Comments

Episode-1374- “Unconventional” Fishing Methods — 25 Comments

  1. Hey Jack,

    I believe you said you would leave a link to a video on climate change in the show notes? Did I miss it?

    Thanks for your show.

    Logic

  2. “There are lies, damn lies and then there are statistics.”
    Jack, have you ever addressed the current shift in magnetic North Pole? I’d think if that sucker is moving 25 – 40 miles a year it would make a climate impact as well. You brought back good memories of jug and trotlining for me with this show…

  3. Hi Jack – your comment about statics brought back something I heard many years ago. “Statics are like a bikini – what they reveal is very interesting but what they hide is vital”.

  4. A Honduran dude showed me a 20 oz plastic coke bottle w a little coke left inside to pressurize the bottle is best darn bottle fishing rig ever, casts like a long spool spinning reel.

  5. Great show. Follow up on the last part of the show about fishing for family bonding. Any suggestion about how to teach daughter fishing?

  6. I have two 2nd cousins both in their early 60’s now but for as long a i can remember during the first part of the year when the weather gets good enough they set out their trot lines, they both have dedicated freezers just for catfish, they run the lines twice a day morning and evening and when they catch enough to fill their freezers they are done for they year, I asked once about how many pounds does the freezer hold they told me around 300lbs each, 600lbs of free fish a year isn’t bad for a few weeks work and some years it takes longer and some less…keep in mind they also fill all their deer tags every year so that’s quite a bit of free food…well other than the license fee which for being a Texas resident is nothing compared to how much meat they harvest

  7. Regarding the history segment and escaping the Black Death… Jack suggested a colder climate might be a good destination to escape the fleas that carry the Plague and that is generally correct but that suggestion ignores Pneumonic Plague which is passed person-to-person through coughing or in confined spaces such as stuffy winter lodges or huddled near your buddies trying to stay warm.

    The Plague has three forms.

    1. Bubonic Plague is the most common form and is carried by fleas. It takes multiple flea bites to contract bubonic plague. Your chances of surviving are maybe 40% without treatment and you won’t look too good even if you do survive. The fleas are most active in warm weather so colder climate means less problem with Plague. Move to Finland.

    Chances of survival today in the United States are 86% if they diagnose it in time. You still won’t look too good though: missing fingers, toes, nose, ugly scars and stuff like that.

    2. Pneumonic Plague is less common but it was prevalent in the First Wave of the Plague in 1348. Stand closer than six feet to anyone and it is “good night nurse.” Living with people in a stuffy basement as they did in London and you are dead. Chances of recovery in the Middle Ages? None. In the modern day? Not good. Maybe they can save your family.

    3. Septicemic Plague is the least common of all but it still happens even in the United States. One man was bit by his cat who had a plague rat in its mouth and was apparently choking on it. As the man tried to grab the rat, the cat bit down and the Plague bacteria entered his blood stream. They barely managed to same him with all the wonders of modern medicine but they couldn’t save his hands. Chance of survival in the Middle Ages? Are you kidding? Forget it.

    So why are we frightened when 1 guy dies of the bird flu in the airport but when 10 or 15 people die of the Plague it barely makes the news? It’s probably because we know what the flu is. It is familiar to us so that a killer form of the flu is frightening and rightfully so. Nowadays, in the USA, Plague is just a one-off thing: some random hiker or a guy living in a cabin off in the woods. The last time Plague hit a major city in the USA was 1924…. Los Angeles. Something like 31 people died before they got a handle on it. It was Pneumonic Plague.

    I hope this helps. Jack was correct but Finland took it in the shorts eventually… just not as often as other places. Few people wanted to go to Bohemia in a time of economic downturn thus less contact with infected goods or people.

  8. FYI: I seem smarter than I really am about Plague because I read the book by Wendy Orent: “Plague: The Mysterious Past and Terrifying Future of the World’s Most Dangerous Disease”.

    Wendy Orent traveled to Russia and talked to the bioweapons people there. The Soviet Union was designing a bioweapon based on Plague bacteria that would be resistant to antibiotics. Did they succeed? The initial tests look promising. If she had learned any more I doubt she would have been able to leave the country alive.

    If you are worried about a bioweapon hitting the USA then this discussion in the History Segment about the Black Death will be critical to your planning.

    Wendy Orent is a technical writer. She is not a doctor but she has interviewed credible people on the subject of Plague, its history and its possible use as a bioweapon.

    I hope I didn’t frighten anyone.

    • FYI…. ice fishing was how a food prep survivalist became one of the most recognized names in food prep today…. Clarence Frank Birdseye II. He called himself a naturalist but if you check out his biography you’ll see is was as much into food storage as anyone here. He got this idea of flash freezing food when he pulled a fish out of the ice and it was so cold it froze instantly. Months later when he thawed it out, the fish was still alive and he thought, “Now that is fresh!” But frozen food was not his only food preservation passion. It’s a good story.

      Clarence Frank Birdseye II was born December 9, 1886. His father-in-law invented the v-belt which most mechanics recognize as the belt that runs many water pumps and ac units. Before that invention all belts were flat.

  9. Thanks for another show on fishing Jack! I went out and caught my first trout last week because of this series.

  10. Thanks for the fishing shows. I’ve been hunting and fishing for over 4 decades and I think I’ve learned something new from every show! I read an article a while back that estimated the value of a stocked fishing pond on a private property was like $20-40,000 based on the recreational and sporting cost it would take to to purchase/rent it elsewhere. I’ve got two and I can’t tell you how many friends and relative’s children caught their first perch, bass or catfish out of one of my ponds. The smiles alone are well worth the $150 or so per year I spend stocking them. A good fishing pond should be an integral part of a comprehensive permaculture design, if the site will support it.

  11. Jack, What about the Homer Simpson method of using some car batteries and a jumper cable. lol JK. Good show man.

    • The truth? A small generator and some copper paddles work better, it is what the state uses to survey populations of fish. It brings em up but doesn’t kill them, they tend to have about a 98% return to life and survive rate, they just come up for a bit to be counted.

      About 1/10th of a stick of 60% with a cap and a battery works too, don’t ask how I know.

      • When I was a kid my Great Uncle had 3 old crank style telephones on his porch with wires on them, when i asked him what they were he said they used to use them to catch fish, he said they went to the river and dropped the wires in and cranked the phone handle it would stun the fish and they floated to the surface of the water and they scooped them up, he said he heard dynamite worked better but they were to poor to afford it LOL…he also said both were highly illegal and that’s why they were just decorations on his porch now

  12. Also I was waiting for you to talk about fishing with explosives or other shock device, also we see all over TV where they are shooting fish, gators, seals. Im sure it may be highly illegal in most areas, but they do look like fun. Also another device I have seen get fish is up in alaska they are allowed at certain times of the year to fish with a fish wheel. This allows them to take a lot of fish to feed their dogs.

    Another method for taking fish is what is called poisoning. Now this is not contaminating the water or tainting the ecosystem. The methods I want to share involve starving the fish from O2 by using natural means such as crush up a bunch of acorns and thrown them into an area and then jump in and start scooping the fish out.

    • I’ve heard wisteria vine is a fish poison and several other things. I know catgut, the native legume, is high in natural rotenone…

  13. There are people that I know, that I would love to convince that “Noodling for Sharks” is a real thing…. LOL

    In all seriousness, great show. I am DEFINITELY interested in trying out Jug fishing 🙂

  14. Your comments about trapping brought back memories. Great analogy between fishing, hunting, and trapping.