Once hooked, the fish remains at the end of the line, alive but securely caught, until retrieved. Part spring snare, part fishing pole, a trigger line automatically sets its hook in a fish’s mouth when it takes the bait. The trigger line, taught to me by my Ojibwa grandfather, Amos Wasageshik, when I was a boy, is one of the simplest and most effective methods of harvesting fish for survival. Pan-sized fish are most numerous and easily caught, but catching these morsels one at a time on a conventional rod and reel may be too slow to keep in step with caloric demands, especially for a group. In a real-life backwoods scenario where fish might provide most or all of the calories a person ingests, you need a technique that produces maximum results with minimal effort. The challenge has always been getting fish from the water so they can be rendered into food. This northern pike, caught on a trigger line baited with a chunk of summer sausage, demonstrates how efficient a fishing tool this set can be. Almost any permanent body of water can be presumed to support fish, and virtually all species are edible. With most of our planet underwater, fish have been a part of the human diet since before recorded history.

Pike fishing setup in fishing planet