Hawaii Nearshore Fishing

A community of fishers sharing knowledge and Aloha

  • Home
  • Store
    • Shop
    • Cart
    • Checkout
    • My account
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Returns / Exchanges
  • How To
  • Haru’s Tips
  • Recommend
  • Holoholo
  • Recipes
  • About
    • Contact
You are here: Home / Archives for diy fish scaler

DIY bottle cap fish scaler

January 27, 2019 By Scott Leave a Comment

My kayak fishing partner Frank is a retired shipyard welder who has made all kinds of stuff for us.  Here’s a short list of what he made for my fishing needs:

  • pvc kayak washing rack
  • aluminum fish finder transducer arm
  • aluminum adapter plate to attach a Tite-Lok rod holder to a Scotty rod holder base on my new kayak
  • kage that I’ve been holding off using until I fish the larger kayak
  • clips made out of zip ties to secure the rods to the kayak

I call him Frank the Fabricator!   Frank saw a bottle cap scaler Kelly had fashioned, and added his twist to the design. I asked him to share the info since others may want to make an inexpensive scaler that works really well on fish with small scales.

 

 

 

 

 

Frank:

I started with an old scaler that was replaced by a better brass scaler which has more teeth. The old scaler has holes just at the right places to bolt down 4 caps on the opposite side of the teeth. I drilled a hole for the 5th cap. The aluminum flat bars were added to keep the caps on a flat surface. Stainless hardware was used.

Will try to add caps to the back of the brass scaler for an all purpose scaler. Mahalo Kelly for the idea!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was blessed to catch 3 omilu so late in the season.  The edges of the bottle caps scraped the little scales thoroughly.  I then used the shears Thad ordered from Japan, to cut out the fins and used a knife to remove the scutes and tails. Cleaning and prepping fish is a far more simple task after a good fun fishing day in Hawaii Nei.

 

Tungsten Jigs

Most Recent Posts

  • Bolo headed on the kayak but got an assist for this shore caught big oio! April 18, 2025
  • Best way to eat moana / moano and not be bothered by the bones April 9, 2025
  • Tried a new spot for a new goatfish and struck out. But found juvie opakapaka, weke nono and moana kali and the underwater camera revealed why they were there. March 28, 2025
  • Fished the New Moon with damashi and underwater camera and brought home fish to share with neighbors March 5, 2025

Categories of posts

Archives

Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2025 www.hawaiinearshorefishing.com