Lockdown Project – Make a Hook

Lockdown had struck and Wellsford primary student Harley Wade found himself learning from home again, but with an innovative teacher, it was not all bad news.

Harley shares his lockdown ‘good news’ story…

Luckily, my teacher Mr Lees was a keen hunter/fisherman so he gave the class a challenge: to make a fishing hook.

My Dad and I found a piece of metal and we cut it to size with a saw. When it was the perfect size, we sharpened it on the grinder. We let it cool down and put the metal on a flat surface.

Next, we used the club hammer to hit the unsharpened end flat. Then we got the smallest drill piece, a dot punch and a hammer. We put the dot punch on the middle, hit the top of the dot punch and it made a little hole.

After that, we drilled through it. We heated the metal up by holding it with pliers and with a gas bottle and torch. Carefully, we held it with the pliers and aimed the flames at the metal until it went blazing red. Dad and I put a metal bar in the vice.

We held the hot metal with pliers and quickly laid the metal on the bar. I hit the club hammer on the tip of the metal until it curved around the metal round bar.

Later, I watched Matt Watson on You Tube and learned to tie a uni knot. My hook set up has already caught eels in our dam.

Thanks Mr Lees, it was my kind of challenge – way better than usual boring schoolwork.

I love fishing because I enjoy being out on the water, the wind blowing and splashing in my face. I love catching and cooking kai. I like learning basic skipper skills so that in a few years I don’t need to wait on my parents to head out on the water. I’ll be able to go fishing all day, every day!

Harley Wade, Wellsford Primary

Footnote. Wade has given Mr Lees one of his hooks and challenged him to catch a snapper on it – this time it is the student setting the teacher a ‘home learning’ challenge.