Walmart a great place to find things for random uses. On this particular trip I found myself in the hardware department. Browsing the nails and hooks. I came upon small eye hooks and a light bulb came on. Would it be useful to include two or three in survival fishing kit. They could be used to make shift a fishing rod using a stick or branch of some sort. The eye hooks would act as line guides on the stick. In my mind this would work best if your fishing line was on a spool like a bobbin. Just a thought

You don't need to have a reel on your improvised fishing pole, just tie the line on the end. If you catch something, pull it in with your hands, or if you're on shore, just back up.

If you have just one reel of fishing line in your kit, and you attach the whole thing to your fishing pole, you could lose the whole thing if you dropped it (or a big fish pulled it out of your hands!)

As is often said, Plan for the Worst, Hope for the Best, and don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Kristina, I see that you are like me... hardware dept: "What ELSE could this be used for?"

Sue

Very true about the reel and the possibility of loosing line in this way. The eye hooks are my real interest. I have seen lots of makeshift survival fishing rigs. The hobo can. The pc pipe one. I think the eye hooks would help with the line. Your right no need for a reel and the cons out weight the pros to Not including the makeshift reel. But I still like a bobbin for storing the line in my PSK. The eye hooks serve as a way to make the process easier granted there are sticks too use. Feed it through and have a little extra line when tied to the end. It's not a perfect concept but even so the included eye hooks could be of use somewhere else. as well. This is just the first idea I came up with.

Before you use the eye hook for guiding the line, it would be a good idea to test whether the surface is smooth enough to guide the line instead of damaging it.
A good stick for a fishing rod would be rather elastic and thin. Attaching an eye hook may not be easy. So at least perform a test before adding it to a survival fishing kit.

Someone should always test something before it goes into a PSK. I am planning on testing but it's a new work in progress. Something that crossed my brain and just had to share. Getting feed back always help.

Good concept Christina. I like to idea thst there could be other uses too.

campsite invader alert system?

rigging lines for a shelter? (seems a little finickety)

My wife accuses me of having a slightly different variation of this when I go through the hardware dept. or worse, hardware store: "Just think of ALL THE THINGS this can be used for!"

Of course she also accuses me of having studied engineering under Rube Goldberg too. I'm sure she means that as a compliment ... right ?

- Eric

I have sort of the opposite problem, I ask myself that question when I'm about to throw something away. "Hmmmm, I might build something with this one day..."

This sounds like a good idea but in reality I suspect would be of limited use. I would just add more line (use braided line such as Powerline Pro over mono filament for double/triple the test strength), as many fishing hooks as possible, more lures, swivels and sinkers etc. Not having enough line is common mistake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz0pVyzTAoI

Without a proper reel and rod, casting becomes very difficult (trying to emulate a proper rod without a reel would just end in a tangle of line mess) so if your not using the following hobo style of fishing;

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

then a trot line would probably be the most productive way of fishing with as many small hooks as possible.

http://www.catfishbaitsoap.com/trotline_shallowtodeep.html

I think understand the individual words but am not sure I get the concept - what is "about to throw something away" ? Just think of all the things you "need" it for!!!

- Eric

They are a nice addition for a larger fishing kit. I carry them in two sizes, plus a couple of nails and two small jingle bells (with cardboard silencers) in my larger one. But I also know that if I had to strip the kit down, those three things would be the first ones out.

If you are going to carry eye hooks for a possible survival fishing rod, you would be better purchasing or salvaging some old fishing rod eyes off an old rod. Then again, when we were young, a longish, slender tree branch and some several 10's of feet of fishing line along with some old washers for sinkers, allowed us to catch fish with no problem.

Nothing to do with this thread, but it brought a tear to my eye. In his younger days my son, now a 6"3 military cop, would bring me spare electrical parts that he scavenged. They were for 'the robot' that he desperately wanted us to build. Time passed, and the robot never materialized. I threw out that box a few years ago, and with it went a lot of memories and the ambitions of a 9 year old boy.

My 8 year old is working on the same project, Bryd. I'm tempted to do a clean sweep sometimes but then think of the memories we're making, smile and leave it be.

My six year old daughter has been collecting for her project for a couple years now. She wants us to build an automatic bandaid machine! Apparently i need one. She has the design firmly in mind but I haven't been able to figure it out enough to start assembly.

To keep loosely on topic. My daughters Hiking stick now has some line, a small hook and two threaded eyelets stashed in the rubber base so we are prepared to fish while hiking. Stashing everything was her idea, I threw in the eyelet since here hiking stick has hole for it in the top already (we hung it up to dry and varnish).

-Eric

If your child is a computer geek, don't throw out that old computer. Years ago I built a computer out of junk and it worked, for a while.

Jeanette Isabelle

yes good thought done the same