An emergency fishing kit could mean the difference between spending a night lost in the woods with your stomach rumbling and spending that same time being proud of your survival abilities. While your survival kit should always have some amount of consumables, fresh fish cooked over an open fire is not only tasty but a great boost to your morale. An emergency fishing kit can be packed in a very small container, yet have everything you need to catch all but the biggest fish.
The first component is fishing line. Use ten or twelve pound test line. This is thin enough to not spook smaller fish but strong enough to handle anything you are likely to catch. What I've found works well for storing the line is to grab a plastic bobbin from a sewing kit and string the line on it. You can keep quite a bit of line on these and they are very small and easy to fit into a kit. When you go to use the line, just unwrap what you need from the spool and tie it securely to the end of a long branch.
If possible, do this in such a way that you don't need to cut your line. Spool out what you need to go from the stick to the water, tie it off, then hold the bobbin in the same hand you hold your branch. Doing it this way will preserve the total length of the line for future use.
The second component is hooks. You'll want several of them, in case your line breaks or gets snagged so bad you need to cut it. Small hooks, sizes number eight or ten, will suffice in most circumstances. The odds of you catching a monster walleye or muskie lie somewhere between slim and none. Catching smaller bluegill, crappie, or perhaps bass are much more likely. Too large of a hook and the fish won't be able to get their mouth around it.
Sinkers, or weights, are next. The purpose of a sinker is to take the bait from the water surface down to where the fish live. Many baits would otherwise just float and that won't help you catch most fish. Some split shot sinkers work well for most situations and have the benefit of being easy to add or remove as needed. This type of sinker crimps on to the line and can be uncrimped by pressing the two little fins on the sinker. You have to be careful to ensure you don't add too much weight though or it will sink your bobber, which brings us to...
The final component of the emergency fishing kit is a float, or bobber as some call them. Now, you could easily improvise a bobber by using a piece of cork or even a small twig. The idea behind a bobber is to keep your bait from just resting on the bottom of the lake. Plus, it is a visual indicator when a fish takes the bait. Even the smallest bobbers will have greater buoyancy than a small twig, allowing you to use more bait on the hook.
As for what bait to use, you can usually find worms or grubs under rocks on shore. Caterpillars and bugs of just about all kinds make for effective natural bait. You could of course add a few fake worms or other artificial bait to your emergency fishing kit as well, just in case. You can also improvise bait using aluminum foil and/or brightly colored fabric.
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