Make Your Own Fishing Decor from Fishing Gear

 by: Elly Kendall

Decorating with old, used fishing gear is fun, creative and inexpensive. It's pretty easy to find unique fishing gear to use as decorating items. Here are a few fun ideas for your fishing decor projects.

First you will need fishing gear. My husband is not the fisherman in our family, I am. So it's easy for me to save old fishing lures that the hooks have dulled and gives me a great excuse to buy more too! Bobbers have a tendency to stop floating after a few whacks on the rocks along the shoreline, rendering them useless to the fisherman but a great find for the decorator. If you confiscate gear from hubby's tackle box remember you now know what to get him for the next holiday or special occasion!

Yard sales and estate sales are great for purchasing inexpensive, used fishing equipment for your decorating projects. Yard sales are less risky than hubby's tackle box too. Keep an eye out for used fishing nets, poles, lures, bobbers, metal stringers and other gear.

The last thing you want is your fishing decor to smell fishy. Be sure to clean everything very carefully and thoroughly. I use alcohol for lures, bobbers and such. Good detergent and bleach for nets. Vinegar and lemon juice work well too.

What type of decorating can you do with your accumulated treasures? This is where the fun really begins, let your imagination shine. Here are just a few ideas to get you started. Minnow buckets make good catch all containers for bedrooms, kid's rooms and bathrooms for items like crayons, hair do-dads, brushes and combs etc. If you are really crafty they can be turned into lamps. Buy lamp fixtures at the hardware store or inexpensive narrow based lamps that fit into the top opening of the minnow bucket.

Make your own fishing swag from long pliable twigs, boat line or saining nets. Make sure you either remove the hooks from lures and replace with twisted wire shaped like hooks or snip the points off with heavy wire cutters. I have put chunks of cork on the ends of each point, these look like baited hooks! From the twigs I randomly tie bobbers and lures with mono filament (fishing line). I like to use cafe curtains with curtain clips on these swags because they hang below the bobbers and lures. Curtains with the long tabs work great as well.

Old fishing poles from yard sales are very cheap and make great curtain rods. I especially like the cane poles because they are easy to cut to size.

Another idea is to hot glue bobbers and lures all over an old lamp base. I think the more the better on this project, totally covering the base. Of course the lamp size and your taste make a difference. If it's a very large lamp or you just don't have enough lures and bobbers you can hot glue solid bands, about 2 inches wide, of hemp rope or twine to fill in larger areas.

A mobile like you see in babies rooms are fun and add an interesting art form to your fishing decor. I prefer to hang the fishing gear at different levels instead of all one length. Again I use twigs or sticks for this project's "cross" to hang the lures, bobbers etc. from and fishing line to tie it all together.

Old wooden picture frames with the glass removed make inexpensive picture boxes. Line a piece of thin cardboard with brown, tan or dark green felt. You can also use fishing print fabric. Put this covered cardboard in the frame like you would a picture and hot glue your treasures on the felt. A good trick is to use sets of three. Three lures, one under the other in a corner, three bobbers side by side for a top row, three hand reels in a row at the bottom for weight and one old metal stringer above the reels.

Things I haven't tried yet but are on my list to create include fishing lures with the hooks removed as cabinet handles, bobbers or lures for light pulls, fishing net swag around the bathroom mirror and drift wood with fishing gear as a conversation piece.

Creating your own fishing decor is fun, inexpensive and most of all you have unique decorating items for your home or cabin. Start collecting old fishing gear and let your imagination go.