For hiking I always carry a belt mounted FAK for just the reason you mentioned. I also have my Altoids mini-fak in my pocket as it is my EDC and therefore I carry it. My Belt-wear while hiking is mounted on the fanny-pack belt or the hip-belt of my pack so if I were separated from the packs for some reason, I would still have my PSK and my FAK with me as I watched the packs float down stream fall endlessly down into the canyon etc. This is the Layered approach.

My belt mounted FAK has more and larger bandages, tweezers, scissors, magnifying glass, mini-mag, tapes (adhesive, duct, electricians), compression bandage, gauze, Medications, mole-skin. and more but I would have to inentory it to be sure. Started with an adventure-medical kit, added a colemans hiker kit and some other odds-n-ends still doesn't fill the pouch that came with the adventure-medical kit.

I have a standard PSK in a tabaco tin, and urban PSK in an altoids tin, an FAK in a Couglans FAK 2 container (curved and yellow plastic), a fire kit in a round tin with a pierced lid so that it can be used to make char cloth, a food precurment kit which contains:
25ft of paracord
1 roll of dental floss
7 ft of stainless steel wire
1 awl
2 large Xacto blades and 3 scalpel blades for arrows/spears, food prep
5 strike anywhere matches
1 trick relighting birthday candle
4 fish hooks
4 split shot
1 scroll saw blade
All this is held in a cylindrical tin approx. 3" high with 2" diameter.
I also have a shelter kit that contains a space blanket and a large candle in a tabacco tin in a ziplock bag. Oh, and a micro kit which i have never carried, I just made it for fun.

I had a copule of those plastic breath strip packs around and wanted to experiment with them. Better to have spilled a little salt than the contents of a mini-fishing kit. <img src="images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

Everyone is talking about the mini altoids, or whatever, I have used auto fuse boxes for sewing/fishing kits because the lids slide off easily.

I have used what you're describing many, many times. Here in south Louisiana catfish are abundant. I have used auto-reels to catch blue-cats and mud-cats all through the year. They're convient because they can be hung from a dock (that's how I use them mostly), or you can set trot-lines accross canals etc., or simply hung from branches that overhang the water. Earthworms are by far the best bait, but any grub under a rotten log will work.

The size of the auto-reels is about the diameter of a coke can. And about 3/4 of an inch thick. They work on an internal spring that's very stout. I have caught up to six and seven pound catfish on these. They won't pull the bigger fish completely out of that water, but they will pull their heads to above water level.

Down here they're more commonly referred to as "yo-yo's" for the up and down movement of the line.

I commonly set 10-12 of them off my dock and am practically guaranteed fresh dinner. After you've cought your needed fish, simply trip the latch and wind them up an let them hang. I've had some hanging all summer long, and they still work great. My advice on buying them would be to stay away from "trinkets" their spring often break or the latch won't work. Happy fishing.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

--Luke

Which kind would not be a toy or trinket?

I like that idea and will be looking into one this afternoon - perhaps much more convenient and it wouldn't be a bad idea for me to have a few more spare fuses for the dash.