fishing kits and snares

hardheart

hardheart

Joined
Sep 19, 2001
Messages
8,968
I must again preface a thread here with the fact that I don't spend time away from civilization. I was wondering what the feelings were about having these items in small survival kits. For perhaps getting lost or some accident while on a trip, I can see the need for many things, but was wondering about just packing a little food in advance and trying to find edible plants or insects. Trying to catch fish, birds, and mammals instead would seem to take more skill, time & preparation, plus the cleaning and cooking process. My notion is that someone could make it at least a couple weeks without eating animals (I'm no vegetarian or anything), and I wouldn't hope to be stuck without rescue or finding a way out for longer than that. Thoughts?
 
you have three weeks of survival without food. you become weaker.

I keep a small fishing kit, in my woodswalking bag. Just some hooks and lines, no gill nets. Gill nets may be useful, but they are illegal. Most of my treks aren't that far from civilization for me to need a gill net.

I eat anything I can get my hands on. I also bring snare wire to make traps for small animals if I had to.

Learn to trap.

Learn what edible plants are in your area.

Take care,
Scottman
 
if your stuck somewhere, lost or car broke down in the middle of BFE ,+ if your hungry,why not fish, it is not that hard ,use natural bait for the area and you ain't doing anything but waiting to be found why not pass the time by fishing but each his/her own , I always have a small amount of fishing tackle in my PSK but in my area ponds,lakes streams,creeks are everywhere and fishing can calm you down or others plus I have not mastered snaring anything so I can't comment on that ,:D I can't snaring for diddle squat.
 
i have a small fishing kit as well as a thompson survival snare in my PSK.... :D if i or any of my family is hungry, i'm going to be getting some food, however that may be....:)
 
I say better to have something and not need it, than need it and not have it. Snare/Trap triggers do require some more experience on proper setting, placement for target animal, scent masking, etc. It might be worth carrying a few snares though, just for redundancy(say five). I figure a shot in the dark beats having no ammo, and it just ups your chances of food if you really need it.
Fishing however is a lazy man's game.(sorry anglers, not trying to ruffle feathers, sport fishing and survival fishing are two different animals) Run a trot line, and while you're off foraging for wild edibles you are essentially fishing. Maximizing your yield and time spent, while minimizing your effort on a sole task.
Learning some basic wild edibles, especially those native to your area, should round it out nicely. That about sums up my thoughts on food procurement I think, for what they're worth.

Gautier
 
Actually, if you like to fish as I do (even if I am not very good at it) then you start to look for reasons to break out the fishing kit. I carry a collapsible rod and small tackle kit in my truck just in case such "emergencies" arise.

It’s no trouble at all! =)
 
First shelter, then water, then food. Assuming you have shelter covered (pardon the pun) either by knowledge of where and how to, shelter carried with you, or a bit of both, and you've got plans for water, then food should be gathered with the least calories expended for the calories you gain.

Snares and trot lines as noted, work while you are taking care of other things. As was noted above, eat everything (edible that is) you can get your hands on. Learn to do deadfalls for little critters, including field mice. Everything I've ever seen or read indicates that a purely vegetarian survival diet just doesn't work. Insects have high percentages of protein and fat for their body weight than does beef and can be a lot easier to gather. Should be able to make a stew of what wild plants you can find and whatever buggies, meeses, and fish you can gather that would carry some good nutrition for the energy expended.

Carrying some line and hooks for a hand line shouldn't take up space and gives you a chance to hit areas of promising water you come across. You can't trot line the whole place. Plus, as also noted in an above post, settling in with a hand line or with a cut pole and line can be calming and keep you from running around burning up calories you can't afford to loose, just because you are wanting to be "doing" something survivalish.

While I haven't viewed a lot of the Hoods Woods material, what I have seen impressed me by the sensible and thoughtful approach he takes. I may have to put a few of those videos on my wish list for those reasons alone.
 
After a few days without food your perspective might change :) If you can build a fire and have other signalling devices, you'll proably get found in a few days-- provided someone knows you are overdue. A nice freshly roasted trout would do wonders for your attitude and would be much preferrable to rodents. Fishing gear and snare wire are light, cheap, and easy to pack. I hope to never need them--- and pray I have them if I do need them.
 
I dont keep extensive fishing supplies, but a small kit, doesent take up much room and can multi task for sewing, tool building, etc.

Here is my kit
2 small hooks
2 medium hooks
1 large hook
3 weights
25 ft line
1 sm float

its extremeley basic since I figure the odds of using it are low. but it is far better than tryning to fish with my hands like a bear(grillis or otherwise)
 
Yeah I kinda agree with ya, you can last ages without food so I wouldn't worry about trying to trap animals and catch fish !
What I have done is buy a couple of books about edible plants in my area and learn as many as I could trying them all as well including such strange ones as Tiger Lily Bulbs !!!!
 
You have to put some qualifiers on what a "trip" is and when it is. If it as simple as my car breaks down, I have no need for snares and fish hooks. I'd rather have a fistful of energy bars and a gallon of water :)
 
I guess that's a big question that I can't answer, what kind of trip I would be on where I wouldn't be near a road, trail, human population, cell tower, etc. Please understand I'm asking about the smallest of personal kits that have the hooks/snares. If I were going somewhere where I could easily get lost and not be able to shoot an azimuth and walk into something manmade within a day or two, I'd probably have more than a small pouch on my belt.
 
If you are on well traveled roads, you're fine. If you get stupid, open a closed gate to take the scenic route after ignoring locals who tell you the road is closed, then maybe you need food gathering gear.

All but my smallest kits contain a few hooks, swivels, leaders and weights becuase they take up basically no room and I have heavy thread and/or dental floss at a minimum; I carry wire becuase it is just useful.
 
For the most part, unless you've spent lots of time and effort to learn wild edibles, it's just not worth it in a survival situation. Generally speaking, more energy is expended gathering wild plant foods, than will be gained in the eating of them. And if your mental capacity is diminished for any reason, injury, cold, etc., the chance of misidentifying plant food and poisoning yourself, increases.

It takes a lot less time to learn to snare and fish and the rewards will be much more useful. And besides, hunger is not a big issue in a survival situation (assuming you're found with 48-72 hours - I think that's considered the norm :confused: ) Ron Hood uses the rule of 3's to establish survival priorities. "You can live for 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food." Now I know there can be exceptions to this, but it's a pretty good starting point.

Also, have you ever fasted? You'll find after a few days, your appetite can disappear, or at least, considerably diminish (personal experience).

If you want to learn wild edibles, that's great, in fact it's a big interest of mine, but it takes a long time, much longer than most people here would care to spend, IMHO.

Doc
 
I carry rods & tackle in my truck 24/7 365, but I love to fish. Here in my neck of the woods you can pretty much catch fish anytime if you aren't picky about what kind you catch. Plus, you can catch bullfrogs, crawdads, and use the cast offs to catch a coon, or possum. My kit has line, hooks, jigs, and a 4 point gig. You can also rig a conical fish trap in about 30 minutes that will fish all day while you sit and rest, sleep, or whatever plus trot lines, limb lines, etc. You can also use crushed Buckeyes for fishing with good effect in smaller waterways. I would fall back to fishing long before I relied on snares.
And if you have never rigged a bow knot limb line with a small baitfish, you are missing a great way to fish. You can use a clothespin, or tie a tight bow knot such that the dorsal fin is barely out of the water directly below the limb, as the baitfish swims it will come out of the water a bit creating a small splash, and sooner or later wham, big fish gets got, and the limb will flex and pull helping to set the hook, and tire the fish out. Set 5-10 of these and you should be in good shape. Sorry for going OT a bit, I just like fishing.:) :)
 
DOC-CANADA said:
For the most part, unless you've spent lots of time and effort to learn wild edibles, it's just not worth it in a survival situation. Generally speaking, more energy is expended gathering wild plant foods, than will be gained in the eating of them. And if your mental capacity is diminished for any reason, injury, cold, etc., the chance of misidentifying plant food and poisoning yourself, increases.

It takes a lot less time to learn to snare and fish and the rewards will be much more useful. And besides, hunger is not a big issue in a survival situation (assuming you're found with 48-72 hours - I think that's considered the norm :confused: ) Ron Hood uses the rule of 3's to establish survival priorities. "You can live for 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food." Now I know there can be exceptions to this, but it's a pretty good starting point.

Also, have you ever fasted? You'll find after a few days, your appetite can disappear, or at least, considerably diminish (personal experience).

If you want to learn wild edibles, that's great, in fact it's a big interest of mine, but it takes a long time, much longer than most people here would care to spend, IMHO.

Doc
Click to expand...

I usually agree with you Doc but in this case I can't. It is very rare that I ever have to wander very far from the path in order to pick some wild edibles !
However maybe I am fortunate to have so many in the area in which I hike.
Maybe if I lived in a more barren place I would once again agree with you !!!!
I must add though that when eating wild edibles you must adjust your taste expectations......meat or fish would often taste much better !!!
 
pitdog said:
I usually agree with you Doc but in this case I can't. It is very rare that I ever have to wander very far from the path in order to pick some wild edibles !
However maybe I am fortunate to have so many in the area in which I hike.
Maybe if I lived in a more barren place I would once again agree with you !!!!
I must add though that when eating wild edibles you must adjust your taste expectations......meat or fish would often taste much better !!!
Click to expand...

Your location certainly is a big factor. When we generalize we're including all locations as would be represented by the forum members. I don't know about BC, but there are some awful slim pickings in Ontario in January :eek:, so, of course, time of year would be a big factor. Not so much with critters.

Also, a wild plant based diet contains no/little fat (unless there's nuts available) in most circumstances, and fat is of great concern, especially in winter. Rabbit starvation is what happens to people who eat nothing but rabbits (lean meat) because there is little/no fat on the critters. The same applies to a plant based diet. Supplement with meat/fish, no problem, but you still have to learn to trap/fish. What I'm trying to say, in my backwards fashion is, trapping/fishing are much more time-efficient in terms of learning and results. As I mentioned before, I am very much interested in wild food foraging, but I don't think for the average person who wants to spend a bit of time to enhance his 'survivability' that wild plant foods would be a good choice. I am interested in other opinions, though.

Doc
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top