Posts Tagged fishing
On the topic of fishing
If you are looking for peace and quiet, few things can compare to fishing. Casting a lure or bait out into the water, and letting it sit, is about as close to nature that one can get.
Last weekend my wife and I went to Dam B to do some fishing. As I was casting off the bank, and bass followed my lure up to the bank and grabbed it just before it was supposed to go out of the water. It was so peaceful and natural, as the bass swam up to the lure and grabbed it. I wonder how many times that has been replayed over the past thousands of years.
The bass was pulled up, the hook was removed and the bass was released no worse for the wear. Maybe it will be a little wiser from its experience, but then again, maybe not.
If there is one thing that I like about fishing (besides catching something), it has to be being close to nature. When the boat is launched, and I head out on the water, there is a certain peace and clam that is over the water.
The water is pure, it knows no violence, it knows no anger, greed, envy, jealously, or hatred. The water is a friend to everyone, as it treats everyone the same.
On the topic of fishing
While playing around in youtube, I decided to put together a few playlist. One of the playlist is about fishing and here it is.
To advance to the next video in the play list, click the next button in the bottom left hand corner.
Fishing is something that I was raised around as far back as I can remember. when I was maybe 4 or 5 years old, I remember my mom and dad taking my brother and I fishing around the local ponds. When we moved to Bridge City, my dad bought a boat to take us out on Sabine Lake between Bridge City and Port Arthur.
Now that I am grown and have kids of my own, I have tried to keep that family tradition going by taking my kids fishing.
Stockpiling fishing supplies for SHTF
As I have said in several forum post about stockpiling survival gear for SHTF, I think fishing supplies should be at the top of the list. That is, unless you live in a desert or hundreds of miles from a water source. In some kind of long term SHTF survival situation, fishing could be an important food source. The better prepared you are to utilize fish as a food source, the better your chances for success.
On the way home from work today, my wife and I stopped by Ward’s Outdoor Supply in Jasper Texas. The store is snuggled in the corner of an Exxon gas station at the northeast corner of Hwy 96 and Hwy 190. To be honest, when I entered the store, I was not expected much, but I was pleasantly surprised. In fact, I was very surprised at the wide selection of fishing supplies that Ward’s had in stock.
This is what I picked up:
Bucket for trotlines and noodles
A few weeks ago I posted an article about fishing with juglines after SHTF. One of the problems is organizing the noodles and trot lines so they are easy to deploy. In an effort to keep everything together, I bought a 5 gallon bucket. The bucket provided a way to keep the noodles and trot line string together, but it lacked compartments for holding hooks, weights, swivels and leader material. This problem was fixed on Fathers Day.
On Fathers day my Grand kids picked me out a lid for my 5 gallon bucket. The lid is made by Plano, its 2 sided, has 6 compartments in the top tray, and the tray is removable for access to a storage compartment. The compartments are large enough for hooks, weights, swivels,,,, anything that you might need for setting up a jugline or trot line.
Along with the trotline and jugline material for catfishing, I am going to include some supplies for perch fishing, and maybe some stuff for catfishing.
Buying fishing gear
While my wife and I were doing our Sunday shopping at the local china-mart, I went to the sporting goods section to look at the fishing supplies. Choices, choices, so many choices. Should I get some perching supplies, or stuff for catfishing, bass fishing,,,,,. Do I want supplies for artificial or live bait.
A lot of survivalist stockpile freeze dried foods, food in mylar bags, canned goods, seeds for a garden and ammunition for hunting. One thing that I do not see talked about a lot is fishing supplies. Maybe fishing supplies is a given, that everyone should have fishing supplies stockpiled, or maybe its overlooked by a lot of people?
Fishing supplies bought today:
1. Zoom artificial lizard, 6″ long, cotton candy color – for bass fishing
2. Eagle claw hooks, box of 40, size 1/0 – for catfish, noodles and trot lines
3. Water Gremlin split shot weight – for perch fishing
4. Eagle claw Barrel swivel with interlocking snap, size 5 – for catfishing and jug lines
How to organize a tackle box
Last night I was going through my tackle box trying to get it a little better organized. The problem was that I had hooks and weights spread out over different section of the tackle box. The top of the box is mostly lures and a few weights and hooks. With the bottom of the box being an assortment of different hooks, weights and other supplies.
After looking through my tackle for a little while, I realized that I fish for about 3 different types of fish – perch, bass and catfish.
For perch I use split weight and small hooks. To organize my tackle box for perch fishing gear, I bought a small double sided container. On one side of the container goes hooks, on the other side goes split weights.
For bass fishing I use artificial bait, like worms and lizards. A bottom section of my tackle box is dedicated to artificial worms, on top of the worm is a small double sided container like what I keep the perch fishing stuff in. In this container hooks go on one side and weights go on the other side. Unlike the round split weights for perch fishing, the weights used for bass fishing are oblong split weights used for making a texas rig so the bait does not get hung up in the weeds.
For catfish I use a little bit larger hooks and some teardrop weights. A loop is tied in the fishing line, the end of the loop is inserted through the wire on the weight, then wrapper around the end of the weight. This makes the weight easy to take on and off the line.
Fishing in slews and gators
Short version: This morning my daughter and I went to a local park to go fishing. After a few minutes a 6 foot gator showed up to see what was going on.
Over the course of about 15 – 20 minutes, the gator slowly worked its way to within about 8 – 10 feet of the bank. the day was getting hot, and the gator was getting a little too close, so my daughter and I decided to pack up and go home.
Long Version: The day started off around 10:30am when my daughter decided it was time to drag herself out of bed so we could finally go fishing. I had already been up for a couple of hours, had gotten my shower, brushed my teeth, and even made a trip to the store to pick up a couple of low carb blue rock star energy drinks.
While I was waiting for my daughter to get ready, I went through my tackle box, sorted through some of my fishing gear, rounded up the fishing poles, loaded a small ice chest with drinking water into my truck,,,,, finally we were ready to go.
As we were driving out to the park, the wind was hitting the side of my truck pretty good. With the wind like it was, I figured the water around Martin Dies State Park would be stirred up pretty good. So my daughter and I changed plans, and went to Magnolia Ridge Park.
Jug lines after SHTF
Back at the end of November a buddy of mine and I went on a 3 day camping trip on the Angelina river close to Jasper, Texas. While we were camping, we took the boat and explorer some of the slews in the area. As we were heading into the slew, there were some jug lines in the water. This got me to thinking, why couldn’t someone use jug lines for harvesting fish during a long term survival situation?
What do we need to make up some drop lines / jug lines?
Spool of trot line string
Hooks
Weights
Swivels – optional
Spool of monofilament line, something like 20# test
Something that floats – 1 gallon plastic bottle, noodle from local china mart, something like that.
When I started working on this jug line project, I wanted the system to be modular. Meaning, all of the parts needed to be easily replaceable. To accomplish this, loops where used in the trot line string.
Tie a loop knot in the end of the trot line string. Make the loop maybe 1.5 – 2 inches long.
Back up maybe 18 inches from the end of the trot line string, and tie another loop knot maybe 1.5 inches long. This is where you can attach the swivel. Run the end of the end of loop through one end of the swivel, and over the opposite end. The swivel should now be attached to the drop line. For added security, pull some slack through the eye of the swivel, then run the loop through the eye and over the end again. If you have done everything right, there should be 2 loops running through the eye of the swivel.
Going out on the Angelina River
Last Saturday my wife and I went out on the Angelina River south of Lake Sam Rayburn for a day of fishing and relaxation. Long story short, it was hot, my wife got sunburned, and she caught the only fish of the day.
I don’t know what it is, but the fish just were not biting. The fish were not biting pumpkin seed worms in a Texas rig, nor were they biting a beetle spin. The only thing we even got a nibble on was a worm on a perch hook.
Awhile back I received some lures from Daves Great Outdoors, also known as The Fishin Shack. One of the lures I rigged up like a beetle spin. That was the only lure that I saw fish cashing, but nothing was hitting. The fish would follow the lure right up to the boat, then turn around. Which was more then they were doing for the pumpkin seed worm.
The boating trip really started on Friday. The boat was uncovered, the battery charged, rods pulled out of the closet, and some drop lines were made up. One thing that I wanted to try Saturday was some drop lines. So I went to wal-mart, bought a couple of noodles that most people keep in their swimming pools. The noodle measured something like 56 inches long. In the end, I had 8 noodles measuring 7 inches long.
First Aid Kit, Fishing Supplies and Propane
Over the past few weeks we have been talking about spreading your survival gear purchases out over an extended period of time. Instead of dropping several hundred dollars at once, spend $20 here, $30 there, and after a few weeks you and your family will have a nice stockpile of survival gear.
In this article, lets talk about first aid kits, fishing supplies and propane.
First Aid Kits – Almost always a good investment, especially if their on sale. A couple of weeks ago a local big-box-mart had a coleman first Aid kit on sale for something like 10% or 15% off. So I thought why not, we can use a first aid kit in our camping box anyway. So this kit was bought just to take on camping trips with the family.
First aid kits are one of those things that are often overlooked and neglected until their needed. And then its “oh crap” I forgot to put <insert needed item here> in the kit, what are we going to do now?
Propane – is one of the few survival gear supplies that last forever. As long as the bottles are not stored in a wet location where they can rust, or where the bottles can be damaged, everything should be good. I like propane because the bottles can be stored at the camp, and when I need them they are there. Its not like gasoline that goes bad over time, or needs some kind of special treatment to preserve the quality.
Propane also has a wide variety of uses – lanterns, propane stoves, single burner camp stoves and space heaters for a few examples. Propane provides the small comforts of life that everyone likes – warmth, light and hot meals.
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