Hello :-)

Yesterday I decided to try my luck fishing with the Tra-Con emergency fishing kit. Keep in mind I have very little fishing experence, some trips to the local lake with my father when i was a kid is about it.

Tried natural bait first. After about an 30 minutes of turning over rocks, logs, and rotten trees I had several earthworms. crickets and a couple of white grubs about 1 inch long. I cut a willow branch, about 7 feet long, to use as a pole. Using some of the small hooks I had no trouble catching several small fish, I think they were crappie or some other type of panfish, and a couple of catfish, one about a foot long. Worms and crickets worked great, i just put one sinker on the line, threw it out about 20 feet and mover the branch back and forth. Nothing would touch the grubs, no idea why.

The lures in the kit were a mixed bag. The small spoon caught a catfish. I caught several of the panfish, and one medium size smallmouth bass, by casting one of the flys out on the water surface and twitching it around. I think the spinners and larger spoons were made for ocean fishing, they looked way to big to use for any of the fish I was catching.

After this experence, and talking to the owner of a local fishing shop I added 4 small jigs and a small version of the red and white spoon to the kit to be used for small fish. Also added extra hooks. I wanted some extra braded dacron line, but he had to special order that. All the extra stuff fit in with no problem.

Im very sastified with the kit, and it was a relaxing way to spend the afternoon. I dont think you'll go wrong with one of these.

Dean