toy fishing pole?

[Flor]

Has anyone ever seen a nice toy fishing pole? Wooden or nicely made in plastic? I was imagining magnets to "catch" fish. Ds is into Pingu and is always making fishing poles out of funny things. He would be happy if he could actually catch something!

[Maiasaura]

i actually saw one at the dollar store, with magnets. not too exciting, and easily breakable, but at least they had one!

good luck,
pamela

[trini]

Well, it sure wasn't fancy, but I made one when I was teaching preschool (teach K now and probably still have it tucked away somewhere). I just tied a string to the end of a wooden dowel rod. Somewhere I got a small magnet that I tied to the end. I made fish out of cardstock and laminated them so they were real stiff. I put letters on one side of the fish for my students to id. Just tossed them all in a big bucket.

I imagine you are looking for something a bit nicer than that, but just thought I'd share.

[kamilla626]

We have this one. Hope the link works.

http://cgi.ebay.com/LITTLE-TIKES-FIS...QQcmdZViewItem

It's not magnetic, but you can catch fish by their tails on the big plastic hook. There are openings on either end of the orange lid to the box, so you can store the pole across the top of the box and snap the lid back on. (Did that make sense?)

[bleurae]

Toys R Us has one as does target, I did find though, that the longer the pole the more dangerous it is when they whip it around. I did see one, fisher price I think, that reels in with the magnet but the pole doesn't extend out, much safer, I wish I had gotten that instead of the extending one I got at TrU

[eilonwy]

My FIL bought a very nice one for BeanBean over the summer, and while we were at the big family Turkey Day gathering, he found one belonging to one of his cousins and fished for his cousins for about an hour. I'll have to ask where they came from. They were both lots of fun; the one that FIL bought can actually be reeled in and cast out, though, and the other one couldn't.

[Alkenny]

We have a Fisher Price one that was bought for my older DS when he was little, and my little guy still has it and plays with it. It doesn't have magnets, but a hook that they hook into the fish mouths.

[4evermom]

I made one with a dowel, too. The magnet that I used on the end was a little heavy, so it was dangerous if ds whipped it around.

[Flor]

Thanks, that ebay link looked good. I will search for the fisher price brand one, too. I have been thinking of making one, but did I mention that ds is only 28 months? I was afraid that having to match up a magnet on the end of a string to a magnet on a fish might be too hard and frustrating.

Has anyone ever used magnetic paint? I was wondering if I could paint canvas fish or something and use a magnet to pick them . I don't know how strong the magnet in the paint is.

[trini]

I just put VERY BIG paper clips on the fish that I made. When you put the magnet in the bucket you ALWAYS caught one or more!

[Flor]

I had imagined them on a floor, and harder to pick up, but in a bucket, you'd be more likely to catch them.. . I wonder if I stuffed canvas or fabric fish with paper clips if you'd be able to pick them up. . .guess I need to experiment with magnets!

[xumom]

Here is one from Land of Nod that is cute. Might help give you inspiration if you make one.

http://www.landofnod.com/landofnod/p...ookie%5Ftest=1

I purchased one for my son last year from Rosie Hippo's. It is wood with a working reel and wood fish to catch, but I don't see it on their site anymore.

HTH.

[maya44]

We had the little tykes one and it was awesome. The girls played with it for years.

It was a wonderful toy, that would not have been anywhere near as safe and good if made of wood (ouch!).

[ThinkBlu]

We have this one from toysmith

http://www.puffins.com/toysmithpg35.html

It is plastic, but it works great in or out of the tub.

[Flor]

ThinkBlu-- is it magnetic?

I finally made one for ds. A short dowel, string, a magnet with a hole inthe center. folded felt in half, cut out fish, sharks, and an octopus and sewed the two sides together. I sewed on thin washers as the eyes for all the animals. The magnet picks up the washers. They are all in a blue bucket. He thinks it is very cool. I post a pic if I have a free moment!

[USAmma]

My dd has a plastic one that has a telescoping pole. We have lost all the fish but we have magnets from her science kit. Today she tied a My Little Pony to the string with about 1000 knots and was swinging it over her head helicopter style. I bought it a year ago and it gets used at least 1-2 times a week. Not always for its designed purpose.

[ThinkBlu]

Originally Posted by Flor

ThinkBlu-- is it magnetic?

It is. The magnets are right on the end of the critter noses, so it takes a little extra effort at coordination at first, I think a good thing. Note also that there are two color combinations, one with a green pole and one with an orange. The fish critters are the same colors as a set, but different per critter, i.e., one set might have the seahorse be yellow and the other set green. My two boys each got a set and it's kind of nice having the two sets because you can make up games sorting by shape or color or... If you weren't paying attention, at first you probabaly wouldn't notice the color differences.