I am not a fisherman, I don’t like fishing, I have no interest in fishing and I don’t like or eat fish but this thread has been interesting although most of the jargon has gone straight over my head. Understanding fishing is beyond me and I have even tried reading a child’s fishing book. I don’t carry a fishing kit on my normal trips; I have strategies in place to have people looking for me and hopefully rescue way before I need to think of food.

But, I recognise fish as a survival resource and would eat my fill if in a long term survival situation. Because of this fact I do have a comprehensive fishing kit which I take on longer trips to more remote areas or travelling to overseas wilderness areas, as a survival tool or to supplement rations. My fishing kit is multi purpose as it is designed to take birds, mammals and fish from most environments.

This thread has been very interesting; everyone has posted from a fisherman’s point of view and not from a survival standpoint. You have all spoke about the merits of different kit but no one has mentioned the different methods that can be used and tailoring the kit to meet those methods.

I get the impression from reading through the posts some people think survival fishing is a basic form of rod fishing often with out a rod or with an improvised rod. Some of you have suggested swivels are useful if you leave the line in for a long time and for quick change of tackle but again you have not given much information away.

Survival fishing as with trapping is a passive activity, you set the equipment and let it work for you with little or no input from you, allowing you to get on with other tasks or to rest and to save energy. Survival fishing again like trapping is about optimising your chances by quantity of kit placed and quality of its placement.

So how to achieve this. Now I must apologise as this is where I am going to show my ignorance with the names of things.

The components of a survival fishing kit

Line, you want threaded line, I think it’s called braided line? Not that plastic cheese wire stuff, You want a strong breaking strain.

Hooks, you want hooks that come attached to line already, I think they are called traces? I have these in assorted sizes from sizes 6 to 16, 6 being bigger than 16!

I also have an assortment of loose hooks from size 8 to 24, I only added these because I had them and they take up no room.

Triple hooks, I have a number of these triple hooks that are attached two up on a wire like line

Fly type feather hooks, I don’t think these are proper flies; these can be used to float on the surface or underwater as a lures. These too are already attached to line.

Swivels with clips, these are just great for attaching hooks on line to the main line and help stop twisting.

Split shot waits, I am not sure you really need them but I have some just in case.

There are numerous ways of rigging your kit to fish passively long lines are one of the most useful rigs for fishing; it can be used on rivers, ponds, lakes, coastline, sea and ice fishing, even under a life raft. To make a long line take around 30 feet of braded fishing line and from around 2 foot from one end tie in a swivel every 2 feet along the line, aim to have around 10 swivels. Now clip in a selection of hook traces. On the swivel nearest to the surface use a triple hook rig thing and try to get it to float on the surface; these are affective at taking wild fowl and seabirds.

Don’t make long lines at home but take the supplies with you and make them to match your circumstances, as long lining a river will use a different configuration than long lining a lake or coast line.

Have enough kit to make more than one long line, I have around 300ft of line, 100 assorted hook on trace and swivels.

In my kit I also carry three speed hooks, which work great and a couple of yoyo automatic reels which I have not tested and have doubts of there effectiveness but added them because its extra line in a handy reel.

I have a 3x3 meter gill net too; this is also great for tying between trees to catch small birds and 25 wire rabbit snares.

All this lot fits in a bag about the size of a 1 letter nelgine bottle and weighs 432 grams. Ok its not a small survival fishing kit but it will happily sit in your pack on longer trips without adding much weight or bulk. Its lighter and smaller than a fishing rod, reel and tackle and is more effective than a rod and rifle at providing food whilst conserving energy.