Homemade Bug Out Bag Survival Fishing Kit
Kevin Felts 08.21.18
Looking to make a homemade survival fishing kit for a bug out bag? Well, you have arrived at the right place. We are going to discuss putting together a simple and lightweight fishing kit for either a bug out bag or a hiking trip.
All we are looking at is the kit, and not the rod, reel, or fishing line.
The types of fish we are targeting:
- Perch
- Crappie
- Trout
- Bass
Anything that can be caught from the bank, or in shallow water, with a short pole, line, and lures.
For this project we are going to start out with a single or double sided Plano Stowaway box. Why Plano? Because Plano makes a wide assortment of fishing tackle boxes. We could go with something like the medium double sided Plano 3400, or a single sided box such as the Plano 3448
The Plano 3400 measures 8.6 inches long, while the Plano 3448 measures just 4 5/8 inches long.
It boils down to how compact the reader wants to go, and how much fishing tackle they want to carry.
Survival Fishing Kit Lures
Next are the lures. For this article the term lure means any type of artificial bait.
- Tubes / skirts
- Jigs
- Small crankbait
On a personal note: One thing I like to do is order jigs and crappie tubes en masse. These can typically be found on Ebay for around 100 tube skirts for $9.99, shipping included. From June – August 2018 I ordered close to 400 lures from Ebay. These were a combination of tubes and curly tail jigs.
Once we have a nice collection of jigs and tubes, we go fishing to know what kind of fish we can catch.
With the curly tail jigs I caught:
- Blue gill
- Bass
- Crappie
- Redear sunfish
- Goggle-eye
The green and black tubes caught mostly perch and crappie.
The key is to go fishing with lures from your homemade survival fishing kit to see which lures work best. Certain colors work better in certain water conditions.
Final Thoughts
Keep in mind that small lures in the survival fishing kit will catch lots of small fish, while larger lures will catch fewer fish than small lures, but the fish will be bigger.
Fishing for perch, a one inch long crappie tube typically brings in lots of small perch and crappie. However, one inch long crappie tubes can be difficult to find. Typically, one and a half inch crappie tube skirts will be the most common.
An issue with the one inch tube skirts, fish have a tendency to swallow them, which usually results in the fish dying.
Take the time to experiment with different styles of lures and colors. For example, the green and black tube skirts typically do well in clear river and lake water, while white does better in dirty water, at least here in Southeast Texas.
