A gentleman recently contacted my with the following message that I found to be interesting. Wondered if anyone here had any personal experience that might corroborate or refute this using the very basic fishing gear we pack into a survival kit?
Quote:
I noticed in your review of various individual compact survival kits that you did not address the quality of the fishing kit components... Much experience in fly fishing for trout and steelhead has taught me that it is supremely important to have the sharpest fishhooks available. Using Gamakatsu, and other premium Japanese hooks, instead of WalMart staples like Eagle Claw and even Mustad, increases hooking and fish landing percentages dramatically. Considering the difficulty of catching anything at all with the typical survival-kit fishing..., I think high quality hooks would be an important advantage to add, especially because the advantage comes without increasing the weight or bulk of the kit. I might also suggest some lighter (say 3 lb. test flourocarbon) monofilament line, to provide a better chance at catching the small fish in shallow water necessitated by only having a short total length of line available. Of course the lighter line will also tend be more affected by deterioration due to heat or solvents.


Thoughts or comments welcome.
_________________________
Doug Ritter
Editor
Equipped To SurviveŽ
Chairman & Executive Director
Equipped To Survive Foundation
www.KnifeRights.org
www.DougRitter.com