LOL, Gary - what a
garish idea with that bloody stick!
Just a suggestion for the fishing rod: Take a piece of plastic sprue, heat it over a candle flame (cautiously! There might be fumes!) until it softens - then stretch it with a steady motion. It takes a little practice, but this way you can produce thin, wire-like plastic threads. The faster you pull, the thinner they become.
You can use these for a lot of things, from a bristle-thick fishing rod to a thinner-than-a-hair automobile antenna. (This stretched-sprue technique is well known among car model builders - it's not my invention.)
Fix the rod in a tiny hole on a model or (--> your rod) on the ground with a small drop of glue. I wouldn't recommend styrene plastic glue, because it can soften that rod so much that it will droop and/or lie down flat. Cyanoacrylate glue or even common white glue are ok, however.
Ron