If you have no gear and are not in a position to fashion an improvised fishing rod, hook, line or even a trap, then you can resort to hand fishing.
Hand fishing or otherwise referred to as noodling has been in practice for a long time now. It is not recommended, but if push comes to shove, you may have to resort to it.
In this tutorial, I will cover the steps on how to catch fish using your hands:
Pro Steps on How to Catch Fish using Your Hands
Step 1: To Wade in The Water or Not?
You can choose to wade in the water, but you will be susceptible to catching hypothermia. More so, if you opt to practice this craft at night, you will be at risk. During the day the water temperatures are warmer than at night.
If you do not want to get wet, then, you can find a spot where the water is flowing slower than the whole stream and place yourself there. Position yourself at the banks and lie in wait for the fish. Look for areas with a lot of stones lined along the coastline.
Step 2: Patience Pays
In hand fishing, you have to master patience as you lay in wait for the fish to come to you. Your hand will be radiating more heat than the surrounding of the fish. It will spook the fish as it will be a foreign object to it.
Wait for about 10 to 15 minutes for your hand to cool down and be at the same temperature as the surrounding. Once it cools down, the fish will have troubles differentiating your hand from other objects in its habitat.
Step 3: Tricking the Fish
When you resort to hand fishing, you are likely not to have any bait with you. You can either look for worms form below rocks or even use dead insects as bait. If not you can use your hand as bait.
Yes, you got that right. To use your hand as bait, you have to wiggle it like a worm and draw the fish that is likely to be hidden towards you. The motion of your finger will look like that of a worm that is struggling. The fish will move forward and take a bite on your hand.
We all know how fish relish a wounded bait. If the fish lies hidden in a cave, or rocks, you could lull the fish. Let it relax before you strike.
Step 4: Act Fast
Once the fish is within reach, act fast by holding it by the gills or the mouth. By putting your hands under its gills, you get an easier grip from the hard cartilage that makes up the gills of the fish. Otherwise, position your hands under the fish and quickly throw it on the bank.
If you used your hand as bait and the fish has gripped at it. Your first reaction may be to pull out your finger, but you have let your hand stay put in the mouth of the fish and pull it towards you.
Tips on How to Ensure Your Success in Hand fishing
Just like any other fishing technique, hand fishing requires precision and making calculated moves. How do you go about this?
➔ Approach the fish from behind. In this manner, your strike will be unexpected to it.
➔ As you place your hand in the water, be slow but steady so as not to startle the fish
➔ Look for holes and rocks along the shoreline. The fish are probably hidden here
Conclusion
Hand fishing is recommended for survival only. However, it is a sporting activity in some other parts of the world. You may step on something sharp as you wade in the water or cut you hand by sticking it almost everywhere.
It is advisable to put on shoes, have long pants on and even put on gloves as a precautionary measure. When catching fish with your bare hands, you are at risk of losing your hand or fingers if you get an infection.
If you have to resort to noodling, then let it be your last best option. You can build traps, improvised fishing rods, etc. These methods may not be as exhilarating, but they sure are safer. Personally I like using a rod and reel, but even then you have to perform reel maintenance so their are drawbacks to that also.
Don’t risk getting hypothermia or frostbite but it will come in handy in survival mode. Have you ever practiced hand fishing? Let us know what your experience was like in the comments section below….
You might not have the ability to drive to the local market to get the things you want.
What You Will Need To Make
After selecting the crayons, you would have to remove the wraps of crayons. For this, you would need a bowl having water and ice in it. After that, the crayons have to be put in the cold water and leave it for five minutes. Likewise, the wrapper can be removed.
It is the time to mold the melted crayon for preparing your candles. You can pour this mixture into a metal cutter of cookie, a mini cup of baking or any container according to your wish and leave it for 5 minutes.
After you complete selecting the ideal wick, you would now have to insert it in the candle. A toothpick or pointed end of a crayon can be a good option if you want to make a hole in the half made candle.
The first thing that you would have to do is hold the can and cut a small ‘window’ on it with the help of the knife. However, you should be very careful while using the knife as lack of attention might result in injury.
After cutting the window in the can, you would have to open up the section and clean inside. Now, you just have to put the tea candle inside the can through the window. And this makes your can ready as the lighted lamp.
The first thing you would do is cutting the tab of the soda can. To start with, cut an aperture in the tab’s bottom hole. You need to make sure that you are cutting in a slanted way and after that begin to cut away the metal around the hook as much as possible. Now you need to turn the hook into a keen point by filing it.
The next step in making fish hook is filing the hook. If you have to file the keen edges of the hook, the multipurpose tool would be a good option to use. A multipurpose tool can be said as a versatile utensil that can be used for various purposes.
It is the time to make an aperture for fishing lines. To make this small hole, the pocket blade could be a good one to employ.
Now you have to insert the hook in the paracord piece.
Using a scratch awl, you would have to make holes on a can’s bottom edge. It is said that small holes are fuel coherent while big holes can burn fast and hot. You can do whichever you like.
Now it is the time to make the main opening. For making it, you would have to cut the bottom from where the holes were made in the can. You would need a strong instrument to cut it as the can is thicker here.
The third phase involves cutting down the top of the stove. By measuring 20mm from the can’s bottom, you would have to cut it to make the top part of the stove. Keeping a regular Sharpie on the table, you have to turn around the can against it.
To make tabs, you would have to cut the stove top’s edges for many times. The resulted small tabs will ensure that the top will fit in the bottom of the stove correctly. You can make the number of spaced cut around evenly according to your wish or requirement.
Now, you would have to take another can to cut its bottom. By measuring 25mm from the can’s bottom, you have to cut it. You can make the stove tall or short by adjusting the given measurement.
It is the time to make the inner walls. The leftover remains of the earlier cans would be utilized for making it. However, if these remains are not in the usable state, then you might require a third can.
To fix the inner wall in the bottom of the stove, you would have to cut a halfway along the strip on both the ends to make them fasten together. The strip ends would have to be inside while locking.
All the three parts now have to be put together. You can begin with setting the inner wall with the down notched ends, then fitting the stove top and inserting the preceding cut tabs at the bottom. All these things will eventually get fixed as a puzzle.
You would have first to measure your wrist by wrapping a nice rope or string around it. Using a marker, create a line of the string. Next, you would have to cut and melt the ends. With the help of a lighter, you have to burn the cord evenly.
You would have to now fold the paracord of 10ft to work together on both ends. The cord threads have to be inserted through the lower opening of the side release buckle. Now you have to pull the cord’s loose ends along the loop that has been formed on the other side till it forms a tight knot.
In this step, you would have to take the left cord to thread it beneath the cord of the bracelet and then take the right one to thread under the left one.
The above process will continue till it reaches the bottom of the buckle. Now, the male buckle has to be pulled towards the female buckle for more limp.
After tightening up the end, the cords’ ends have to be melted to prevent from wearing away. You need to squeeze the melted ends to make them flat. And with this, your paracord survival bracelet will finally form.
Raccoons are common all over the United States. Although they have an adorable face and are fun to watch at times, they will cause havoc in your shed or attic and knock your garbage can on its side. They’ll even steal your bird seed and dog food, and because of rabies can pose a safety risk to your family and pets. If thieving trash pandas are giving you a hard time, you’ll be glad to know one of the best ways to get rid of them is through trapping. Here are some tips to help you through it.
Wilderness survival can be one of the most challenging adventures of a lifetime. Being in the wild and with nature can be a profound experience.