Fishing -- With and Without Traditional Gear

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

Chances are if TSHTF, we might not have a chance to go fishing, but a lucky few may undoubtedly find themselves wishing they knew more about it --

"the ocean is a desert with its life underground and a perfect disguise above"
~America, A Horse With No Name

When I get back from fishing this morning, I will have some thoughts regarding what to put in this thread/post.

To be honest, modern fishing tackle (if it's cheap) is little more reliable than old-fashioned methods! Not too impressed with my abilities or my ensemble.

Being confined to the shore rather than having a boat or raft also sucks a lot.
Something to keep in mind. IMO.

edit: typo lol

edit2: there were NO fishing or fly tying books at Goodwill today at ALL.

@@ dangit. maybe i should check St Vincent.
this town seems really dead on the weekend except on main st.

[Blacklight43]

One of my occupations in this life was a commercial fisher. It's hard,stinky physical labor. Easier from a boat, except when you suffer motion sickness!
I did it with my partner for a few years but still didn't make enough to live on.
Fishing does teach you the art of patience. And that is a good thing!

[13th Warrior]

I am an avid sport fisherman; in a shtf senario, I would strongly consider a dive mask and Hawaiian sling...if your water is clear enough.

[sirdipswitch]

Want to know my secret for catchin bass? I throw my cheap lure at the same spot, untill I catch my bass. I will do so for up to 30 minutes before I would even think about moving. About 10 feet from some lilly pads seems to work best.

Bass, are very "irritable" fish, and ANY disturbance will "pissem" off. When in that "attitude" they will strike anything. Hence, my cheap lure. You've seen it. 21/2 to 3 inches long, black on top, silver on bottom, red mouth, and 2 treble hooks on it. One of the cheapest on the rack. I have always used 8 pound test line, cuz it's light enough the fish you're tryin to catch won't notice it, and it's strong enough to bring in a decent sized fish. 5 pounds or more, if yer carefull. cc.

Noise!!! Is your best method of catchin "big" bass. Not quiet. yep.

A friend asked me to go fishin with him and two more friends. I went. On the lake in his "aluminum" boat, everyone was tryin to be super quiet, and I was "up in the bow" makin a real racket. cc. The other two friends became just about as "irratable" as the bass I was tryin to "P" off. cc. Finally they had had enough and just wanted to go home. cc. about that time a bass jumped. I grabbed my pole and started to beat on the bottom of boat as vigorously as I could. cccthey went balistic. Bass started jumpin everywhere, and I threw my cheap lure, (shoulda heard them laugh at my lure. cc) right into the middle of where they were jumpin, and pulled in a 4 pound bass. They had quietly been fishin for 20 minute and hadn't caught a thing yet. We all went home with a nice string of good sized bass. 3-7 pounds. The friend who had become the most "upset" with me, caught the 7 pounder, which was the biggest bass he had ever caught. They quit laughin.ccc.

Enjoy!!!! cc.

[sirdipswitch]

Oh yah, that first part, when ya don't move, is from the bank, when ya don't have a boat to make a bunch of noise with. cc.

[13th Warrior]

Dipswitch,

What ever works for you...don't be surprised if I don't ask you to go fishing.

[Dennis Leahy]

(Hopefully, this adds to the topic)

Many years ago, I was in Northern California (Trinity Alps Wilderness area) camping with my girlfriend and her son. Having been around streams since I could crawl, I had noticed some things, and thought I had a good opportunity to pass-on some "backwoods know-how" to my girlfriend's son. I told him we were going to go fishing. He was puzzled, because we had no fishing gear at all. I said, "C'mon, let's go find some."

If you ever get to a stream where fisherman have fished, you can probably find fishing line and a hook. Look in tree and bush branches overhanging streams, or uprooted tree roots in the stream, or any clump of sticks caught in the stream, forming a partial dam. When you find the snarls of snagged fishing lines (each almost undoubtedly with a hook at the end), your extreme patience in untangling the Gordian Knots/snags will reward you with the treasure that the impatient fisherman left behind when he or she cut their line: line, hooks, maybe flies or lures, and sinkers.

Half an hour later, you'll have untangled plenty of line, (having tested segments of the line to make sure it'll hold the whopper you're about to catch), retied the hook, and maybe attached a sinker. (You don't have pliers, but you can attach a lead sinker onto line by laying the line with sinker surrounding it on a rock, then with a tap or two of a stone, close the sinker. Be sure not to smash or pound - you don't want to damage or cut the line.) For most fish in streams you probably do not need a sinker, but if they won't bite at the surface and you have no sinker, you can improvise a sinker with a small carefully selected pebble - something with a "waist" - tied to the line. You can also improvise a bobber with a piece of dead, dry wood, if the situation calls for a bobber.

A branch from a tree replaces the $200 carbon fiber or $1000+ hexagonal bamboo rod.

Cricket, grasshopper, or other wee critter - it doesn't have to be a worm. But you can often find a worm or two beneath rocks in a shady spot a bit away from the stream. As a kid, I even fished using the seed head of some sort of grass as a faux-insect bait - and caught fish.

Find deep, shady "holes" in the stream, and sneak your bait into the hole from a few feet upstream. Fish for dinner.

(I'm vegan now, and hope I'll never be in a position where I have to decide between cattails and trout - but at least I know how, just in case.)

Dennis

[Ecnal61]

Hello tesla,your fishing post has left me baffled,as far as im aware fishing is when you go into a large supermarket and the equipment needed is a shopping trolley, or i believe you call them carts! and you approach the wet fish counter and point to the fish you want and then off home with the catch of the day and a nice fishy meal is consumed,no sitting on river banks getting eaten by insects and no sea fishing and the joy of bringing up your previous meal due to not having so called sea legs,now my "fishing" sounds a lot easier and convenient dont you agree...or am i missing something here?

[meat suit]

me does it via norwegan hand line from the kajak.... no rod ... just 4 hooks and after the seasonal macarel...

the cutting edge and very much like 'alien anduction' is electro fishing.... havent tried it personally...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VT3ZAQB59g

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

LOL! :)

The people who talked about "pissing them off" and "noise attracting fish" are right, to a degree.
I remember one guy on TV talking about his approach to getting a bass to hit -- he would wait for it to pass by, then drop his lure loudly into the water behind and to the side of the fish, hoping it would "whirl" around and confront the "intruder".

During spawning season it can be terribly difficult to get bass to hit normal bait.
I know snagging is illegal, but if you have a small fish on the line already, territorial bass might decide to attack the small fish or steal the food from it.
I've caught one by accident this way.

Yesterday at the lake, a very decent sized fish finally did hit after 4 hours of total nothing.
When it got close to the surface, I saw a beautiful rainbow sheen on the side of the fish and wondered if it was some sort of huge fat trout.
If that was the case, I feel really dumb for letting it get off the hook. This happened 4 feet from the bank.
And it had pulled the bobber completely under about 4 times or more... I was so excited and pissed that it got away,
it would have been time to go home and cook it...


Today was horrible fishing, I caught absolutely nothing but what appeared to be a juvenile crappie, and I had pity on him and let him off my stringer before leaving,
because he still had some pep left. :(

Some fatties, old people, and kids were catching fish like mad right next to the boat launch. It's nothing but bare hill and rocks right there.
I thought it was weird that it's not just catfish, but whatever -- I might have to be social and just laugh if people make fun of me.
Ya gotta sit where they hit! :( lol

If anyone here knows anything about tying flies, remember I do have an Ebay store.
If there is a way to manufacture lures at home, I'd love to learn.
Spoons and flies seem to be good categories :)




p.s. do you guys know how to make a wooden hook or a bone hook in a situation where there are no lines or hooks around?
Do you know how to make a barbed stick or a gaffe? :)

Also I am a bit interesting in whether people ever set traps in the creek for large fish -- things they can swim into but not out?
I am kinda desperate for ideas because <---- limited budget and limited opportunity

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me does it via norwegan hand line from the kajak.... no rod ... just 4 hooks and after the seasonal macarel...

the cutting edge and very much like 'alien anduction' is electro fishing.... havent tried it personally...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VT3ZAQB59g

you mean dropping lines from behind your boat?
I wish I could do that here!!! Would love the exercise -- I tnhik we are allowed only one pole/Line in WA.
very unfair to the "shore people". :( haha

[meat suit]

yeah, from the kajak (boat) and here (UK) you are allowed 5 lobster pots... will try that for the first time this year... drop them down from the kajak , go after macarel for an hour, then collect the pots on the way back.. with lobsters, conga eels etc... this is sea fishing of course

[13th Warrior]

I tie flies for the satisfaction of it. It would be tough to make any money at it.

Bass are one of the more moody game fish. If aggressive they hit hard and often will travel farther to hit a noisy bait; most times they are neutral or inactive; then you need a soft presentation right in front of their nose.

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

I am super envious of you guys who do the sea fishing -- in Seattle you can trap crayfish in the lakes, and I was going to start doing it right when we lost the Seattle house.

My cousin likely lied to me about them but said an acquaintance was up to $90,000 a year hauling crawdads out of lakes... @@

holy crap right?

personally i love crab, but it comes at a rather steep price .

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

the fisherman's friend lol

37SS_X-TiOo

[13th Warrior]

Around here we call TP the fisherman's friend.

[wobbegong]

I am an avid sport fisherman; in a shtf senario, I would strongly consider a dive mask and Hawaiian sling...if your water is clear enough.

I am an avid freediving/spearfisherman and agree with the advice you give; I would add that a speargun is another option, better for long shots, more awkward in caves though. With spearfishing, viz is often the issue, you don't want to shoot a fish unless u know it's good to eat, also, around here bullsharks hide in the merky water...so, yeah, there are a few ups and downs, but I've been feeding delicious fish to my family for years, thanks to this passion. Another fun thing is that sometimes dolphins come around, and even though they are excellent fishers, they still like to be fed by a human...it must be that they like the 'communion' with us. It doesn't happen often to me, but when it does it's magic.

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

I was hoping that if I caught a fish in private I could try feeding the Osprey, lol :)

that must be so cool with the dolphins... animals LOVE attention from people.

(although dolphins are considered persons) !

[Octavusprime]

Most state laws forbid using large nets to catch fish in lakes, rivers and streams because it is so easy but if SHTF this would be the best method. For survival it's all about time invested vs reward. Fishing with a pole is just not that time efficient. My friend is from El Salvador and they have many ways of catching fish but no one uses a pole. Nets, poisons and even grenades are the "weapons" of choice.

I would invest in a simple cast net or a larger gill style net just in case. Don't get me wrong, learning to fish by pole is valuable and rewarding. I love pole fishing but in a survival situation it takes too much time.

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

I agree re: the time.

I used to do some minnow netting (for bait only) in the creek in KY as a kid.
Others used small traps for minnows (cylinders) and crawdads.



Last night, I went fishing for a few minutes (had no bait except what was on the bank and my poles are so messed up right now).
I expected absolutely nothing, but here is some good news: at the end of the lake where the spillway is, I think the rotting leaves where the spillway was abruptly shut off after filling the lake for the Spring are causing the fish some discomfort -- but it's been a few days since they filled the lake up, and the "smell" (chemical rankness) in that end of the lake is less than initially.

I did see some gas coming up, swamp bubbles etc from the rot.

But the good news: one time I was reeling in my bait, in disgust.
One foot from shore a small (largemouth bass?) fish popped out of the water chasing my bait.

Although i caught nothing, the presence of the bass at the icky end of the lake is a good thing for me.
I might try bringing some hardcore bait like chicken liver, something stinkier perhaps, and seeing what else comes up that way.

hoping some catfish are lying in the creekbed. i am probably just dreaming and should go to Madame Dorian park or w/e.
it's almost not worth the gas to fight for a fishing spot there...




p.s. when the bass popped out it scared the CRAP out of me, because it was so close to where I was standing.
p.p.s. in WA i think it's not legal to use two poles, either, which SUCKS bad.

can't have two lines in the water (unless it's just extra leads)

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Any of you tie flies and if so, know any easy designs or low-material designs?
i'd love to add that skill to the book, less technical than soldering and no arsenic i hope lol


fly tying might prove to be in my "interests" if you catch my meaning :faint2: naughty tesla