Delicious, nutritious fish. Freely available the world over, but not so easy to catch. Ask any fishermen. There’s a reason tall tales about successful catches have gone down in fishing lore. If fish are so hard to catch, even with all the proper gear, how can you hope to catch something to eat with nothing?
1. Improvised hook and line
Primitive man made hooks from anything he could get his hands on, so we can do the same. A paper clip, safety pin, sewing needle, even a sturdy thorn can all be converted into a serviceable hook. Line can be made from thread pulled from clothing, shoelaces or any suitably strong fibrous plant material.
2. Fishing spear
Barbed fishing spears can be fabricated from branches, especially forked branches from thorny trees and bushes. One design idea is a forked spear with barbs pointing backwards to more effectively snare a fish. Or you can lash a knife to a pole, or simply sharpen the stick itself.
3. Tickling
Fish tickling is where the fisherman pulls the fish from the water manually. Very difficult to do, and you’re heavily dependent on being extremely patient to allow the fish to become used to your submerged hands. The trade off here is how cold you might get.
4. Bucket trap
A similar technique to tickling, but with a bucket instead. The fisherman submerges the bucket and waits allowing the fish to become acquainted with the scenery. Then when one gets a little too close…
5. Cornering with a net or cloth
If you have more than one pair of hands, and have a net or large sheet handy, you can trawl a body of water, cornering the fish to be had at your leisure. This is, of course, dependent on finding a suitable location.
6. Bailing
A rather labor-intensive method of the same principle is bailing the water from a pool or pond with a bucket, or other such vessel, until the fish have nowhere else to go.
7. Fish trap
A less active method of fishing, at least eventually, is building fish traps in tidal areas or rivers with strong currents. These are walled enclosures fish drift in to, but then have to battle the current to get out. Once the work is done, the fisherman just waits and takes the fish when he wants.
