Survival, emergency or just plain fun fishing kit

[JAB]

I have been meaning to make a version of this since I first saw them on YouTube vids a year or two back:

Well, yesterday evening I had a round tuit and decided to use it up and make a couple of them. Mine are slightly different from some others I have seen - mostly because the Home Depot that is on my way home from work didn't have threaded plugs for one inch PVC pipe so I ended up using a cap on both ends instead of just one end.

As mentioned, I used 1 inch PVC pipe but there were several diameters available in the display. The pre-cut sections of PVC came in lengths that were just a tad over two feet long. As the finished product really only needed to be about half that length, I decided to go ahead and make two of them. I completed one in its entirety and got the main body of the second one assembled.

After taking the hacksaw to the PVC pipe and cutting it into two sections, I drilled through both sides of the pipe (instead of through the end of the cap) and used some of the nylon cord I have onhand to make a lanyard. I just ran each end of the cord through one of the holes then tied a knot in each end so that the cord couldn't come back out through the holes. My idea was that, by doing it this way, the final product could be more or less water tight. Along those lines, I drilled the holes close enough to the end of the pipe that the cap would cover them when in place.

For mine, just for grins, I decided to paint them using some flat green spray paint. I had the paint onhand because I had intended to use it to paint sections of the plastic stock on my 'Planet of the Apes' style Hi Point 995. I ended up trading that 995 for one of the newer 'TS' models, meaning the paint could be used for something else. I only used a thin coat and the paint dried literally in seconds. I'm not sure I've ever seen paint that dried so fast.

At that point, I cut some three inch sections from a bicycle innertube (cheapest one that Walmart had) and, after some grunting, tugging, stretching and a liberal amount of cussing, I managed to stretch the sections of innertube over the ends of the pipe sections. I passed the lanyards through the section of tube that went on their end of the pipe before stretching it on. On each end, I left a little excess tube hanging off of the end of the pipe and turned it back/down to leave the very end of the pipe uncovered. I then put the cap on and pulled the part that I had turned down back up to cover the sides of the cap. As this covers the 'seam' between the pipe and the end cap, I figure it should make it water tight. Once the end caps are in place, it is actually pretty easy to roll the end of the piece of tube back to allow the cap to be removed and then roll it back into place once the cap is back on (two of the pics below will show the tube rolled back.)

To finish up the main construct, I wrapped 25 yards of Zebco 10lb test fishing line (again, the cheapest Walmart had) around the shaft of the kit body. I decided on 10lb test because I think it should do well on most anything I am likely to catch with this rig, from bluegill to catfish. The first end of the line was tied off around the shaft then I stashed that knot under the lanyard end section of inner tube. Once the line was all rolled onto the shaft, I put a sinker on and tied on a hook (#6 bait holder.) I stashed the hook under the proximal end of the tube section on the lanyard end of the shaft - that makes a superb hook keeper. To finish up that part, I put a velcro strap I had onhand around the line 'spool' to help keep the line in place.

Now it was time to start putting some gear inside the kit. That is really the fun part.

I recently bought a few packages of foam earplugs at The Dollar Tree. With each package, my dollar got me three or four pairs of earplugs plus a little, clear plastic tube container to keep them in. I looked at those tube containers and thought they would be perfect for holding hooks, etc. Once I trimmed a couple of tabs (opening tab and another tab intended to allow a string to be attached to the tube) off of the lid and trimmed the plastic hinge off of the lid and the tube body, the tube would easily slip right down inside the fishing kit. Awesome!

In that tube, I put an assortment of sinkers and hooks along with some small snap swivels. You can see the contents in the first pic below.

I also decided that I needed a stringer but a standard one would probably be too bulky. I went back to my old standby nylon cord and cut off a five foot section. Now I needed a 'spike' for one end and a 'ring' for another. A wire coat hanger valiantly sacrificed itself to provide those things and a few minutes with a set of wire pliers had them ready. It ain't pretty but it should work.

For extra line, just in case, I rolled off another 25 yards (roughly) and wrapped it in some blue electrician's tape. That goes in the very bottom of the kit as I shouldn't need it any time soon.

I was able to fit three small floats in the kit. I decided to use weighted floats since I will be 'casting' by hand and think the extra weight will help me throw the line further. I am generally not a huge fan of Styrofoam floats such as these but in this case I figured they were compact and would be much more durable than plastic floats or the balsa wood stick floats I normally prefer.

Finally, I cut another three inch section of innertube, glued one side of it (on the inside) and 'clamped' that side with some plastic clips until the glue dried in order to make the tube tighter. Why do this? Well, I started thinking that 10lb test mono-filament line (or nearly any monofilament fishing line, really) can cut the $&%^ out of a finger. Being that I would be 'reeling' the line in by hand, I decided that I might want a way to protect the finger that will be taking the brunt of the pressure - especially if I hook into a bass, catfish or the like. I glued the tube section partially closed so that it will be tight enough to stay on my finger, thereby protecting it from getting sliced open by the fishing line.

Anyhow, this shows the stuff that I put into the kit:

This is how things look when they are all packed up and ready to stash in the kit:

And this is how the kit looks with everything inside and the end cap in place:

[UncleJak]

You have been busy lately. This looks real cool. I need something like it.

[JAB]

You have been busy lately. This looks real cool. I need something like it.

Yeah, I tend to go on 'kicks' where I end up doing things in fits and spurts. Honestly, what started all of this (including the improvised, mini 'tackle' box that led to the full-blown EDC bag) was that there have been multiple times over the past couple of weeks when I unexpectedly found myself in what looked like good fishing spots and had no fishing gear with me.

[zapfbroad]

that's awesome but can you get those crickets to quiet down jeez.

[JAB]

Being that I figured there was no sense lugging one of these around if it wasn't going to work, I tried it out yesterday evening. I got a lot of 'hits' but only landed one fish. I don't think that had anything to do with the kit, however. I think I was mostly in a gang of little bait stealers who were too small even to get the size 6 hook in their mouth. I could probably have done better if I had tried walking around to a few, different spots but shortly after I started a thunderstorm came through so I decided to get away from the water.

The experience has led me to believe that I need to put some smaller hooks (size 8, maybe even a few, tiny trebles) in the kit. I don't usually use hooks that small because I don't want to fool with catching/having to release anything that small when I am just recreational fishing. If I were fishing for survival, however, every bit of protein would count and I would cook what I could get - plus tiny hooks could work for catching bait to go after bigger fish.

that's awesome but can you get those crickets to quiet down jeez.

Heh, that is just a vid I grabbed off YouTube as an example of where I got the idea. I can't be held responsible for the crickets.

Edited June 15, 2012 by JAB