Thanks for the post and details Don.
Here's where I look like a dum-dum. . .Can you really DO anything with those little fishing kits?
Absolutely! You have to put aside all you have viewed on the Bassmasters shows on TNN, etc. You have to lower your expectations, you're looking for food. You're probably not going to throw away anything, size and legality doesn't matter. That's just for starters.
Monofilament line is only good in two instances, when you have a way to actually manage it, i.e., a reel or something similar to a reel, and for leaders. Dealing with monofilament line as your primary source of fishing line is a total pain in the ass. Use braided nylon line and use monofilament for leaders.
Small flies, constructed out of real or synthetic feathers and other materials are fine. They weigh nothing and take up no space. Better than that are "Life-Like Lures." Do not waste your time on frogs, mice and crawdads, you really need a rod for them, they're not small, either. Instead, purchase the small ants, crickets, grasshoppers and flies that actually look like houseflies, etc. You can get a few lines out with these on top of the water and you will catch fish if the fish are feeding on bugs on top of the water. Look for them feeding on top and cast there.
For bait rigs, use small Eagle Claw Brand hooks. Small hooks catch small, medium and large fish. It is hard to catch a small fish on a large hook, but you can catch an extremely large fish on a small hook at times. Use small lead splitshot sinkers.
These kits are also good for catching birds and perhaps other mammals as well as tying a line off on a pole and going for frogs by dangling the "flies" over the frog, they tongue'em and you have a frog with a hook in its mouth, frog legs over a fire.
I have done all of this with the exception of getting regular mammals, I was too busy wacking them out with a slingshot in years past. All of the fishing stuff works. Lowered expectations, non-television expectations coupled with the reality that you will eat very small fish if you are hungry and be very glad to have them along with a careful selection of smaller gear as outlined will lead to a lot of success. If you go out with the accessories that are more geared towards rod and reel fishing, you are usually going to get mixed results at best and poor to failure at the worst.
