This simple project of learning to organize fishing hooks with safety pins takes less than a minute, and can make your fishing trips much less stressful.
Simply sort your fishhooks by type, and then run a safety pin through the hook’s eye.
This not only keeps your fishhooks sorted, keeps them in place, and it gives you a reason to have one of the greatest prepper tools (the safety pin) in your tackle box.
This has saved my tackle box from turning into a rats nest of mixed junk. It is a simple little thing, but its the little things that help. Besides, with all the safety pins now in your fishing gear you have “survival gear” also – you never know how useful a safety pin is until you need one and don’t have it.
As a bonus tip for reading how to organize fishing hooks with safety pins, I will tell you that for years I was highly unsuccessful at catching fish and then I was told I use too big of a hook. The smaller the hook the more fish you will catch. Sounds simple right….
Now I am just a moderately unsuccessful fisherman, but that is because I keep loosing lures to the trees above me…
I keep trying to learn more about fishing, as my son really likes it, I look up information on fishing all the time, I just found this post on types of fishing poles.
I saw this brilliant idea on YouTube and had to share it. A very smart guy figured out how to make a Bottle Cap Fishing Lure out of a discarded beer bottle caps.
He even made a business of recycling buckets of beer caps harvested from local bars until he was sued by beer manufacturers for use of their copy-written logos.
I would link to the website, but it is no longer used as the bottle cap lure guy – it looks like someone else bought it, which is a shame, as the Bottle Cap Fishing Lure is a really cool idea.
All you need is:
Beer/Soda bottle top
Split rings
BB’s or small split shot
Treble hook.
Tools are simple also:
Hammer and small nail/Drill and small bit
Pliers
Instructions:
Using your fingers, press the sides of the cap until it buckles
Before pushing the two ends together, place a couple BB’s or shot into the cavity, so that they can rattle.
Carefully drill or punch a hole at either end of the folded cap. It may help to slightly flatten the ends with your pliers.
Thread a split ring into each hole
Thread a Treble hook into one of the split rings
Go fishing…
I would love to post pictures of any catch you have gotten using this piece of DIY fishing tackle.
I had an interesting childhood – my Dad and I were a lot alike, and when I was growing up he jumped with both feet into the world of rope courses – he single-handedly built several small courses in Tennessee which, coupled with his work as a Park Ranger fed my infatuation with survival techniques and self-reliance.
I spent a lot of time as a pre-teen and teenage years tying knots and lighting fires and I want to spend more time getting back to that as I learned a lot, had a lot of fun, and want to refresh my skills with you so I am ready when Tell gets big enough to keep the rope ends out of the dirt long enough for me to teach him.
I am going to start with the bowline, the bowline is one of the four basic maritime knots (along with the figure eight, reef knot, and clove hitch) and is a very simple knot used to form a fixed loop in the “bitter end” of a rope (the working end). It is an essential knot for an outdoorsman to know, especially if you climb or sail.
Like the majority of “good” knots, it is easy to tie and untie. Also like many good knots, if tied improperly it can collapse (capsize).
Anytime you tie a knot in a rope you reduce its strength through bending, the better the knot the less strength you lose, and a properly tied bowline retains about 65% of it’s strength. Because of this the FFA recommends to tie down light aircraft. More importantly, the bowline is commonly used as a rescue knot for conscious individuals that fell into holes or off cliffs. (because of this I will show you how to tie one using a single hand in-case you are injured or want to show off)
Procedure for Tying
Most people learn to tie a bowline using a mnemonic aid.
If you think of the end of the rope as a rabbit, the loop as the rabbit’s hole, and the standing end of the rope above the loop as a tree…
The rabbit comes up through the hole, round the tree from the right, and back down the hole.
It is very important that the loop is formed correctly, with the bitter end on the top of the loop.
If you reverse the loop (shown in the video) you will make an Eskimo bowline, then when the bowline is put under pressure the bowline will slip.
One Handed
If you have the rope secured so you can make it taut, you can tie this knot one handed.
Simply hold the bitter end in your hand.
Lay your palm on the top of the rope (the tendency is to use your wrist which is easier, but will probably trap your hand)
Twist your hand down on the left side of the rope, down, under and back up on the right side of the rope. This makes the loop.
Use your fingers to pass the rabbit around the tree from right to left.
While still holding the end of the rope, pull it and your hand through the loop
Tighten.
With practice you can do this easier than you can tie the rope one handed.
Let me know if you want to see more knot videos, I am probably going to do some anyway, but the detail and amount of will depend on you.
Trapping gives much more meat per unit of energy expended than hunting does. Using snares is a passive activity; you can set several traps in multiple locations and check them once a day leaving you free to do other useful work while still gathering food. Hunting requires active attention; you cannot stalk a deer while tending a signal fire.
Snares are also relatively lightweight, cheap, and easy to pack.
Today’s video shows how to make and use a Survival Squirrel Snare using bailing wire or 20 gauge galvanized steel wire.
A roll of this wire is about $5.00, makes several dozen snares, is relatively lightweight, compact, and can be used for other survival uses.
How to Build a Survival Squirrel Snare
Cut a length of wire approximately 18 inches long (length depends on how you are going to attach it).
Make a small loop at one end of the wire
Run the wire back over itself and through the small twisted loop you made. This makes a larger loop “lasso”. The wire should run freely through the small twisted loop you made at the end of the wire. The loop this forms should be approximately the diameter of a coke can.
With the small twisted loop at approximately the “10 o’clock” position, run the free end of your wire snare down and attach it to your squirrel run.
The squirrel run is a straight stick relatively free of limbs and 6-10 feet long. It should be about the same thickness as a man’s wrist. This branch has one end resting on the ground, and the other resting on the trunk of a tree. It should intersect the ground at an approximate 45 degree angle.
Is possible you want to pick a tree that has a squirrel nest in it, or is an oak tree – that way squirrels will be naturally drawn to it.
The idea is that a squirrel will choose to run up the stick to get to the tree trunk, as that is easier for them to get on the tree than jumping the 90 degree angle to move from ground to trunk.
If a squirrel runs up the pole they will have to move through the snare. They won’t mind as it looks flexible and they can see through it. As they enter the snare, their head goes in, but their body cannot. The snare tightens around them as they run; they hit the end of the wire and fall off the branch in their struggle.
Be Careful How You Place the Snare
If the wire is placed appropriately, they will hang themselves and will not be able to climb back up.
You can place multiple snares on a single run, just make sure they are all high enough that a snared squirrel will hang free and not touch the ground, and that there is enough space that they cannot touch each other.
I do not know where you live, but obviously you need to look at the game laws in your area. In my state of Tennessee this is illegal, and not something I would do as long as I can go to the grocery for food. But in the event nothing else was available and I would starve otherwise, there are many squirrels in my subdivision (or nearby parks) and they could mean the difference between going hungry or not.