Getting Floating Disc Out Of The Water

[Midnightbiker]

I once lost a Dragon in the water, because a friend made a bad throw, and the disc landed in the middle of the pond about 40 feet out. We had no way to reach the disc so we had to walk away. I still like using floating disc for insurance, and I racked my brain and came up with a device that can be carried in a bag, and taken out to get your floating disc out of the water. Here are the pics of what I made. I hope this might help someone out:



http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd166/Midnightbiker/DiscRetriver5.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd166/Midnightbiker/DiscRetriver4.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd166/Midnightbiker/DiscRetriver2.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd166/Midnightbiker/DiscRetriver3.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd166/Midnightbiker/DiscRetriver1.jpg

[ERicJ]

Two commercial products:

Quic'Stic' (http://www.cotscreations.com/products2.htm) and Golden Retriever (http://www.discdiver.com/).

Here's one I built myself for trying to dredge discs out of QVCC the LINKS after TX States. Can't really tell the scale from the pictures but the PVC pipe is 5ft wide.

[Midnightbiker]

How well does that work? I would like to use something like that to dredge the bottom of the pond at Bear Branch. I see guys jump in there and look for discs, but you could not pay me enough to jump in that murky pond. My device floats on the water and will retrieve floating disc like Dragons. I only throw Dragons around water.

[Midnightbiker]

I based my design on the Goldern Retriver ,but I needed one that floated and was compact to fit in the bag.

[Texconsinite]

cool devices guys. The ponds on courses here are mostly pretty small and shallow, so what I do is just throw the claw (like retriever, but end looks more like a grappling hook) past the disc into the water. Aim is key here since you want the string to land on top of the disc. Its a delicate balancing act, but I pull it in slowly, letting the tension from the string on the back of the disc push the disc toward me. the disc only needs a gentle push to float towards you, so you dont really need to GRAB it, just push down on the back of it to make it come in to shore. You need alot of string though.

[ERicJ]

How well does that work? I would like to use something like that to dredge the bottom of the pond at Bear Branch. I see guys jump in there and look for discs, but you could not pay me enough to jump in that murky pond.
Yeah the water at the LINKS is pretty gross stuff too.

In it's present (1st try) design I'd say my dredger just works so-so. I used 5" long 3/8" bolts for the teeth. Turn out that's not really enough weight to sink the device deep enough in the soft mud at the bottom of the ponds. In hindsight I should have gone for at least the 1/2" thick bolts, but at the time I though that'd be too heavy :rolleyes: Plus the 3/8" bolts were like $0.80, and the 1/2" ones were almost $2 each. It needs more weight to keep it down as you pull towards you. Total cost was ~$30 in parts and two hours of design and labor.

I've got a tent stake at the end that I pound into the ground to keep all the rope from following in after I toss the dredger. I learned pretty quickly not to pound the stake into a fire ant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_ant) "hill" and then stand there in sandals dredging. In my defense there was no mound built up, they were all lurking underground, but still got stung...

ERic

[Texconsinite]

If you want to weigh your dredger down some more, why not glue some pennies to the inside of the pipe. A roll would be more than enough and not that expensive.

Another lake that eats alot of discs is the one at Blackhorse. That would be prime for dredging, since its so big.

The guy out here in AZ that fishes for discs has the heads of two garden rakes attached together so teeth on top and bottom that he throws out to grab discs.

[ERicJ]

One roll wouldn't be enough... would need probably five or six to get the weight I'm thinking would be better performing.

[Texconsinite]

Which lakes are you planning on using this at? The one at bear branch is so small and I know guys who dive in there and sell the discs they find. I would go to the lake at River Grove. That lake is huge, and just from experience, I've watched it eat several discs firsthand, both my own and others. Throwing your contraption out there would yield a bonanza of discs, I bet. Likewise for the huge lake at First Colony Aquatic Center out west.

[ERicJ]

Which lakes are you planning on using this at?
the LINKS at QVCC (http://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=2576). The mud at the bottom of those is pretty soft and the dredger does a reasonably good job of sinking into it, but not as deep as I'd like. I did pull out three more discs from those lakes last night after we played.

Throwing your contraption out there would yield a bonanza of discs, I bet. Likewise for the huge lake at First Colony Aquatic Center out west.
There's a couple problems with FCAC (http://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=1264). The first is that there's a concrete lip on the edge of the lake that isn't conducive to pulling discs out to the shore. The other problem is that there's a lot of rocky debris at the bottom that would prevent the dredger from working correctly. I've encountered several cinder blocks while walking around in the shallow water near the edge.

But like I said before, it seems to work so-so in the water at the LINKS, which is what I designed it for.

ERic

[Portablewalrus]

I use a 35' fat max stanely tape measure. Its really portable, but can be hard to control past 20'.

[Texconsinite]

I use a 35' fat max stanely tape measure. Its really portable, but can be hard to control past 20'.

That is a brilliant idea, walrus!!!!!

I have never seen anyone use a tape measure, but it makes perfect sense, what with the little metal lip at the end to pull em in.