I'll start by making it clear that I have nowhere near the talent or ability that so many of our members show on here, but this was a fun little project. Now keep in mind on a decent long range or offshore trip, all those fish at the end of the trip don't unload themselves; and the tools of the trade to move 1000's of pounds of fish and help sort at the dock are a good hay hook and a nice short gaff. I borrowed a buddies for the SOA 8 day trip, and it had seen better days - handle rotted away, and aluminum shaft very pitted from salt. For this project I virtually made it up as I went along.
Started by painting the shaft with what I just happened to have on hand: Rustoleum Gloss Black which filled a lot of the pits, and then topped it with Clear. At that point I got to thinking that maybe a black gaff might not be the best idea from a safety perspective particularly since my buddy does a LOT of night fishing/lobstering, so I added a "HiVis Yellow" stripe down at the business end, and a couple of Yellowfin Tuna rod stickers "just because".
What do do for a handle? Started with some 400# nylon strap that I had laying around. A little bit of JB Weld, some grommets and 4 aluminum pop rivits: that strap isn't going anywhere!
Wrist strap.jpg
Now what to do for a handle? Had some yellow reflective nylon rope on hand, so painted on some Flex Kote and wrapped a TIGHT layer on. After allowing it to set up overnight, more Flex Kote and a second layer of wraps going back down the handle to get the diameter I wanted, then did a couple extra wraps to create a "knob" for the end of the handle and secure the end of the wraps.
Raw Wrap.jpg
Chucked it into the homemade rod rotisserie and several coats of Flex Kote over the last few days to help seal the reflective rope handle.
Rotisserie.jpg
Paired up with one of Bill's beautiful homemade hay hooks, I'm ready for dock carts full of fish!
Gaff Set.jpg
Not world class, but a heck of an improvement and I had fun trying it! Also, if anyone is looking to do a "recycled BBQ rotisserie" note that most of them are an oddball 5/16's shaft, so if anybody needs a few inches of bar stock to make their own I do have about 6" leftover from other projects that I would be happy to drop into the mail. - john
8) Looks good!
Nicely done John !!
Hope you get some worthy fish to use it on
Looks good!
Seems a shame to just use it for dragging fish from a cart to a cone!
I agree with Mark. Use it to gaff fish niot drag them around. Well done.
Todd
Looks good John. The yellow tip is a good addition. Bill
it looks 3x better than factory made