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My 75 year old father has recently gotten back into fishing after a 30 year sabatical. He pretty much likes to sit and fish with bobbers. Do you guys know of any particular gadgets and or supplies that are easier for the older fisherman to use, particularly due to decrease strenght, sight, stability, etc.?
Thanks
my father only had one arm and we had to come up with some ideas as his health got worse. here are a few. We took a rod holder that they sell to stake out on the bank and attached it to a lawn chair that would provide him with a fishing base that was both light and stable. we used pipe clamps to do this and mounted it at an angle that he could use the hand crank. we also took a page from a salt water rig and made him a fighting belt that the end of his pole would slip in and a laynard was atttached to a neck strap so he could use his back to fight the fish while leaving his hand free to crank. we also rigged a childs wagon for him to bank fish. it had a cooler that doubled as a seat. inside he kept food and drink along with his live baits, his tackle box went in the bed of the wagon and I mounted rod holders to both sides so once he loaded it he was ready for a full day at the pond. look around the house there all kind of neat tricks you can do, like removing the crank on a reel and using a keyless chuck battery powered drill to reel in a rod. it is a little bulky but if you are fishing from a boat and have the rod mount secure it only takes a moment to attach and by varying the clutch you have an automatic drag system. good luck.
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Oct-20-05 AT 10:39AM (EST)[/font][p] When using live bait, I use a HI-VISability bobber from [url]www.bigtentackle.com[/url] called "bobber with a brain". The top of the bobber comes in different fluorescent colors. As an added bonus the bobber suspends your live bait off bottom at a preset depth after every cast. Hope it helps with the vision part of your thread.
I also saw a show once where a guy had a childs wagon like that rigged up, however he had taken a lawnmower that had the BIG wheels on it and put them on the wagon, sure made it pull easier. Like yours once he had that wagon loaded he was on the bank all day..We have a older gentleman who catfishs from the bank down here and he has attached 2 rod holders to his bumper of his van..he pulls it up to the shore and puts out the rods and goes back to his van and sleeps..once he gets a big cat on the horn and lights start going off, not sure how he did this but i have seen it in action., (scared the be jesus out of me). Of course he is very limited as to where he can fish, but he is like 80 years old and I think it is great that at least he is out there fishing. Warren