Emily Roska (Drew Roska's wife) demonstrates the completed fishing buddy.
If you give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. If you give a man a one-of-a-kind fishing buddy, he will likely cast his line a lot farther than you.
Named because it was built to help fishermen cast a pole, the fishing buddy was designed and built specifically for Drew Roska’s dad, Dave, who injured his elbows when he was electrocuted in an industrial accident.
Its creators were Drew, Kylee Norton, Laura Layton and Stacie Barton, all special educations students who took on the project in the CPD’s Assistive Technology Lab at Utah State University. The AT Lab provides assistive technology demonstration, training, services, and research throughout the intermountain region.
“My family really loves to fish, said Drew. “It became very difficult for my dad to cast a fishing pole and he had to rely on someone to do it for him. I have always thought that we could make something that would help him and the AT Lab provided a way for us to do this.”
Originally the group wanted to use a modified potato gun, but decided that a spring operated launcher would be best. They talked to Stan Clelland, the AT Lab Coordinator, and he helped them come up with a design.
“We had an idea we thought would work but were unable to find a spring big enough,” Drew said. “So we went back to the drawing board and built a smaller version. We had problems with the trigger but after we reworked it a couple of times it worked perfectly.”
Emily Roska demonstrates the completed fishing buddy.
The fishing buddy casts a fishing line 80 feet, an amazing feat considering an average cast is 50 feet.