Gear “Design”

My friends almost uniformly comment on (make fun of) my habit of sketching out product ideas on legal pads. Sometimes I come up with something great that really ends up working.  Other times the whole idea is ridiculous from the start.  For today’s gear post I thought I’d share a few of my more or less harebrained ideas with some examples of great products that actually got there before I did.

Non-destructive Yeti Drift Boat Chair Mount

Don’t you love how terrible my product names are?  This is a design for a set of aluminum clamps that would attach to the top lid of a Yeti or similar cooler, allowing you to mount a drift boat style chair with a back, but not do any destructive drilling.  I haven’t built this one but I think it would work, and if you powder coated it black, it’d be pretty nice.

Nighttime Fish Light Buoy

This one sort of worked.  The actual rubber inner tubes depicted here were a bust, but when I went to sheet foam the buoy worked perfectly–it just didn’t draw any fish. Realization:

Home-Built Flash Diffuser

This one worked perfectly and I am very satisfied with it.  In fact I ended up making two. Realization:

Transom-Mount Poling Platform

This one never got built either but it’s a simple design that would work on most square-ended canoes with sufficiently-wide transoms.

Stand-Up Paddle Toon

This one worked perfectly.

Ikea Billy Bookcase Hack

This was Tracy’s idea, not mine, and it isn’t a fishing post, but it also worked beautifully.

Guide’s Net Sling

Cheap, easy, simple.  I’ve never seen this one on the market.

Resizable Lumbar System for Backpacks

I think the need is there but this design is probably a little clunky, even though my goal was to design a system that would keep costs down.

Gheenoe Jack Plate

This one again worked perfectly.

Lumbar Flats Pack with Net Holder and Water Bladder Pouch

Fishpond very nearly designed this exact product with their Westwater Guide Lumbar Pack.

Kayak Wheel Kit/Outriggers

I don’t own a kayak so this one hasn’t been built yet either, but the concept again I think is sound. Basically instead of just having stabilizing outriggers that can flip up and down, like the Hobie Sidekick Ama system, you’d also integrate an exterior lug for attachment of cart tires, so you can roll your boat straight to the river.  The Hobie-style attachment points would need to be beefed up for this to work.

Bird-Vest Based Angling Strap Vest

I’m a huge fan of LL Bean’s Pa’tridge II Strap Vest, and I’d love to see them build a fishing version with a modular backpack…

Wader Jeans

I don’t always sketch on a legal pad.  I’ve been trying to get someone to make these for years.

 

Same story here.  This one seems like a no-brainer.

Hey, thanks for indulging me today.  If you’ve got your own product ideas, share them with us on the board!