FISH-O-MATIC Bushcraft Fish Catcher - Lake to Pan Challenge

Hi, I'm Greg Ovens, and this is Oven's Rocky Mountain Bushcraft. Not only am I going to try to set the hook with a set line, I'm going to try to pull the fish onto the ice and even attempt to get it into a frying pan. If I make this work, it's going to be epic. But this trap, it's kind of like something Doc Brown of Back to the Future had come up with. Doc, don't say a word. But if you didn't see the video where I used the mousetrap as the set line, which worked very efficiently, go back and check that video. And don't forget to share, subscribe, and hit the bell for notifications. Hoo-wee, this doesn't like to go through. We're there. Not enough pressure. Didn't pull the wedges. Do you know what this means? It means that this damn thing doesn't work at all. So, I'm back where I built my trap last time. You saw all the effort that I went through to make that. It was an all-day project. But I get back here and somebody's destroyed my trap and got rid of it. The trap's gone. My log is still there. But we'll go over here. I see tracks. We'll just drug it off the ice, basically. It's not totally destroyed. Well, my trigger's gone, too. Okay, there's my trigger. Okay, we'll continue working on it. I ended up not camping out up at the lake to try my trap because it's gonna need some fine-tuning. I figure I'll get it perfected here at my campsite, get everything working. I'll even test it with one of the frozen fish that I have from the mousetrap, set-line trap. It's a decent one. Mousetrap to a board, unreal. That seems to be a lot of pressure. Keep your eyes away from this when you're trying to set a trap like this. You could lose an eye. There's a lot of pressure on that. The trigger is gonna hook the fish a fraction of a second before it pulls the wedges. We're gonna tie another line onto this to the fish. Oh, threw the fish way over in the bush. It threw the fish way over there. But I guess he decided to eat pine cones. He's got a pine cone stuck in his mouth. So I can see already that this trap is gonna work. But I have to build a ramp. I can see that. And the other thing I'm gonna have to do is stop this log from rolling too far. It just keeps rolling, flipping the fish, and just keeps going. Now, that's fine if you're on a lake, but my objective is to try to flip it into a frying pan, not just let it keep rolling. So I'm gonna put a log across the end to stop the big log at the precise time that I wanna flip the fish into a frying pan. I think I better move the camera in case he decides to roll past the end. Good thing I moved the camera. Took the fish's head off, though. What I'm finding is I don't think I need this much of a slope. When the log starts rolling, it's pretty aggressive. I mean, it just flipped that fish right in the bush, as you saw. I'm gonna take three or four inches off the bottom. I'm gonna lose this brace, because I don't need it. I don't need that. Put some braces in between, tie them on, and I cut it tight. But that's good, because I want it really tight. There we go. Okay, so we'll get that tied in there, and that'll actually help my ramp system for the fish anyway. I'm gonna put another one in between here, just to make sure it's all solid. Getting a little hungry. Still working on that trap, trying to get it refined. I'll cook my steak, and then get back at her. I have to attach two sticks here beside my set line stick, but allow enough room for it to spin in between the two. The fish will hit here, go up the two sticks into the trough. The log will pull it down the ramp, and into the frying pan. I'll set it up quick, and then we can head back to the lake and try it out. That'll be the fun part, is when it actually works. I have to allow enough distance between these for my set line stick to go between. And I have to put a stick here to stop it at the right spot, because the line has to come off, and it has to go with the rolling log. So I'm gonna tie these two together. We'll do another quick demonstration. Figure out how much line I need. Six feet, like I say. Okay, it's hard to break, even biting it. I'm using stronger line, 25 pound, because it's gotta pull the fish and do everything I want it to. I've got the old frozen fish. Remember, his head came off during one of the test runs. It pulled his head right off. Okay, so we'll put him down. Come on, get going. There he goes. Okay, our fish is at the bottom. Now, I'm not gonna set this yet. I'm just trying to determine how much line I need. So I'll set the camera up on a different angle here. That's the problem with only having one camera. You gotta get more camera gear, obviously. A portable television studio. No wonder your president has to be an actor. He's gotta look good on television. Let's go slowly so I can determine. Might have to go further than I think. Well, right into the ramp, which is what I want. I might have to just let this thing roll right onto the ice, because it looks to me like it's gonna have to to get it where I want it. Right about there. That's about the right length. That's good. The fish is right where I want it. So that's the right length. The log has to roll right to the end. So I don't have to even tie it on. I just have to have my log here to stop it. So basically, I figured out the problem is this rough bark. This is it. I'm gonna have to, where the runners are, get some of this bark off because it prevents it from rolling. Here goes. What do you got? Oh! Oh, he's in the trough. But the log's not rolling now. Okay, so we got some adjustments to make. Okay, so I'll just explain a couple of the changes that I made to hopefully get the fish in the frying pan this time. The traps caught two fish. As you remember or can see on the video, the first time, the log didn't roll when the wedge came out. So I've cleaned the bark off where the runners are. It's rolling every time now, so that's good because I wanna get it in the frying pan. That's the objective of the ending of the video. I decided to let the log roll past onto the lake and put this log here to stop the fish when it gets to the pan instead of trying to figure out the distance I need, I'm just gonna stop the fish where I want it. First of all, I'm very impressed and pleased with the way it worked. It set the hook on both those fish. But I'll tell you what the problem is, I think, is I, if you remember, I shortened my posts on the side so it was less aggressive, I said, and I thought that was because the first test, fish flew 10 feet in the bush, and I thought, okay, it's too aggressive. But now I'm realizing it's not aggressive enough. I'm very happy with the way it's been working though. But I think by raising this now, it's gonna go all the way, and next time I think we're gonna get that fish into the pan. Here's the thing you don't realize is I've probably put in over 150 hours into this one video. I mean, you gotta admit, this is the most awesome trap that you've ever seen probably. I mean, this is the most complex trap that I've ever developed. I mean, to hook the fish, not only set the line, but bring it out of the ice, down the ramp, into a frying pan is absolutely spectacular. So I hope you like this video. Hopefully we've got everything rectified. I'll just show you. I'm gonna take this stick and put it in the frying pan because I want the fish to stop here. If I put it like this, the log should roll over that and it should stop the fish where I want it in the frying pan. I can't see it getting through there. The one thing I did do is I added another log on each side of my ramp and I lowered it down to here. We'll get the trap set up. Got a couple hours of daylight still and see if we can make this thing work where we get it right in the frying pan, man. Now we get our hook baited up, set it, set the trigger, away we go. Okay, last night we didn't catch anything. I decided to put on my camo coat, even though probably just the very sight of it irritates some viewers. I've been wearing it so long since Patagonia. But it's my lucky coat, my lucky fishing coat. I've caught more fish wearing this coat than any other piece of clothing I own. So I think it's appropriate that when we finish this video, hopefully today, or I'll keep trying, that I'm wearing this coat. It's my lucky coat. Just like my lucky lure, the pink number two maps. My mossy oak. We'll see if we can succeed with this coat on. I don't believe in superstition anyway. But I think it's appropriate. That's unbelievable. I'll tell ya, that was the third fish with the trap. And I don't know, it happened so fast, I'll have to look at the footage to see what happened. But the line broke. I don't know if the trigger got stuck on something or whatever, but I had a fish on, log rolled, and the line broke somehow. Oh no, it broke the line. I had one and it broke the line. Gotta set it up again. Hopefully they're gonna bite and we get this to work. I'm gonna review that footage and try to see what happened. Trial and error, I guess. Holy, didn't go in the pan. I think this trap's too fast. Unbelievable. What the heck? Unreal. So it's time to get on with my life. And get other videos done. The trap, at least it's caught fish. Log's rolling now, but I can't seem to get the fish into the frying pan. The one fish, as you remember, did go into the trough. Oh, he's in the trough. But it's more of a catapult. With these smaller fish, it just seems to throw them. So I'll work on this some more. Maybe for next year we'll have a follow up when I get it perfected. But like I say, I've spent so much time on this one video. I have to get on with other videos. But you can see it works. It sets the line and it pulls the fish out. So we'll have a second video where we succeed maybe next year. By the way, Zach, I did kind of borrow your idea of the rolling log, as you'll see now. Hopefully he's not too angry about that. But anyway, we will get this perfected. But I gotta get on with other videos. I have a plan of building a garden in the bush and maybe even raising some chickens. So we gotta get on these other videos. Spring is here. Lakes aren't that safe anymore to walk on. So I'll have to finish that video next winter.