Bathtub Fishing Game

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I’ve had a rather fancy, fabric fishing set sitting half made for about 18 months now … and it’s never likely to be finished.

It’s very cute, but each fish requires some hand stitching, stuffing and decoration, in other words, LOTS of time. Today I made this alternative, in less than 30 minutes, AND it’s waterproof. We have a winner.

I used plastic document envelopes to cut the fish from, and the photo doesn’t show it too well, but these have a sort of holographic scale pattern on them, perfect for fish!

I cut out a paper fish to use as my template and then drew around it. You could also add in some startfish or eels or crabs, anything really.

Once they are cut out, stab a little hole near the ‘mouth’ end, and slip a metal paperclip through. That’s it, the fish are done.

 

Now you’ll need a magnetic fishing rod. If you can get O (donut) shaped magnets, you can just tie your line directly to them. I  didn’t have any of those at home, so I raided the scrapbooking supplies to see what I could come up with. I was actually thinking of some kind of bead that I could glue a magnet to, and then thread the line through. Instead I found these cute little … umm …. not even sure what they are called, but they have a loop on them that is perfect for the job. I used my trusty hot glue gun to attach the magnet to the ‘hook’. You could also try cutting a hook shape from the plastic and glue the magnet to that.

Run a few strips of hot glue to the end of a piece of dowel, and wrap the ‘line’ around the ‘rod’ to secure it. Tie the other end to your ‘hook’.

Let the glue dry and set, run a small amount of water in the bath and send the kids to catch dinner!