"Pocket" fishing kits?

Macchina

Macchina

Joined
Apr 7, 2006
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When I hike and I know I'll be near good water I bring my fishing kit (4-piece rod and reel) to really fish. I have however been hiking several times in the past with no plans to fish and happened to come upon an amazing fishing spot but with nothing to fish with. This happened the last time I hiked a local island and we ended up camping next to a small lake internal to the island. The lake was full of lake trout (we could see them when we swam under water) and we had nothing to catch them with! I was able to rig something up with the inner cord from Paracord, a safety pin, a floating stick, and a gummy bear. I managed to hook a couple decent fish with the rig but the "hook" would always come undone as I brought the fish in.

I decided to build a simple kit and carry it. I got one of the small spools of like (3" diameter). In a cylinder smaller than a pack of chew I have 110 yards of line, 10 #8 baithooks, 5 #6 trebles, a handful of sinkers, and two floats. I hope to find a lake like the last one again and be much better prepared this time!

So, do you carry a kit for "just in case"?




 
Neat way to pack a kit! I've used a lot of different small containers but that method never occurred to me!
 
A small telescopic rod, egg sinkers, split shot, swivels, various hooks and various leader materials. You can always make floats and scavenge bait.
 
Not yet, but I will be thinking about how I want to set something up for sure! Here little plastic handreels are common, 4inch or so. So maybe I should get something like that and can make it work...
 
I could kiss you for those pictures. I like to ultralight fish quite a bit, so when I go I usually just have one of these little guys along:

th


This thing you've done, it solves the problem I have with what to do with my line. I can just spool some out, use it to catch a tasty fish or two, and wind it back up. Everything is self-contained. I love it.
 
When I worked for the forest service as a firefighter, I always carried a small plastic "snuff can" with assorted small hooks, fishing line, flies, spinners, and split-shots.

I would cut a sapling to make a fishing pole, Huck Finn style, as exracr says. The best stream I ever fished was in the Absaroka Wilderness of Wyoming, I caught a bunch of wild Cutthroat trout one evening!
 
My goal is to find the perfect plastic cap from some food jar (maybe a Pringles cap) that easily and securely snaps on and off of the spool. It would be very slick...
 
Nice kit. Ever since I was a kid I loved making little fishing kits. I guess I saw some older men out fishing who had them, I don't recall learning it from family maybe a buddy. But either way if I'm out in the wilderness I usually have something to rig up if fishing is possible, I even have some small hooks, spilt-shot and some line in my travel toiletry kit just in case.

Tenkara is cool they have some really collapsible rods.

I will take some pics of a few mini kits and post later on. Cool thread.

OP nice job with the gummy bears and safety pin even if you didn't get them to dry land.
 
There are some illegals that fish where I occasionally go and they use pop cans with fishing line wrapped around them and 1 hook. DNR comes by they just kick the can into the water and walk away. Seems like a pretty minimal kit.

Something like this:

FE36YXJG5FRAT1N.MEDIUM.jpg
 
So, many of you may have seen them before, but if not look up "hobo fishing kit" These are pretty easy to make, you store all tackle inside of it, and easy to use. I made a not very good one, to try it out, and was surprised at how nice it worked. I even caught a few bream with it.
Bruce

So I dug out my "prototype" hobo fishing kit. I would make a bunch of changes if I was to make a new one, mainly the size. This one is just way to big, but like I said, it works remarkably well.
 
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bralexander said:
So, many of you may have seen them before, but if not look up "hobo fishing kit" These are pretty easy to make, you store all tackle inside of it, and easy to use. I made a not very good one, to try it out, and was surprised at how nice it worked. I even caught a few bream with it.
Bruce

So I dug out my "prototype" hobo fishing kit. I would make a bunch of changes if I was to make a new one, mainly the size. This one is just way to big, but like I said, it works remarkably well.
Click to expand...
I like it, I'm thinking when I get my lathe running again just machine one out of aluminium

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savage99 said:
I like it, I'm thinking when I get my lathe running again just machine one out of aluminium

Sent from my SM-G925W8 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Yeah some of the ones online are really well done. With access to the right materials and tools the possibilities are endless. Eventually I will get around to making a better, more refined, version. For now, when I know I will be hiking around water I carry my Dock Demon Deluxe spinning rod, with a 500 shimano reel, spooled with 15lb braid. I can handle 95% of fish I could catch with that setup.
Bruce
 
I put together a "poor man's" Tenkara kit based on a rod I ordered from the big online retailer. My tackle box is a nylon draw string bag that holds several EZY Dose pill bags. In addition to hooks and sinkers the bags hold a few small jig heads, 1" Gulp minnows, flies, and spare line/leader for the rod. I have never weighed the kit but I'm confident everything weighs only a few ounces and the total cost was below $20 including the rod.
 
Cool kit. Does it float? A fishing kit should float. :)

I could see myself carrying a light rod or a hand reel. Or even putting some line on a waterbottle and using that as a hand reel. It wouldn't be a just in case item for me. I'm packing it only because I intend to do some fishing and I've secured the permits etc to do so.
 
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Found a few mini kits that I like to make and stuff into a pocket or pack. Sometimes I just go with the back nylon thread in the first photo. It comes out of various AMK kits and is 50lb test. Otherwise I like the small 100 yard spools of 8 or 10 lb test.
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Mostly small hooks and splitshot, sometimes a few terrestrial fly patters or nymphs. Often no bobber otherwise either a small float or some re-purposed strike indicators. Floats can also be improvised with pieces of wood or something else that floats.
 
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I have improvised floats in the past with wood and found that real floats are well worth the 1/4 ounce. They are a great casting aid, highly visible, and most importantly they don't decrease line strength too much. Tying your line around a stick can easily cut it's poundage rating in half.
 
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