Fishing Made Easy

Most of the TV survival series that portray attempts at fishing have been complete failures. Don't let that fool you.

Fishing can be a quick, easy method to feed your group, or supplement your food supply. Even the weak or injured can pull in some meat in short order. You don't really need special equipment or supplies.

Here are some very basic freshwater fishing tips.

Almost all ponds, creeks, streams, and lakes have 3 main fish types you should focus on if you're not an experienced fisherman. Each has their own habits and habitat. Once you know them, you will be able to catch them.


1. Bluegill
A small, quick freshwater fish. Commonly grows to about 7" in length. This little fish is easy to catch, easy to fillet, and has a very mild fish flavor (watch out for those tiny bones).

This fish likes to hang out in small schools near the shore, or near an underwater land formation. It is most commonly caught using a bobber and worm in a couple feet of water.

If you don't have access to a fishing pole, just grab a 6-7' stick. Tie on a 10' string, and a hook. You can use a dry twig as a bobber. Just enough to stay above water. You don't want a big stick for a bobber. Put the bobber between 8" and 15" above the hook (experiment with the depth for your location). No sinker is required. Carefully move some rocks and old logs around to find worms or grubs. You only need a small 1/4" piece of worm. Thread the worm on the hook. Don't wrap the worm and hook it multiple times or the fish will pull it off.

Early morning look for sunny areas.
Heat of the day look for shady areas, overhanging branches, under bridges, under docks.
Cool evening look for clear water areas.

Toss your line out a several feet into the water and very slowly (so you don't cause a ripple in the water) bring the bobber back to you. Stop every foot or two for a minute. Most of the time if you're in the right location you will get a bite within a foot or two of the shore, (unless its only a couple inches of water). Remember, this is a small fish, don't jerk the line too hard or you'll pull the hook out of its mouth. Their fins are sharp, so slide your hand down from the mouth area, to the center of its body to de-hook.

Once you've found a location you get bites at, you can usually pull multiple bluegill in from that area. You can return again and again to the same location. A batch of 6-10 can usually be caught in an hour or so, and will help feed 2 people without much effort.


2. Catfish
These are the bottom feeders and loners. They can get as big as a man in rare cases. Most commonly the average person will catch them at a foot or so in length. This larger fish is easy to catch but takes more patience and stronger equipment than catching bluegill. They can be caught both day and night. They seem to find their food by "smell".

This fish is usually caught farther away from the edge of and in deeper water. They also like deep water drop offs and near edges of rock walls. Catfish can be caught with worms, but mostly likes to eat dead things. A good technique is to cut the head off of a bluegill, put it on a hook, and toss it out near the center of a pond or deep creek. In moving water a sinker is placed 10-12" above the hook to help keep the line from moving.

If you don't have a fishing pole use a heavy stick about 10' long. Tie on 15-20' of string, find a grooved stone about 1/2 Oz. for a sinker, more in fast water, and tie on the hook. Bait with anything dead, bloody, or rotten. Use a golf ball sized piece of bait. The smellier the bait the better.

After casting, put the pole down against some brush with the tip off the ground pointing in the direction of the bait. Sit/squat within reach of the pole but off to one side so you can see the tip of the pole and the line, and wait for the line to jerk. Be patient. Pull hard to set the hook, and if you don't have a reel, walk quickly backward to pull in the fish. These fish have "spurs / horns" and will poke you with them, but the quantity of fresh meat is worth the minor risk. The meat has a fishier taste, but its still quite good to eat.

3. Bass]
These medium sized fish are harder to catch. They are more picky about what they eat, where the live, and who they hang out with.

They like to live alone in the grassy, weedy areas of water, and hide in shade or deeper water. Many times you have to put the bait right in front of them before they will bite.

Bass are most commonly caught with live bait that makes the water move, but they can be caught with a bluegill rig and worm if you keep the worm moving by pulling the bait in at medium speed while jerking a bit for realistic movement. It’s not the easy way though. Today fishermen use fake bait, but in the wild there are several things you can use that they will go crazy for. Use small frogs, toads, lizards, locust, cicadas, flying grasshoppers, crickets, minnows, etc. Generally, once you catch one, you won't catch another in that area, so just keep moving along the shore from place to place, and constantly keep the bait moving. Most of the bass I've caught have been within about 4 feet of shore.

You will know when you have a bass hit the bait because they lunge at the bait, and churn the water. They will pull hard, and you will think you have a serious fight on your hands. Great fun and they have a very mild fish taste.

Bass can be caught all day, but they seem to feed best early morning, lunch in the shade, and early evening before dusk. They seem to take breaks in between. They don't seem to like real cloudy windy days. You will have lots of dry spells between catches but don't give up. You're not expending much energy and you will get a good deal of meat in return.


That’s the basic basics of freshwater fishing without any fancy gear.
Know your fish habits and you will catch fresh meat quick and easy.




[edit on 9/6/09 by makeitso]

Good thread makeitso. I have 40 years of fishing experience and I
can vouch for the truth of what you are saying.

In some SitX's being near water may bring you into contact
with other people who may want to take what little you have. I would
be careful about approaching any body of water to check for others
first.

There may not be any large fish in small streams but odds are good
you can always find some minnows or darters. They may only be 2
or 3 inches long but food is food and a dozen or two can make a meal.
They don't taste particularly great but aren't too difficult to catch:

Make a "V" shaped dam with the bottom point of the V aiming
downstream. Leave a small opening in the rocks and place some
netting or a bucket with lots of tiny holes in it (holes smaller than
the fish). Alternately, you can make a trap by simply pushing sticks
into the mud at your opening. Go far upstream from where your dam
is and slowy walk towards in it in the water. Zig-zag back and forth
to keep fish from getting past you. This way you can drive them into
your ready made trap.

Fish should always be cooked and tiny ones like these are quite bony.
If you're squeamish you can simply boil them and swallow them whole.
You can also bake them, lay them out on a flat rock and mash them.
bones and all into a paste. This you can dry and will keep for several
days if you catch more than you can eat.

If you'r even more desperate you can always eat crayfish or any insect
larvae that cling to the undersides of the rocks.

Unlesss you are in the N.W. , then its Trout everywhere...
Those are not bad either, the main thing to pay atention to is if its a 'stocked' lake or pond, or a natural river where fish grow in the wild.

If it is stocked fish.. oddly enough use corn... power bait or just plain corn. Thats what they are fed on at the hacheries.
When we go camping and want fresh fish.. we use a #6 trebel hook, then about a foot and a half up, tie a nother section of line about 2 1/2 feet long with a sinker on it, power bait, ball it up, stuff the hook in it, cast it out, put the rod in a holder, tighten the line, and put a bell on it.. you can go about your biz when the bell rings, grab it fast and you have fish...
they go nuts over corn, other stuff, not so much.. natural trout are a diffrent story. Normal fishing tricks used there.

[edit on 6-9-2009 by severdsoul]

In a serious survival situation you can fish with a gun. Throw the pieces of worm into the water, when the fish come to eat the worm, shoot into the water near the fish. The concussion from the bullet's impact with the water will stun the fish, allowing you to reach in and grab the fish.

if you can get a wad of roots , long reeds or lose bundle of dribis.. chase the fish into it.. when the frog , fish or other critter is in the bundle step on it .wrap your fingers around it.
and throw it on to the shore .... bundle , fish and all .

once in the dry land... fish , frog or other critter will have a bit more problems getting away .

bite along the belly , and pull the guts out... don't eat that stuff.

just a thought.

Good thread and good points made by you and AskTheAnimals.

Fishing in the sea involves different strategies, but still very doable with portable equipment. I keep a couple of Cuban Yoyos with 20 lb. test on it, finished with a couple of split-shot and a barbed hook.

Fishing from shore is a matter of (a) identifying a useful bait and (b) identifying if you caught fish is edible. Most fish are edible, and even moreso in a Sit X. Example: Some of the boxfish are said to be tasty, however most if not all of them are a lot of work for the energy expended. If I happened to catch one now, I would gently release it. Sit X? Inna pot.

I love barracuda, but because of the dangers of ciguaterra poisoning, I don't eat it. Same goes for Amberjack and some of the other larger reef fish.

Hawaiian slings are illegal here, however surgical tubing is not. Thus, I keep several feet of surgical tubing in an air-evacuated container, and I keep the container in a dark (non-UV-exposed) closet, just in case. One can always fashion a spear, and the H. sling style gives a person a real advantage.

Naturally-ocurring things to use for bait on the ocean? whelks, (also a good source of protein in themselves, and make a decent stew much like clam chowder), muscles, land crabs, earthworms, and whatever bugs are in the area are generally something that is familiar as food to the local fish.

Fishing strategies on the ocean:

Surf fishing, where you're going after those fish that feed in the surf itself, such as sand dabs.

Shore fishing, Cuban yoyo -- bait fishing -- where the bait and line are twirled in a circle and released to cast......... then waiting and waiting (bottom fish).

Mid - water float......... using the same situation as shore fishing, but with a bobber 1-2 meters above the hook, and allowing the line to trail out into deeper waters downcurrent.

Of course, the sea also offers lobster, shrimp, conch (my personal favorite) and all manner of other critters. I think of sea fishing as I would hunting edible fungi -- if I don't KNOW FOR ABSOLUTE CERTAIN a creature is safe to eat, I avoid it. That would be doubly true in a Sit-X.

Excellent thread!

In my wild days I camped primitive at various times for various reasons.

The best luck with fishing was by using "limb lines".

Take some fishing line and a handful of hooks and move along a creek or the edge of a lake. When you find a branch that sticks out over the water, grab the end of the branch and tie a length of string on it with a hook on the end. The bait is whatever bugs you can catch. Big crickets seem to do the best, they stay kicking a lot longer than other bugs.

Set your lines early, then when you get back to camp at night, go around and check your lines. Remove the fish and re-bait as many hooks as possible.

When you clean the fish from your first run, use the leftover bits of fish as bait.

When a hole is fished out and the line doesn't give you any fish for 2 or 3 days in a row, take that line up and move it to another spot.

Yeah you'll get a lot of little 2 and 3 inch fish on the hooks but when you are roughing it you take what you can get.

My favorite way to cook them was to boil them with half a can of vegetables in a small enameled skillet over the fire of my citronella candle.

It is easy and doesn't take much time after the first run.

Catfish don't prefer dead things; They are just easier to find and catch for them. I've caught many on rattletraps and other hard baits but the best luck I have catching the big ones is tossing a live bluegill hooked right behind the dorsal fin. Doing this around 1AM has netted me many 20lb catfish and some nice bass when I do it during the day.

If you are looking for a freezer full of catfish find a dam you can fish under and have the locals show you how to fish the current. Around here people catch their limit (30 or more) in a couple of hours when the turbines are running. Although it's best between May-July it is good fishing year round once you get over that learning curve. Great striper fishing too.

In a survival SitX i am going to use DuPont spinners.

Other wise known as high explosives if i can get it,
The next best is bow fishing fallowed by spear fishing.
if i can do none of these and have to use hook and line it will be by setting a trotline
www.catfishbaitsoap.com...
www.associatedcontent.com...

In a SitX i have better things to do then set with a fishing pole.

Thanks for this thread and the subsequent info, i love fish as a food, so if it were possible i would be quite happy using this as a large part of my diet.

The trouble round my area is finding somewhere with decent size fish.

I know theres nothing particularly relaxing about a survival situation, but i think fishing would be one of the more therapeutic activities you could find yourself engaged in. Must be something to do with the water.

Not a bad thing.

CX.

three words:

packable fly rod

breaks down into multiple pieces that are less than arm's length, and fit in a small case that you can attach to the side of a pack, i see a lot of people hike with them in idaho when in remote mountain areas, hike to high mountain lakes and streams and catch trout...


the bluegill, perch....they'll go after flies also...and they're very simple to make...some are as simple as a piece of yarn tied to a hook, just some color and float, maybe wrap a hackle or two around it to give it a "buggy" look....

and the hooks are small, can be used for emergency sutures, just hook them through both sides of the wound, and leave 'em as you would for like a butterfly bandage or a staple...

the fly line and backing is rather strong, can be used for lightweight cordage, and the type i use floats....

that's something i always have with me in my car, a lightweight packable fly rod, and tackle

Great thread, I live to fish.

I would just add that in any survival situation, don't forget the lowly carp.

They're easy to catch/ snag, tend to be large, and are in just about every type of water.

Large schools tend to hang out in shallow, warm parts of the body of water sunning themselves, making them easy to locate. After locating, they can be taken with treble hooks and line, or even speared, clubbed, or just plain grabbed.

Two or three people would have a good chance of corralling and beaching them, even.

Legally, they are considered rough fish, so in most locations, they can be taken by any means available, if you were to be concerned about this type of thing in a Sitx.

A little extra info on catching catfish if you dont have a pole, strong stick or the time.

Tie a line around a detergent jug and leave it in the water, of course you would need some type of boat.

It is much safer then tying your equipment to a hanging limb that could break.

I think net fishing would work pretty well in a pinch. I bought some laundry nets at the dollar store. 4 or 5 of them sewn together would work pretty well. take a few sticks to hold it in place and 2 to keep the opening open. You can also get two people , one on each side of a creek to to hold the net across the creek and walk up stream.

I recall my father and several other men taking chicken wire and and making a "trap" by atatching the wire to several poles. They would then wade into the water and slowly work into a circle. Some of them would then get into the trap and scoop the the fish onto the bank, where someone would be waiting to place the fish into a cooler or put them on a stringer. I only saw them do this once or twice, and I was extremely young, so I could be wrong about some of the details.

reply to post by jd140

Might drive a stake in the ground (DEEP in the ground) then tie the jug to to the stake.

I know nothing about fishing, but wouldn't net fishing be easier? Set a fine net at a narrow part, check every ten minutes, get fish easily?

One thing to add.

Bluegill:

Bluegill are by far the easiest fish on earth to catch with a fly rod especially during spawning season. You see, bluegill make beds in massive colonies. Basically you throw any floating fly in the midst of that you will find you will catch bluegill every single cast! In fact if this is survival purposes if you see an instance with bluegill beds your fishing for food will be over in 10 mins tops.

Blue Gill are a fly fisherman's best friend.

[edit on 27-9-2009 by DaMod]

reply to post by DaMod


Agreed. Bluegill and similar fish are extremely easy to catch. At certain times of the year, they'll hit just about anything the instant it lands in the water. I usually used a plastic topwater cricket or crawdad lure, but I've seen times when they'd go after a bare hook. Even on the worst days, I can't remember ever catching fewer than three or four an hour.

I'd guess that using limb lines would be the most efficient means of catching them in a survival situation. I've never tried to catch them that way, though. The hooks we used were too large and were intended for catfish.

Take a Old Telephone Magneto and hang two wires from it over the sides of your boat and crank away. the fish will floot up stunned and you can pick the ones you want. (don't crank while your hand is in the water)
I have used these magnetos many times to clear trash fish from ranch ponds
www.shlrc.mq.edu.au...
www.ehow.com...

Old crank army field phones will work to.
www.wlhoward.com...

They also work for charming worms out of the ground.
Just push two copper rods into the ground about 4 foot apart and crank away and within a few minutes the worms will start to escape trying to get away from the juice.

PS don't let the possum sheriff catch you with one on a boat.
most of them know how the trick works

[edit on 28-9-2009 by ANNED]