Fishing With Yarn

Howdy, friends! It’s great to chat with you again. Pam and I released a new episode of the Unraveling Podcast earlier this week, and it was a lot of fun. If you want to keep up with the details of what I’m currently knitting, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and listen to our discussions there. I talk about working on my newest pair of socks and the shawl I’m knitting.

Be sure to swipe through the pictures to see the fish I caught with these homemade lures!

One of the non-knitting podcasts I love listening to is the Fish Nerds podcast. Last week, I was chatting with the host on social media and he asked if I had ever knit my own fishing lure.

I’m surprised that I had not even contemplated knitting my own fishing lure!

I told him that I hadn’t, but I thought I might try it some time. I don’t have any experience tying my own flies, and I’m only recently starting experimenting with using lures instead of bait when I fish. In ponds and rivers, I always fall back on the simple set-up of a worm under a bobber. That’s a really productive way to catch bluegill (and similar), which is one of my favorite kinds of fish to catch and eat. So I didn’t really know where to start with knitting my own lures.

I searched Ravelry for fishing lure patterns and didn’t find any. Then I just started searching the internet in general for any information about knitting fishing lures. That’s when I found a blog post that addressed exactly what I was looking for: DO IT YOURSELF FISHING LURES DAY 1: WHY TO FISH HANDMADE KNITTING YARN JIGS FOR CRAPPIE. In this post, John E. Phillips describes how to create a simple jig with knitting yarn. Phillips tells the story of the first time he was introduced to the technique, and how much fun it was.

Armed with this information, I set out to make my own jigs. I had some lead split shot and plenty of hooks. Of course, I have all sorts of yarn around the house. I assembled three jigs and added them to my tackle box. This was on Friday night, and the whole family was planning on going fishing the next morning.

Homemade fishing lures made with yarn.
A couple of simple fishing lures I made with purple yarn and split shot.

Saturday morning arrives, and Blueberry is waking me up bright and early asking if it’s time to go fishing yet. We spent a little bit of time getting all of our gear organized and waiting for the city park to open. Once we were ready, we all headed out for a morning of fishing at Bur-Mil Park. We started at the large lake, but didn’t have any luck there. We moved over to one of the smaller ponds, and as soon as I cast my yarn lure out, I got a solid strike! I pulled it in and was thrilled to see that I had landed a small catfish. It was barely big enough to keep, but it went into our bucket.

I cast the yarn jig out a few more times, and it didn’t attract any interest. I switched over to worms under a bobber, which produced lots of nibbles and a handful of tiny bluegill (that all got released back in the pond). All in all, it was an enjoyable morning fishing with my family, and I was stoked that I managed to land a fish with a lure I made myself from some scrap yarn. For the record, it was the purple yarn that the catfish was interested in. The yarn was wool yarn that came with my loom.

I’m keeping those lures in my tackle box. I might make more and keep experimenting with them. Who knows, I might even start learning how to create more interesting lures using traditional fly-tying techniques. But why mess with that, when I can catch some fish with a simple hook, split shot, and a few strands of scrap yarn?

How about you? Besides knitting, what are some creative ways you incorporate yarn into your other hobbies? Leave me a note in the comments and let me know — I’d love to hear some fun ideas.

Until next time, keep on knitting for the ones you love!

-greg

Email: greg@KnittingDaddy.com
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