig out some of those wackier ideas I have been sitting on for too long.  I want to push myself out of my comfort zone and maybe make use of those infinite possibilities the web has to offer, who knows a rocket powered lure on a bicycle.

Today while trying to draw something on the computer, answer e-mails and deal with the rest of the things that ping at me to tell me, what somebody has posted or commented on, I got a message about a video an artist had posted. The video was of painting a beach fishing scene, and the scene was inspired by an image from a mackerel fishing video I made on Chesil Beach. I watched the video it is fair to say a few times and felt privileged to be part of one those infinite possibilities.  

Thanks Mario