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Post by RedRimmed Desert on Mar 23, 2015 11:42:14 GMT -6
To make a pendulum, I used a slip sinker (such as used to fish plastic worms), 40 lb. braided nylon line. A tool made to make room for pegging the line with a toothpick. It was just a piece of dowel rod with a finish nail put in the end. The nail head then clipped off, filed to a point. Once pegged after applying superglue, the lead is spayed with enamel spray paint. Line length should be 12" or more to wrap around your hand. Lead pendulums were in use by dowsers, common but had chains instead of a string. Since then, toxic effects of lead have become publicized, lead is usually not considered by dowsers. If you do make a lead pendulum, it should be an old slip sinker or soak overnight in half water/vinegar solution to oxidize before painting.
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Post by RedRimmed Desert on Mar 23, 2015 11:47:10 GMT -6
I can remember seeing painted bell sinker pendulums, used by old time dowsers back in the late 1980s. My map dowsing back then (I still do) was done by lead pendulums, all of them made from fishing tackle. Back during the first recession, after George Bush Sr. declared victory in the "Desert Storm" war with Iraq, we decided to plan a fishing trip once more to Bear Lake (this was the last time). A cold front moved through as we left on our trip to Bear Lake. A couple of experienced bass fisherman, staying at the same cabin resort, came in and both had nice bass boats. But having caught no fish they said, "nothing would bite, not even a perch". I found a large contour lake map in the cabin, the type with depth lines to the deepest points. DNR maps are similar to the nautical, both make better maps for underwater dowsing, than do the ordinary inland lake contour maps. The first map is a USGS topo showing my best dowsed smallmouth bass spot. The 2nd map is DNR lake map of the same location. Arrows show the location of our boat, moving in to my dowsed fishing spot. Red X is the approximate area that produced a couple trophy size smallmouth bass.
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Post by RedRimmed Desert on Mar 23, 2015 11:55:30 GMT -6
Well, first chance to check out my spot was late evening, went drifting into location after cutting the motor. Cast toward were I believed dowsing indicated on map. I'm not sure of exact number of casts, perhaps 2-4 but first time bumping logs with a weedless jig/dark pork frog combo, rod bent staying that way. I waited then line pulled out. It was getting almost too dark to see by the time getting the lunker smallmouth in the boat. In the outdoor fish cleaning shack, placed my bass in the sink. With the mouth closed against the one side, tail bent up (entire tail fin past the bottom curve) the other side of sink. Measured sink the next morning, 24 inches side to side. There was about a 2 inch curve where bottom, sides meet. I know I've seen in my area, mounted on walls of tackle shops, smallmouth bass that size. Went out to my spot next morning, didn't do too bad considering the tough fishing conditions. I made sure this time, plenty of photos were taken of each catch of smallmouth. I went again next morning, caught my limit, headed back to get Dad, we put our fish together for a 2 man catch. He finally caught a fish, just one the 14 inch largemouth in the photo (opposite big smallmouth on bottom of boat front). Here is a closer look at the larger smallmouth, from the photo it appears almost big enough to eat the 14 inch largemouth bass. To map dowse the contour lake map found in our cabin, took out a lead head 1/4 ounce jig (without the plastic grub body). The jig already had about 18" of 17 lb. test leader (for bumping logs). My improvised tackle box pendulum worked fine, never caught so many huge smallmouth like this before, never felt the need to try again either.
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Post by RedRimmed Desert on Mar 23, 2015 15:22:02 GMT -6
The first clip of this video (American Society of Dowsers) title "Dowsing Tools - Pendulum" shows making a simple fishing sinker pendulum, explains how to get yes/no answers.
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Post by RedRimmed Desert on Mar 23, 2015 19:44:31 GMT -6
You can try out a circular dowsing chart, asking yes/no questions to see how the pendulum answers. For me a swinging left/right is no, out/back will be yes (away from me). Rotations can give momentum to speed up your pendulum, before the swing answer response. Others might find counterclockwise/clockwise rotations work for them. If the cardinal points on the chart are aligned with magnetic north, ask about what direction something is located (this can be done also, without holding a pendulum over the chart). Eventually, it should become easy to sit back in your easy chair, ask questions about a site you want to explore or perhaps map dowse later. Various types of pendulum responses can be observed while using a circular chart.
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