Books on Fishing

I've recently bought two books on fishing to help me in developing this necessary survival skill.

The first is Fishing Basics by Gene Kugach.



This is a good book, particularly in its discussion of the individual fish. For a fish like, say, largemouth bass, it gives you a brief synopsis of the fish, an illustrated picture -- and then, which is invaluable -- pictures of which baits and rigs are most effective in catching the fish. The book also includes a good section on making your own lures, cleaning and preparing the different fish for cooking, and so forth. It is an excellent basic guide and very practical.

The second book is Cliff Hauptman's Basic Freshwater Fishing



Although not as immediately practical as Kugach's book, the book is a very good philosophical primer that begins with what fishing is, and then walks you through equipment and techniques for panfish and gamefish. I think both books complement each other well and would recommend both of them; if I had to buy one, I'd buy Kugach only because his is immediately more practical.

The big thing I learned from the books that I have applied in my own fishing is the use of floats. The lakes I fish in are very weedy; my best luck (with bluegills, so far) is using a fairly short line close to the float with nightcrawlers. I have had a few nibbles on crawfish style artificial lures; but my spinners and bass worms have largely gone ignored. I've lost spoons and crankbaits in the weeds; I may try some surface lures next time to try to get the elusive trout and bass.

Here's what I've caught this fall -- all released because they weren't big enough in my mind to keep:

3 bluegills
1 yellow perch
1 crappie
1 chain pickerel

Other than the pickerel, who went after a live worm on the bottom, they're all panfish. In a survival situation, I would have eaten any of them, but I didn't see the need to keep any in the current situation.

Pawn Shop

Yesterday during lunch I went to my usual dealer in Silver, the owner of a local coin store, only to find that he is closed on Tuesdays. So, wanting to make my usual monthly investment in silver, I decided to see who else offers silver coins.

The search brought me to a pawn shop in a pretty bad neighborhood. If you've never visited a pawn shop before, it is a pretty depressing experience. It is, in a sense, the opposite of doing survival prep -- pawn shops are loaded not with useful things, but with things people have decided they can do without. The biggest items I saw in the store were stereo equipment, DVD players, game consoles, and video games themselves. After that, it was cameras, and after that, watches. A woman in front of me had a bag of jewelry which the store owner -- a hyperactive but highly intelligent twentysomething -- was picking through. He was on a cell phone getting spot gold prices for 10k, 14k, and 24k gold, presumably from a bigger dealer upstream.

He looked at me curiously -- I was in my usual high tech serf costume of a polo shirt and khakis. "Do you sell silver coins?" I asked.

He did -- but not my usual Maples and Eagles. He had the older stuff -- Morgan and Peace dollars. After quickly running through my head the value of a Morgan against the price of pure silver (77.34%, if you're curious), I bought five Morgans from him.

One thing that impressed me with the Morgans is that they were coins meant to last -- the edges are heavily milled, and the face and back are stamped deeply. Even after 125 years the words E Pluribus Unum and Liberty are clearly visible. The coins impressed me for being, well, the real deal. The coin itself is the store of value, unlike the "full faith and credit" that backs up the junk coinage of today. On Survivalblog fairly recently, a commenter who lived in the Balkans in the 1990s said that trade there was often carried out in the old coinage of the Austro-Hungarian empire -- governments may change, but a silver coin lasts forever. Even though the Morgans and the Peace dollars no longer circulate, they may yet have service to perform if the U.S. ends up defaulting on its debt and facing inflation -- which it surely must. I'm going to continue to buy Eagles and Maples, but I'll also throw in some Morgans and Peace Dollars as I expect they will also be useful in the future. They are certainly durable old things.

Silver yesterday closed over $17.00 again. I'm anticipating it will go higher.

More Shooting and Fishing

It rained Saturday, so my plans to shoot one day and fish the next got compressed. I did both today, with mixed results.

Fishing was hampered by a lack of live bait. New England fish are smart, and only bite if there is real protein invovled. My usual place for bait doesn't open until noon on Sunday, so I was forced to go with plastic lures. It was an epic failure. It didn't occur to me to check the local Wal-Mart; they of course have shiners, night crawlers, and earthworms. Next time, we stock up the night before. I did get to try different rigs, and played with different sinker/lure combinations. That was, at any rate, educational.

Shooting went well. I moved my zero out to 50 yards on the rifle. At 100 yards I began to see the problems creep in -- a slight sight adjustment and I was back on target. I'm now confident on putting shots on target at 100; next time out we'll start from there and see how we do.