I hadnt thought of that in years! That is how my grandfather carried his matches and other stuff that he would stow away in his fishing vest. That is a great idea, I guess that is why it has withstood time...

Brilliant! I need to copy that idea, which of course means I need to go and buy a nice little .410 shotgun or maybe the Taurus Judge...

-Blast, who doesn't know how much longer he can afford this place

The .410 shell kit is inside my PSK which is in a Whitman's Sampler candy tin - just a bit larger than an Altoids tin.

My second fishing kit is in a stainless still pill carrier that I got at CVS. It has a triangluar attachment loop on top and seals with a rubber 'O' ring. Attached to the ring is a flint and a P38 (for opening cans and as a striker for the flint) as well as a lanyard made of 10 feet or so of paracord.

Like this one:

I have nothing against folks having "smallest fishing kit / survival kit". If you believe a bit of line and some hooks is sufficient to land some fish for you in an emergency. Cool, I am totally fine.

I firmly believe a person need to have proper tools to do a good job. This post is created to discuss how feasible/practical is the so called "10/30 feet fishing line, hooks" in a survival kit.

This extremely popular idea of packing multiple items into the smallest container and calling it a survival kit is flaw. It give a false impression that you have covered all bases when you are nice and cosy at home.


Farmer, Have you ever use it and catch any fish?

I release them the next morning. Um, er ... somewhat changed by then.

There's nothing "non-survival" about my shotgun shell kit. I have about 30 feet of 10lb test line in there. The only thing that may be difficult is that the hooks are fairly small. Good for trout, not as good for some of the bigger fish.

I can also bend some of the hooks (I think there's 6 in the shell) and attach them to a stick to make a spear for grabbing frogs, lazy fish, slow birds etc.

Admittedly I'm not going to go after pike on Lake Erie or catfish in the Missouri with the kit, but it'll catch about anything in a smaller stream.

And yes, I have caught fish with nothing more than a stick, some string and an old hook. Baited the hook with a grasshopper and used a twig for a bobber. Got several bluegill the size of my hand.

I much prefer my breakdown rod and reel, but I could get by with the little kit if I had to.

And yeah, the containers do seem to be waterproof so far. I closed one up and put it in a cup of water for a couple days and it didn't leak. As long as that 'O' ring stays good you should be okay. Don't leave it sit out in the sun, don't expose it to harsh chemicals, don't expose it to ozone (just in case the seal actually has rubber in it - ozone destroys rubber) and it should last quite awhile.

Here's Ray Mears fishing with a soda can. The first part of the video he makes a squirrel trap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvRR5MTBBQI