I have the typical fishing tackle in my kit: 8 small-medium hooks, 4 small swivels, 6 small sinkers, and 20' of 20 lb monofilament line. I haven't actually been fishing in over 20 years, but I think I still remember how.

I've been thinking about trying fly fishing at a local stocked trout stream for fun and to hone my survival skills. Is it possible to find/make a decent fly fishing pole in the wild? Most of the commercial poles seem to be highly specific in their design.

Is it unrealistic to attempt to fly fish without a reel?

Also, is traditional line fishing even the most efficient way to obtain fish? The largest fish I ever caught was an 18" pike, and I caught it with my bare hands when I was 13!

Ohiohiker,

Welcome aboard!

As for fly fishing without a reel, I have no idea. However, wouldn't it be simplier to just jig for fish with an old-fashioned cane-pole setup?

-Blast

HI..
you will not need a reel..in fly fishing the reel is only
used to pull in excess line..fly line comes in several types.
floating for dry flys that the trout will hit on the surface
and sinking line for nymph,that is caddis larva type "flys".
any long pole that will get a lure into a trout pool will work.
better still skip the fly fishing which is seen as an "art"
and fish for trout with very small sliver spoons..that drives
the real trout fisherman nuts when they see the weekend tourist
pulling fish from "their" pool with a spinning rod..go for
trout with a bit of worm on a small hook and watch the fly
guys go into a frenzy..AND..fly fishing is very different
around the country..my wife and i both tie flys and fish
for trout..we don't do much of that fancy whipping
the rod around like the guys on the big waters do but rather
flip a fly into small pools in tree lined streams..

An old friend of mine, who is now fishing in the land of endless rainbow trout, was once watching a fly fisherman. He gave a little snort and said, "Fly fishing -- a hobby for people who don't like to eat fish. Me, I'm a MEAT fisherman!"

In a survival situation, you could use methods that are usually illegal under other conditions, such as trot lines and nets.

Sue

Fly fishing is a lot of fun and less complicated than some experts might have you believe. False casting in most cases is just for it's own sake in fact a recent Field & Stream article found it may even spook the fish. I use a roll cast most often.

But for survival fishing nothing beats natural bait. Dig up some worms, find some grubs in a rotting log, or catch some grasshoppers. all you need is a hook, some line and a cane pole set up.
It is not too hard to improvise a cane pole in the wild using a sapling or long thin branch.

"Is it unrealistic to attempt to fly fish without a reel?"

When I was on a fire up in idaho, 2 kids on bikes came buy me with a stringer of 4 or 5 good sized trout, I asked the kids where they cought them and was told to go to the creek behind the school and use grasshoppers. Diging into my gear I got out a number 10 hook and about 20ft.of line. To make a long story short, It took me longer to catch the grasshopper ( not a young as I use to be. ) than it did the cutt-throat trout. Throw it in the water, let it drift with the stream, pull in the trout.

There's an old adage: "If you want to stop catching fish, pick up a fly rod." Now I personally love flyfishing and sportfishing with artificial lures. But if my life depended on catching something to eat, I would use live bait if I could get it. A simple survival fishing kit consisting of a packet of a few fish hooks and sinkers and a coil of fishing line takes hardly any space and is all you need for natural bait fishing. Poles and floats can be improvised.

Thanks everyone--lots of helpful feedback!

I proposed this idea sometime last year but now that spring is near and the fish will be starting to spawn; we should have a PSK fishing derby.

You can only use a hook, line and natural bait you found. You can either fish the line by hand or improvise a pole.

We each post the photos of our catch; everyone is on thier honor and only posts fish they caught by the above mentioned method. It would be fun to see how we all do.

If there are any interested parties we can start a new thread and I could prpobably dig up some modest prizes for the most and biggest fish.....

B

Doug has said this several times, and I honestly expect that a lot of other writers and trainers would private agree, but fishing in most cases is just going to be entertainment. It's a time killer unless you are short rations.

For a big enough kit, the extra bulk and weight of a couple of flies and line appropriate for them is pretty small- a small mint tin and maybe 2 or 3 ounces? If you aren't hurt, just really lost and back so far that you're better off waiting to be found rather than trying to get out, you're probably using a vehicle anyway. So long as you pack it next alongside more conventional fishing gear and a gill net, sure, why not? Cut a reed fly rod, and after you've got your wood in and shelter and signals set up, kill time until found.