I've been working on a series of card kits. These are based on credit card blanks. The whole series are for a wallet based pocket kit. Since credit card companies send out blank cards to the point of at least one or two a week. They use to be real plastic. Now days they send cardboard facsimiles. But I have a couple of stacks saved up. Here is my writeup of fishing and sewing kits.

Wallet Fishing and Sewing Kit
Rich “Raspy” Shawver

Fishing and sewing kits are made the same way. The only real differences are the components used.

First you need to notch the upper third to half. Maybe a bit more depending upon the amount of space needed for the metallic components. These notches are to hold the thread or the fishing line wound around the card.

You can cut out the notches in several ways or shapes. They could be sliced or scraped out with a knife. Be nibbled out with nail clippers or side cutters. Or they could be sanded out with sand paper or a file. Any way that happens to be convenient. Finally they could be melted into plastic credit cards. This can be done with a hot soldering iron or with any piece of metal heater in a flame.

The notches can be simple V shaped, rounded, squared or rectangular. The size and shape would depend upon personal choice plus the type and amount of line to be wound around the card. For mine I used my soldering iron and are rounded semi-circles because it was convenient. Regardless of size or shape you want the notches to be as smooth as possible. This is so the line doesn’t snag or is nicked, which would weaken it, on any sharp edges.

The number of notches would depend on the different weights of fishing line or the number of colored thread desired. Of course each notch is pared with a mate on the opposite end of the card.

The fishing card carries 5 sets of hooks. Though if you would cant them a bit more you could probably make it 6 maybe 7. But that would be really crowding things. The Idea came from Ron Hood. In his video he strings several hooks between two strips of masking tape. The idea is to lay the hooks spaced along the bottom half or so of the card. Then you cover them with tape to hold them in place. The choice would be masking, scotch or packing tape. This hold can be improved by heating the card and then vacuform it around the hooks. Even if you do this you would still want to cover them with tape.

As to the sizes of hooks chosen is a balancing act. The old saw is that you can catch big fish with big hooks but only small hooks will do for small fish. Yet you can still catch larger fish with small hook, to a point that is. Also since you are catching for food rather than some artificial size limit or trophy fish. A handful of fingerlings will feed you as well as a single big fish. The choices I have made are a compromise giving a choice of sizes and more hooks being available.

The set or assortment selected relies on the fact that if you use all the same style or model of hooks the progressively smaller ones can be nested inside the largest one picked. Using short rather than long shanked hooks will allow more hooks. The hooks can be lined up the length of the card. But since hooks are generally taller than they are wide if you rotate them so that the shank is more vertical. More can be fitted on the card. The sizes I have picked for my card are 6, 8, 10 and 12. With 5 sets on the card this gives me 20 different hooks. Plus I have variable sizes to fit the fish available.

I also include one ocean sized hook just small enough to fit on the card. This goes around the perimeter of the card. This hook is to act as a gaff hook.

For weight you could glue and/or tape a line of split shots along the card but that would be a bit bulky to fit in a card slot. I suppose you could field improvise by tying small rocks to the line. But I have found an interesting solution. I discovered a product that looks exactly like a book of paper matches. Inside of matches inside the pasteboard cover are two sheets on lead cut like paper the matches. To use you tear off a strip and twist it around the line. The two sheets will fit nicely and are taped on the back of the card. Because there would not be much of an access problem these extend up under the line wraps.

For expedient field floats small pieces of stick can be tied to the line. For carry along floats there are small plastic zip seal bags. I’ve seen them as small parts bags as small as 1 x 1 and up in various fractions of an inch both ways. To use you melt a small hole above the seal. The best way to do this is with a small nail or pin heated in a flame. Sure you could simply poke a hole in the rim but melting it makes the hole much stronger so less tear out. To use you inflate and seal the bag and tie the line through the hole. These are slipped under the wraps of the line.

You finally wrap the line or different sized lines around the card in the notches. The number and size of the notches determine the number of different sizes of lines or the amount the notch can hold. I use spider line because it is one of the strongest lines for its size. The stronger the line the less likely it is to break during use. Remember this is not for sport but for food. A broken line means the loss of a hook and maybe a missed meal.

The sewing card is made in much the same way. Except you use needles instead of hooks. The thread is wound as the fishing line. Instead of different weights you can use different colors of thread. Although matching color is not as important for field expedient repairs. Heavier thread is generally better than weaker thread.

Since you will not be engaged in fine needlework small sewing needles are not really needed. Generally you want larger needles with the largest eye available. This is so you can extend your sewing thread with other forms of cordage. These would be like dental floss, cordage teased from other cordage like the inner strands of 550 cord or field acquired fibers.

A couple of specially needles I have included in my kit are mattress or upholstery needles. These are curved needles used for sewing along edges and around corners. Then there is the needle from the stitch awl. This is like a heavy duty sewing machine needle. You could use a sewing machine needle instead. Another possibility is to include a leather stitching needle. I didn’t