When you’re stuck in a forest with none of your usual equipment, you’re going to have to rely a lot on your own wit, knowledge, and luck.
One of your bigger priorities over the coming days in a survival situation is finding food, and you can never have too many options to maximize your flexibility wherever you may find yourself, no matter how abundant you think it is.
Enter fishing. While it is a relaxing sport that many enjoy on a peaceful spring, fishing in a survival situation may, quite literally, save your life.
Fish populate practically all bodies of water, so if you can find a nearby river, there is likely to be an abundance of scaly meat waiting for you.
Nearly all of them are edible, nutritious, and pack a lot of protein, which is especially important to keep your body energy chugging along so that you can continue to do other things.
“But what about the fishing rod I forgot at home?” You may ask. Not to worry, you don’t actually need a fishing rod with all those doohickeys if your goal is simply to survive. You have more than enough materials to help you craft an improvised one in the forest without too much difficulty.
In this article, we will help give you tips as to how you can create your own makeshift rod from simply scavenging materials in the forest.
Branching out
To get started, you’ll need to find a suitable body for your future rod first.
Luckily, you’re surrounded by lots of potential bodies, simply look around the trees nearby. What you’re ideally looking for is a branch that is 6 to 7 feet long, and about the diameter of your thumb at the widest end.
The branch doesn’t need to be that exact length if you’re willing to do some additional legwork. While shorter branches should be ignored entirely, longer branches can be cut down to the desired size. To do so, lean the branch against the tree trunk (or any tall wall) and crack it with your boot. You may want to hold it at the top to keep it steady and to ensure that you don’t accidentally snap the wrong amount of the branch away.
But your work isn’t done just yet, while any branch might seem promising at first, not all of them are flexible enough to bend without immediately snapping in half. It would be really bad if you manage to hook a fish, only for it to get away after snapping off your rod from your little tug of war.
Luckily, you can give your branch the flexibility test with a little help from your feet. First, step on the tapered end of the branch (That is, the end part of the branch that is smaller than the other side). Afterwards, grab the opposite end and pull it towards your chest. Your ideal branch will not crack under pressure. If it does crack, then sad to say, it will likely do the same if you try to go fishing with it, so you’re better off throwing it away and finding a new one. If it doesn’t, then good job! You now have the body of your rod!
One last thing. If you have any kind of knife with you, you can use it to smoothen out your branch to remove saplings and ease its grip on your hands.
The line of your rod
You can now get started on your line. Lots of materials scattered about in the forest can function as materials for your line. Vines and other plants are very common and if you don’t mind losing a bit of clothing, you can even use your shoelaces or some thread from your clothes. You can get ultra-creative here, as what matters the most is that they have the strength to pull in fish without snapping in half or getting pulled apart in the process. The line should be around 10 to 15 feet long.
Now you’ll need to put it on your rod. Tie a knot at the end of the handle of your rod (The thickest part of the branch), and gently coil it around the rod with equal distance all the way until you reach the opposite side.
You want to have a lot of extra line to be able to cast your rod far enough in the water. If you have a body of water like a river nearby, you can test it out, yourself.
Do-it-Yourself Hook
If you want to be able to bring the fish up in the first place, you’ll need a hook. If you have a knife with you, you can make hooks in the traditional sharp curvy shape out of scavenged materials. Particularly, hard shells, bones, or wood. Bones may require a dead animal to work, but if you can’t find any, you can use wood.
You can also get creative. For example, you can use the metal tabs found on metal aluminum cans (cans found in the forest, in the river, or the can from your leftover beans) to fashion as a hook.
When fashioning the hook, what’s important is the sharpness of the tip. It should be enough that it might almost puncture your finger when you apply pressure. You want the hook to puncture the mouth of the fish if you want to catch it in your rod.
When you’ve finished, tie it to the end of your line (the opposite of the handle). If you want to test its strength, pull them on opposite directions with your hands. You want the hook to not detach from the line when the fish bites. If it detaches, it’s likely that the fish will escape with the hook still in its mouth if you try using it as is.
Bait and Lure
Even in a survival situation, a fisherman’s best bait will still be worms. Luckily, they’re quite common in the forest, although they’re likely in hiding. Turn around rocks and fallen logs in damp and dark areas, and you’re likely to find some worms wriggling about. Take as many as possible; if the fish manages to snag your bait and get away, you won’t have to get up and search for more as you already have some prepared. This prevents you from wasting time and energy.
If you can’t find worms, you can use lures as an alternative. Feathers, colored cloth, and pieces of bright metal such as earrings can help in imitating the fish’s natural food like minnow.
Wrapping Up
It doesn’t take too long to make your own improvised fishing rod. The forest is abundant with natural resources that can help you fashion one easily, and all it takes is a little bit of creativity if you want to use some unconventional materials.
Even with all this information though, I suggest practicing making one of these in a nearby forest environment. It pays to always be prepared and having practice early will immensely help when you suddenly find yourself having to fish with limited materials in a survival situation.