On Thu, 25 Aug 2011 20:29:54 -0400, JustWait
wrote:

When I was a kid we were pretty poor.. and I mean literally. My dad and
I couldn't afford the 15-20 bucks for a proper fishing reel so we made
them. For the first couple years at the pond at the museum he was a
curator at, we used tomato stakes, string and brads (nails) to catch
bullheads, perch, and huge sunfish. As I got more into fishing and
started taking my bike with friends to local lakes and ponds, I used a
Michelob bottle (best shape for hand casting) and I bought a spool of
line once a year... I could cast that line as good as most of the other
kids with poles, however I didn't land fish as consistently. I really
didn't know much better, I just wanted to be fishing...

I can relate to some of that, used to spend a lot of time drooling
over fishing gear that I couldn't afford as a kid. The native guys
down in the islands fish with some amazingly primitive home made gear
and they do OK with it.