Fishing weight launcher for roof rack?

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 14, 2010 3:01 am

K, here's the drunken idea

We were having trouble getting our casts out past the sand bars even with big surf rods and over 5oz of weight, I don't like using over 5oz weight because then it's almost impossible to tell if you've got anything on the line unless it's something really big

now, i'm not an engineer and i'm not great with physics other than basic theory so i figured i'd let someone with that sort of experience give the input on what and how something may prove useful

I figured 2 different ways of doing it, both involve an aluminum or steel tube

one way, uses a spring inside the tube with a cup/disk on the projection end of the spring and detents to prevent the spring from flying out the business end , some garage door cable attached to an eyelet on the underside of the cup and a hand winch to load it and a snatch pin to release it to 'fire' it

i think a M16 recoil spring would be too light, and a 50 cal recoil spring might be more along the length and weight needed

the other idea was using onboard air somehow but that would probably be much harder to build correctly and accurately

what kind of force would it take to propel 5oz of weight

i don't know the calcs for propelling a weighted object, but at 45 degrees elevation at 30 m/s ignoring drag and all it would be more than adequate

thoughts?

and yes, it's like a spring loaded fishing weight mortar

TexasRock · **Posted:** Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:50 am

My only concern would be the initial acceleration would rip your bait off the hook..

What I used to do is throw on some hip waders, walk out as far as I could... let 'er rip. Buddy of mine also had a kayak for getting it way out there.

Keith

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:56 am

yeah we came to the conclusion with enough slack in the line, and the bait leader on a slide it shouldn't rip the bait off, and/or you can send the bait out on the slide after the 'cast' with enough elevation of the pole

JeepMorrison · **Joined:** Thu Jul 16, 2009 11:34 am **Posts:** 1236

TexasRock wrote:

Buddy of mine also had a kayak for getting it way out there.

Keith

yep thats what we do here in texas, we call it BTB (beyond the breakers)

stumpjumper_09 · **Posted:** Wed Mar 17, 2010 12:31 am

I'm thinking Muzzle loader.........................

If you decide to take this thought seriously the author of this post is not responsible for any injury or death caused by such action therefore removing any and all liability from the Stumpjumper.

KeswickDave · **Posted:** Wed Mar 17, 2010 11:10 am

durangotang · **Posted:** Wed Mar 17, 2010 12:45 pm

Simple... surgical tubing/bungees/etc and a piece of cloth...

...ever make one of the big slingshots to launch water balloons? :mrgreen:

Would work great... plus you could shoot other stuff out of it :BANANA:

stumpjumper_09 · **Posted:** Wed Mar 17, 2010 8:40 pm

durangotang wrote:

Simple... surgical tubing/bungees/etc and a piece of cloth...

...ever make one of the big slingshots to launch water balloons? :mrgreen:

Would work great... plus you could shoot other stuff out of it :BANANA:

But not house cats :jester:

legally

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Thu Mar 18, 2010 12:26 pm

I may end up going the rigged up bungi slingshot route, can't do "muzzleloader" because that's indeed illegal, as long as the internals are retained, a compressed air, or spring loaded route would be legal though

couple interesting ideas

BVCRD · **Posted:** Tue Mar 23, 2010 10:40 am

Sort of related. When fishing on the beach in Alaska for Halibut. we waited for the tide to go out. We would use lifesavers (candy) on the big flots we used. On a seperate line, the floats with the lifesaver, and then the hook and bait would float out with the tide. By the time they got out to where we wanted them in the deep water, the livesaves were melted enough and we would give the float line a quick jerk, to break the LS and allow the bait to sink to the bottom.

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Tue Mar 23, 2010 2:09 pm

at least at CB, floats wouldn't do us much good, the tide is usually rather rough, even with just a sinker your rig gets caught and drifted right to the beach within a short few minutes

we were using up to 9oz of weight with 14 inch'ish leaders, with the leader coathangered up through the mullet so that they'll drift in the surf like they're swimmin, and even with almost 10oz of weight, woosh.. right to the beach

we needed another 30 yards of cast to get past the worst of the surf, maybe if i had brought one of my modular 3 piece 15ft poles and put on 2 centers for a 20 some foot pole, i might have been able to sling it out there

i'm game to try the lifesaver thing tho, i know just the brackish sound to try it in too

years ago guy i knew used to have a rig that did a similar thing, but i think all it was was a lifesaver shaped piece of plastic that had a snap gate on it that he just separated the lines and they popped free

BVCRD · **Posted:** Tue Mar 23, 2010 2:13 pm

JeepinJarhead03 wrote:

at least at CB, floats wouldn't do us much good, the tide is usually rather rough, even with just a sinker your rig gets caught and drifted right to the beach within a short few minutes

we were using up to 9oz of weight with 14 inch'ish leaders, with the leader coathangered up through the mullet so that they'll drift in the surf like they're swimmin, and even with almost 10oz of weight, woosh.. right to the beach

we needed another 30 yards of cast to get past the worst of the surf, maybe if i had brought one of my modular 3 piece 15ft poles and put on 2 centers for a 20 some foot pole, i might have been able to sling it out there

i'm game to try the lifesaver thing tho, i know just the brackish sound to try it in too

years ago guy i knew used to have a rig that did a similar thing, but i think all it was was a lifesaver shaped piece of plastic that had a snap gate on it that he just separated the lines and they popped free

Yea, that's the same type of design. We were 500 miles from the nearest road and used what we had. The local store had pop and candy. Everything else had to be flown in.

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Tue Mar 23, 2010 5:28 pm

I've heard of stranger contraptions!

I'm going to give it a shot next outing

Fishing weight launcher for roof rack?

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