# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Fishing >  What should be in a survival fishing kit

## Adam

Fishing was to be my project for next summer, but I do not have to say I'm pushing this timeline a bit ....
However, I am a complete beginner when it comes to fishing, although I am not afraid to dig and learn to fish and use equipment. I know that "sets" in general tend to be poorly thought out, poor quality and are often filled with useless stuffing look better, but do not know where to start or what I need. I suppose some might be better than others, so do not worry about buying a set if it's cool, but it's a bit overwhelming when you look at Cabelas or Amazon. None of my family or friends care about fishing, so I do not have anyone to help me get started.

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My blog 
https://lifeundersky.com/safety-prec...g-from-a-boat/

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## crashdive123

I view fishing more of a fun, relaxing activity or to put food on the table.  Never really thought about it as a project.

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## madmax

Gear up for where you are going to be practicing fishing.  Big hooks in a small pond will frustrate you.
Don't get sucked into 5 dollar lures (just yet).  I'd start where most middle aged and older people started.  A cane pole, some line, hooks, sinkers, and worms.  That'll give you some success and you can branch out from there.  
A super fantastic fishing kit is worthless if you have no experience fishing.
Get out there and have fun.

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## kyratshooter

I never viewed fishing as a "project" either.  As a kid it was what you did for fun with grandpa.  Latter it just became sport with food to take home.

Yea, you can walk through Walmart with $25 and walk out with enough fishing gear to be successful.

Hook, line, sinker and a cheap rod and reel or cane pole.  You can even buy scented dough balls that are great bait for pan-fish and catfish.  You do not have to have the rod and reel but for non-survival situations while you are learning there is no need to make things difficult.  

Ignore the plastic gummy lures and such.  Go straight for the dough balls or natural bait.  
*
You can get your fishing license there too*.  Don't forget that!  It can ruin your day.

Call the local bait stores or ask around and find out where the locals go to fish off the bank.

Fishing is much like hunting off a tree stand, you have to place yourself where the deer or fish are or it is a waste of time.  Most of the time being a bad fisherman is just going to the wrong place to drop your line in the water.

Then, after you have learned how to catch a few fish you can decide what you need in your "survival fishing kit".

And remember, little kids using improvised gear have been catching fish since the stone ages.  You can too if you are at the right place at the right time.

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## hunter63

A survival fishing kit is just a the bare bones kit to catch fish.
A lot will depend on where and how you plan on surviving fishing.....

Basics are line, hooks, floats and sinkers.
Bait can be worms, grubs, or bugs.....for live bait.

Lures.(1000's out there)...most kinda depend on casting and retrieving.....so a rod and reel may be needed....(1000's) out there.

To learn...find somewhere with other people are fishing...find out fishing for what, what are they using.....then try to do the same thing.

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## Rick

This is trolling for chicks but I think this is different than what you are talking about. Still survival. 

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## kyratshooter

Fishing from the bank where other folks are catching fish is one of the best ways to "learn" to fish.  

Watch what they are doing, what they are using for bait, how they are presenting the bait and if they are catching anything you will be also before too long.

And keep in mind that you can keep your fishing gear in the trunk of the car all the time.  Many of us keep a fishing pole in the vehicle as a normal thing.  It is not like a rifle or shotgun in The Empire State, you are not going to jail over a fishing pole, not normally anyway.  

If you find yourself with an hour of free time and you are near a lake or river you can catch the evening meal at any time, or you can legally "catch and release" if you just want some practice.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/As-Seen-o...613#about-item

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Berkley-P...QOjEhyOK6i3X1Q

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## madmax

Keep a couple of little ones sometimes and learn to cook them.  I say little ones because they are more plentiful.  AND they've had less time to ingest heavy metals.

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## kyratshooter

> This is trolling for chicks but I think this is different than what you are talking about. Still survival. 
> 
> Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.



Once long ago I got thrown out of a bar for walking through dragging an apple on a string.

Bartender asked me what I was doing.

"Trolling for pigs!"

OUT! OUT! You are banned!

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## kyratshooter

> Keep a couple of little ones sometimes and learn to cook them.  I say little ones because they are more plentiful.  AND they've had less time to ingest heavy metals.


I am fortunate that the lake at the end of the road is spring fed and serves as the regional water supply.  The WMA stocks it constantly with all sorts of good pan-fish and game fish.  It is an old lake and there is plenty of shade and cover so the fish are plentiful and there is no worry about heavy metals.  Not even any heavy livestock or crop growth around the shores for the rural types of pollution. 

There is a similar but smaller reservoir about 5 miles down the road.  That one is the source of the state record large mouth bass catch.  When I use my boat that is the lake I use.  It has better boat ramp and parking.  also has a nice public fishing dock.

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## Rick

I don't know about where you guys live but the state checks the fish in just about all of the lakes and rivers in the state and have the results on the DNR website. We are pretty fortunate that most, not all, but most of our waterways are clean.

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## crashdive123

You don't need a lot of expensive gear.

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## Alan R McDaniel Jr

That is cool.  I may make up a few of those just for the coolness factor alone.  Keep them in the orange dry box in the boat.  The orange dry box is the box that will keep me afloat until I get to shore and has everything I need in it when I get there.

Alan

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## Antonyraison

VERY NEAT IDEA Crash Drive... so easy to make. 
Love it.

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## madmax

That's about the best answer to starting to fish with a "survival" kit as I've seen.  Cheap, easy, effective.

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## hunter63

Yup....I agree.....
That all you need, as I am th poster child for having 4 tackle boxes, 3 inherited, full of stuff...that I can't seem to do very well with.
The 3 inherited boxes are full of tackle that I know worked for my MF, FIL, BIL......

I take kinda that back....I do OK on pan fish in the shadow line on the edge of a lake with a bobber and redworm (or fake red worm jig)....and a river rig in the river with night crawler for trout. 

Point is....location location, location....blue gills are not in the ocean....musky lures and gear don't work on trout....bass stuff aren't for sharks....

It's just as easy to *NOT catch fish* with $5 bucks worth of gear...hook, line an stick......as it is with $5000 bucks worth of fancy gear

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## kyratshooter

There is even room in Crash's kit for a ferro rod and a Derma-Safe knife so you would have everything needed to catch them, clean them and cook them on the spot.

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## Wise Old Owl

> Once long ago I got thrown out of a bar for walking through dragging an apple on a string.
> 
> Bartender asked me what I was doing.
> 
> "Trolling for pigs!"
> 
> OUT! OUT! You are banned!


I had twenty Neon yellow Flyswatters and passed them out among-st some 50+ something guys at my favorite restaurant in Glenn Mills.  These drunken happy hour friends proceeded to hit each other and quickly killed all the flies in the restaurant. - The manager was not pleased.  Came very close to being banned too. I was laughing too hard....

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## hunter63

Like the flyswatters....LOL

Well, we got tossed out of a bar for giving the owner a "flint and steel" fire making kit.

Bunch of us stopped at that saloon in full rondy dress ...and I was using my kit to light my smokes.....
Owner thought it was cool...so we had given him a kit to play with....

Walked in the same saloon the following year....dressed up again, (the rondy was down the road a bit)

Owners wife storms out of the back room...shaking her finger......
"OUT....You a-wholes gave the dummy that fire thing...he was showing it off and caught the drapes on fire...almost burn the whole bar down.....  OUT!!!

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## Rick

Ain't that always the case. You give a guy a hand grenade and he blows up the car. Who gets the blame? Him? No, you. That ain't right.

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## kyratshooter

Speaking of grenades and survival fishing.......

How long should you sit in the boat before you resort to such measures?

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## crashdive123

Oh.........about this long.

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## kyratshooter

Talk about a short fuse!!!

We used to remove the regular 5 second delay grenade fuse and replace it with a smoke grenade zero delay fuse to use in the wire.  It was easy to tell the difference between the fuse spoons so there was little danger of a mistake that would blow up your boat.

I am heading to the lake tomorrow with the specific intent of testing a "survival fishing" outfit.  I have never done that before.  I have made all my kits from items I used for "regular fishing" that I knew worked. 

I have never been in a survival situation so I have never tested the merits of my choices.  I simply put a few small hooks, a few split shot and 15'-20' of line in some sort of container and called it a "kit". 

This is not going to be an expedition, since the lake is 1/2 mile down the road, there is an old dock and the weather is supposed to be great.  The closest I can come to having to survive is if I accidentally drive into the lake.  That would only force me to walk home wet and call a tow truck. 

At worst I will catch nothing, which I might do with "normal gear", at best I will have supper.

In fact, I will use the same hook/line/sinker/bait combination on a normal rod and reel side by side from the same spot and see how they match up.

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## madmax

I tried that slick kit that pgvoutdoors gave away at the last jamboree after a few little replacements that work in FL better.  I could get enough protein to keep going for awhile I guess.  I know adding a minimal fishing kit to the Pot and Machete challenge really helped mentally.

I made a survival kit years ago and tried it.  I narrowed down the hook size then for fresh water.  I've not tried a kit on salt.  But I have used a Cuban hand reel a lot.  Pretty much the same idea.

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## hunter63

> I tried that slick kit that pgvoutdoors gave away at the last jamboree after a few little replacements that work in FL better.  I could get enough protein to keep going for awhile I guess.  I know adding a minimal fishing kit to the Pot and Machete challenge really helped mentally.
> 
> I made a survival kit years ago and tried it.  I narrowed down the hook size then for fresh water.  I've not tried a kit on salt.  But I have used a Cuban hand reel a lot.  Pretty much the same idea.


FYI
You have brought up an important part of "survival" that is mostly not talked about and many times overlooked for any "kit". 
Some times your Teddy Bear beats a bigger knife, hands down....LOL'

Years ago....what there was the Old timey "Book Matches"......Free at any check out counter, hotel lobbies, gas stations, saloon.......
I had made up a pocket  "kit"....kinda by accident.

Wanting to make use of those long hours in the duck boat or blind when ducks are not flying....happened to look around and found about 20 ft of mono filament with a small hook and split shot sinker....in the cattails....pulled it out.

Had a book of these free matches in my pocket....wound the line, hook and sinker around the cover......
Pices of wood can be a float...?

Like this : Pic from web

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Found this...some instructions...kind shows what I am talking about**:

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http://heywoodhobbies.blogspot.com/2...r-fishing.html

Later added a safety razor blade tucked in the back....and wrapped the whole thing in alun foil for water proofing.

I wish I could say that I caught a lot of fish with that kit....don't recall if I ever did catch any...but felt good in the pocket...when I would use a match to light a smoke.

Sounds to me like a project for a Altoids tin that seems so popular.

NOTE...any area that has people fishing will have all the material you need stuck on logs, trees, etc from past fishermen.
Not common occurrence in "The wilderness".

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## kyratshooter

I have done my share of fishing using "gear" recovered from trees, logs and stumps.  It is going to be common in any heavily fished area.

If you find it you are not lost, you are in a park, sit down and wait for a ranger to come get you.  If you want immediate rescue build a fire, someone will be there to write you a citation within miuntes.

I miss having book matches available in public places.  It used to be you got a book in every ash tray that was shoved at you in any establishment. If they were not visible just ask and they were provided.  I even remember cigarette packs with a book of matches attached to the pack. 

I keep a couple of 100 packs in my long term preps in the storage room.  Yes I have lighters and ferro rods, match safes and other goodies but books of matches can be placed in kits and luggage with cheap abandon since they run about one cent a book.  

I have always figured that in an emergency I would eventually have one of the neighbors standing at the door with that glazed look on their face asking the question, "Do you have a light? We're all out of matches."

Even today a book of matches is included in the MRE packs.  No hooks or fishing line though.  That is reserved for the survival kits.

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## madmax

I take it you don't practice the hand drill much... lol

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## kyratshooter

> I take it you don't practice the hand drill much... lol


Have a nice drill kit, don't use it except for demonstrations.  

In an emergency kit I believe you should have the very best and latest in fire starting technology.  If not matches then lighter, ferro rod, napalm or whatever.  

I even feel matches are a little outdated.  After all, they are mid-19th century technology and we quit using most of that eras' gear long ago.  A ride in a steam engine train is now considered a novelty.  Matches are from the same period.

If you check E-bay you can find ferro rods for $1 each and the good old Bic lighter is available at every Dollar Store in a 5 pack for $1.

As soon as they include a phaser function as a phone app I will have one for fire starting purposes.  I want one with three settings; stun, kill, set them on fire.

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## Rick

Personally, I think a good old fashioned stun phaser would be the bees knees. I have no idea what kind of power source they require and I'm certain I'd have to upgrade to the ultra max super colossal power pack 'cause I would be using that rascal a lot. A LOT.

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## crashdive123

Road flares.

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## kyratshooter

Just got back from the lake.  Got rained out.

Spent an hour or so watching bobbers float.

I must report a negative performance on everything, commercial rigs and the survival rig also.

Nothing even stole my bait!

I will therefore not pass judgement on any of the gear, only the person choosing to use it while the raindrops fell around him.

I did see a raft of geese.  About 50 of them.  they floated slowly across the lake until they were within good shotgun range of me whereupon I was forced to stand up and shout "BANG"!

Every one of those geese left the water within a half second of each other.  Sounded like thunder.

I probably did them a favor.  This is the resident flock and hunting season will be upon us shortly, they better get nervous.

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## hunter63

> Just got back from the lake.  Got rained out.
> 
> Spent an hour or so watching bobbers float.
> 
> I must report a negative performance on everything, commercial rigs and the survival rig also.
> Like I said....You can NOT catch fish on.. anything....LOL
> 
> Nothing even stole my bait!
> 
> ...


Early season starts here soon as well......Goose hunting in T-Shirt and shorts doesn't seem right.... somehow......

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## Mischief

What region do you intend to fish ?
Coast
Mountains
Finger Lakes
NW rivers

What species will you be fishing for ?

Depending where and what, all you need is a hook , line, & bait.

<"////><

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