Noah B Woodworks

It’s one of those midweek days where I’m not really sure what to write about. I’ve been absolutely obsessed with ice fishing this season, and it’s my first season on the ice. I’ve purchased a ton of gear, which has been really fun to investigate, and I’ve been using it well. To be honest, it’s been a really fantastic way to enjoy the cold weather, which tends to be difficult to handle when it’s your 31st wintry season in a row.

I was toying with the idea of maybe building a small wooden case for my ice rods. Its the only piece of gear that is missing from my setup, and since my rods are somewhat high quality I’d like for them to be protected while being transported in the car. I’m toying with the idea of making the rod case fairly high quality too, giving special attention to waterproofing and embellishments. I can 3D print the internal rod holders to have either sliding latches or places for elastic like rubber bands or Velcro fastening straps. I’d like for it to hold 3-5 rods, incase I’d like to expand in the future. At the moment I have 3 of them: two jigging and one for the jaw jacker.

I’m brainstorming right now, so you’ll have to forgive the unorganized stream of new ideas for this small project, but it would also be really great if it also had storage for a tackle box. I’ll need to make sure that the joinery is really sound, and that the latches and handle also feel fairly high quality. I’ll most likely paint the inside and outside with an epoxy resin to really weatherproof it. I’d like to build it out of either cherry or maple wood as I’ve already got some to spare, but I’m unsure how much of each that I’ve got. I may need to resaw the cherry wood that I’ve got to get enough material for this build.

First thing’s first, I need to make some measurements. I’ll most likely be trying to keep the case as small as possible for now because it’ll fit into my rig better that way. I’ve got a smallish commuter car that I’ve been packing all of my stuff into and I’m very close to being at capacity. It would also be cool if the handle holder in the rod case articulated upwards so you could slot the handle in, and lower the rod into place. On top of everything else, it would be nice to have a fishing line spool holder inside. Many of these little mechanisms I can 3D print, which will make the build a little easier, as the material is sturdy enough to do what I’m asking of it.