Basic Bushcraft Fishing pt 1

[Scots_Charles_River]

must make a confession now i am not a big fish eater mainly due to bones!
might have to make another effort at some point
regards
Sam

Smoke some. Whilst at primary school, in the 80s, we had a visit from an Arbroath Smokie fishmonger. He built a sand pile around the base of an old whisky barrel and smoked some fish in front of us and it was amazing, he peeled the flesh back and the bones were left in his other hand like the skeleton from Tom and Jerry !

Woodsmoke,

Can you still buy the smoker tin, it was about the size of a scaled down to 1;2 shoebox. You just stoked it with picked up kindling which smoked the fillets.

Nick

[sam_acw]

Been fishing once, used a bamboo garden cane, hooks and sinkers and lince from a BCB survival kit and bread squished onto the hook.
We caught 2 fish, about 5 inches long, in half an hour and took them home. Gutted them (or my friend did) floured them and fried them.
With such success I've never fished again!

[w00dsmoke]

Thanks again folks I really appreciate it. I'm working on part 2 so hopefully soon. As for cooking what we eat, i'm sure we could all have a go at that one!

[AJB]

Just a quick fork in the road, Ardentinny is a great place to dig for ragworm.

If it's private fishing, AJB, you should see a notice board pinned up somewhere. The main thing is yer fishing rod licence.

Forgot, if yer living in Scotland, yer don't need one.

Cheers Opal,

So you need arod licence (where do you get them and how much) and you can fish anywhere except private water that should be signposted (or within private land I assume). Scotland you're ok (except private water).

So can anyone explain the seasons?

Cheers - great thread

[Kepis]

Cheers Opal,

So you need arod licence (where do you get them and how much) and you can fish anywhere except private water that should be signposted (or within private land I assume). Scotland you're ok (except private water).

So can anyone explain the seasons?

Cheers - great thread

Rod licences can be picked up at the Post office or directly from the EA via the interweb

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk...ing/31497.aspx

Dont think you will find private waters are all sign posted AJB, unfortunatley it's up to the individual to verify who controls and owns what im afraid, P.I.T.A i know, but as in so many things these days, ignorance is no defence, if you are caught fishing illegally on a water you could, not saying you would, get done for poaching, im constantly kicking people of the river down here for fishing without a club book ie poaching, and i/we have bought repeat offenders before the plod & the EA, if you are caught without an EA licence by the EA bailiffs you can get fined up to £2500.00, the club i work for spends tens of thousands of pounds per year on renting waters and stocking them, some of the trout fisheries, river & lake spend ten times that, so you can appreciate why the fishing rights are so guarded.

The seasons are explained here

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk...ing/37951.aspx

[AJB]

Brilliant Kepis, thank you very much, that's a great site - I think that's all I wanted to know...

Except

Is there a season for game fish? If the two seasons don't coincide, what happens if you’re fishing for something you’re allowed to, but catch something you’re not?

I promise I won’t ask anymore stupid questions!

[Kepis]

Here you go, info on the seasons for Game fish

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk...ing/31479.aspx

No such thing as a stupid question btw

[AJB]

You're a gent!

[johnnytheboy]

Another good way to cook trout, is wrap the fish in wet newspaper and put it in the oven until the paper is dry, fish will be cooked and when you take the paper off the skin comes wth it, it is dead easy to flake the flesh away from the bones.

Smoke some. Whilst at primary school, in the 80s, we had a visit from an Arbroath Smokie fishmonger. He built a sand pile around the base of an old whisky barrel and smoked some fish in front of us and it was amazing, he peeled the flesh back and the bones were left in his other hand like the skeleton from Tom and Jerry !

Woodsmoke,

Can you still buy the smoker tin, it was about the size of a scaled down to 1;2 shoebox. You just stoked it with picked up kindling which smoked the fillets.

Nick

[DavidJT]

Smoke some. Whilst at primary school, in the 80s, we had a visit from an Arbroath Smokie fishmonger. He built a sand pile around the base of an old whisky barrel and smoked some fish in front of us and it was amazing, he peeled the flesh back and the bones were left in his other hand like the skeleton from Tom and Jerry !

Woodsmoke,

Can you still buy the smoker tin, it was about the size of a scaled down to 1;2 shoebox. You just stoked it with picked up kindling which smoked the fillets.

Nick

Here you go Nick, is this the smoker you were thinking of?....



It's £33 + del on ebay...130290076198
Here's a link to someone's blog / review on the smoker:
http://www.sites4professionals.co.uk...lder=&page=221

I've had this one for years, and use it on my trips to Sweden and Norway to smoke grayling, which are otherwise quite tasteless. As you suggest, rather than buying and carrying the sawdust mix that Abu sell, we use kindling and leaves (more like pines) from Juniper bushes, gives a great flavour.

[w00dsmoke]

Wow that's expensive for what essentially is a metal tin with a rack in it! Most folk I know make them up easily enough.


I think the easiest way to cook fish apart from grilling on the embers of a fire is to wrap your prepared (gutted, and stuffed with sorrell...) fish in lots of green grass, then cover the whole fish in mud. Roll it into the embers of a fire and cover in embers, then leave for around 20 mins. What you are doing is essentially creating a steamer; the mud bakes hard sealing in the fish and the grass releases moisture as well as helping bind the mud. Roll out the fish from the embers, and as you break open the mud and pull the grass off, you have a lovley steamed fish where the flesh just falls off the bones and it tastes wonderful. This was taught to me by my father who in turn was shown how to do it by traveling folk in the 30's.

For an alternative taste I often use hot cajun spices sprinkled on the fish and this is especially nice when grilled on embers. After gutting your fish, slash the sides 2 or 3 times and sprinkle and rub on the spices, palce on your grill, and cook until slightly charred for that authentic taste!

[bert333]

I can recommend the Shimano Exage AXS.T.C.TE - it is a small as I can get it as I carry it mostly on a bike. 31cm packed down! + Shimano Stradic 2500GTM-RB - it's super smooth and quick to retrieve ratio of 6:1

[DavidJT]

Wow that's expensive for what essentially is a metal tin with a rack in it! Most folk I know make them up easily enough.

Agreed, it is quite expensive, but is really well made, comes with a meths burner (which we've all got anyway), and can be used as a small camp oven.
Got mine as a present, so price wasn't an issue! Heavy though so don't carry it far!

[Bushwhacker]

A lot of fishery owners/fishermen will take a dim view on somebody killing fish to eat, unless it's a trout and byelaws have been adhered to and licence fees and bag limits paid for.

Don't forget that Salmon and Sea Trout require a different licence altogether.

I also know there's a been a lot of uproar from the angling community about immigrants catching and killing carp to eat.
It's quite a topical thing at the moment and I'd advice caution in whatever you choose to do, it could get you prosecuted or, worse still, beaten up by disgruntled anglers.

[w00dsmoke]

A lot of fishery owners/fishermen will take a dim view on somebody killing fish to eat, unless it's a trout and byelaws have been adhered to and licence fees and bag limits paid for.

Don't forget that Salmon and Sea Trout require a different licence altogether.

I also know there's a been a lot of uproar from the angling community about immigrants catching and killing carp to eat.
It's quite a topical thing at the moment and I'd advice caution in whatever you choose to do, it could get you prosecuted or, worse still, beaten up by disgruntled anglers.

This is an extremely valid point along with what others have said, maybe it's time to open another thread on the legality of fishing and what our responsibilities are as it's different in different parts of the UK. It's even an issue up here in Scotland for example a group of Polish folk were seen recently trawling a Glasgow canal with a gill type net and taking everything caught for food. There are similar stories down south too and among the course fishng fraternity it's normally a taboo to take course fish for the table.

[Nagual]

This is an extremely valid point along with what others have said, maybe it's time to open another thread on the legality of fishing and what our responsibilities are as it's different in different parts of the UK. It's even an issue up here in Scotland for example a group of Polish folk were seen recently trawling a Glasgow canal with a gill type net and taking everything caught for food. There are similar stories down south too and among the course fishng fraternity it's normally a taboo to take course fish for the table.

Would agree on that. Lets keep this thread on W00dsmokes hints n tips on fishing, and if anyone wants to take it in a different direction, create a new post? Perhaps W00dsmoke, if you edited your original post to reflect that your talking about Scotland primarily, and will mention legalities later on in further parts? - At least I hope you will, you seem to have a much better grasp than I do for a start..

[Tony]

Great post and info, thanks W00dsmoke

[Native Nathan]

Great post W00dsmoke

Very informative, I have been thinking of putting together a similar set up and trying to catch some fish on my next jaunt up to Jockland....lol (I meant No offence to any of the wonderful Scots on here)

But I never thought it would actually be possible, thanks for helping realise this.

I look forward to Part 2

[British Red]

That really is a stunning post. I would love to read more. As a dyed in the wool country bloke, I ahve never fished - weird huh? But there we are. Always fancied having a go but its one of the many "to do" things. Don't be frightened to dumb it right down either - I have no idea about lines weights, shot, hooks, floats or all the other weird kit - but I look forward to learning!

Red

[Ratbag]

<snip> Don't be frightened to dumb it right down either - I have no idea about lines weights, shot, hooks, floats or all the other weird kit - but I look forward to learning! <snip>

Red

What Red said, please! Great thread.

Rat

[DP1]

Likewise, fishing is something I would love to know about but really don't have any idea about and to be perfectly honest I feel like an idiot because I don't, surely a bloke should know instictively about manly things like fishing!

I'd be grateful if you could post info starting with how to set up correctly etc when to use a "spinner2 or "float" etc.

Looking forward to part 2!

[Tye Possum]

You said that you need to use a rod to fish there, does that mean you can't do any hobo fishing? You know, with a pop can as a reel. I tried that once and it worked alright casting wise, though you can't get it as far as you could with a rod, plus I never caught anything so I don't know how strong it would be for pulling in the fish but my guess is not that strong. Anyways, good info and like they said, dumbing it right down couldn't hurt!

[wildrover]

Love the thread WS

If I'm honest up till this point I've never really seen the attraction in fishing.
I just thought fishermen stood around as midge bait.

I must admit tho' that my interest is piqued.
Good info. and great pics.
I look forward to the next part.
( I might even be persuaded to break out the group buy rod and stuff I got from SOTP)

btw any chance you could post info. or links on the lures, gear etc.

Chris

[huntersforge]

I have found that when spinning for trout Mepps lures are among the best you can get they are of superb quality and cost about £2 each , they come in a wide range of sizes and colours , but IMHO the smaller ( size 0 or 1 ) in copper colour are the ones to go for , infact I wont use anything else . Also remember to use a swivel roughly 12 - 14 inches from the lure to prevent tangles.

[Pantalaimon]

Nice topic.
And what about bushcrafty ways to eat them ?

[Colin.W]

Due to my diet I find it easier to describe myself as a veggie that way I dont get served up with some meal that has been made from an animal that has spent it's short life in misery. I do eat meat if I know where it has come from, wild caught fish or free range meat or game. the fishing rod I have is collapsable and a spinner, reel, lures, hooks and floats, the whole kit was (if I remember correctly) &#163;12 from a garden centre come country store in devon a few years ago, year before last we went on a canal boat holiday, fish was quite a regular on the menu

Colin

[w00dsmoke]

I have found that when spinning for trout Mepps lures are among the best you can get they are of superb quality and cost about £2 each , they come in a wide range of sizes and colours , but IMHO the smaller ( size 0 or 1 ) in copper colour are the ones to go for , infact I wont use anything else . Also remember to use a swivel roughly 12 - 14 inches from the lure to prevent tangles.

Yep they are very good mepps, personally my favourites are blue fox vibrax spinners and I use them up to a size 3 or 4 and still catch fish on them but I'll use whatever I have at the time. I'm not sure if they way I attach my lure is the "right" way but I attach the swivel clip onto the end of the line and then the lure straight on to that. I've never had a tangle yet and it's a bit more straightforward.

On ebay you can sometimes get good deals on mepps and lures. They can be expensive in fishing shops and you inevitably loose some when fishing but saying that the poundshop spinners are very good too and I've caught plenty wee trout on them ( too my surprise!).

[johnnytheboy]

I prefer the vibrax over the mepps as they are slightly heavier, and the wee bell in them has to work well, the bucktail ones have been good for pike for me.

Have a look for Abu Droppens, they cast far better than any of the others, which is important if you are trout fishing with light lures.

[Opal]

I've never used spinners for trout only fly but I have had loads of success catching perch with these..

.

[johnnytheboy]

The exciting thing about fishing is you just never know what your gonna catch



Today i have mostly been catching child size mattresses, luckily 50lb braid pulled the thing in or i would have lost my bomber.