I made a couple of fishing hooks with natural materials that you can find in the woods. The first hook is made from birch wood and an antler splinter,It is held together using pine resin as a glue and sinew to bind it and strenthen it. This is a triple hook made from bramble thorns,birch,pine resin and cotton thread,you could make the thread out of nettles if you had no cotton thread. Both hooks have been sealed using pure bee's wax. When I get the chance I'm going to go out and give them a try. I was thinking this type of static rig for the first type of hook.
Oughta work! What bait do you figure using? Sometimes the fish here will hit anything that touches water. Other times they get real picky.
Can't get a sense of the size of those hooks they look huge. Anyway to re-post with a ruler in the pic?
There just over one 1" in length. You could say there big but there not huge,My camera take's good close up's. It's the first time i've made fish hooks so as I get more practice in I'm sure they will get smaller and more refined.
THIS is the kind of bushcraft that ought to be practiced more often, along with trapping Those hooks look mighty fine indeed! The resin and thread make for an excellent adhesive, in case anybody out there may not know.
Looks like they will both be positively buoyant, definitely going to need weight to keep them down. Can't wait to see if you have any luck with them.
I agree we should all try to practice this type of Bushcraft. Thanks,Im happy with them as a first try. Yes pine resin is a great natural glue. I made this hook today from Willow and hawthorn, I think there gettin a little more refined.
Can't wait to try that myself. I don't think it will work for my trout but the pickerel and pike will bite a anything.
I can see how the two hooks on the left would easily catch fish, I'm going to look through my sons boy scout book and see if he can get a badge for making one of those. I really don't see how the one on the far right could catch a fish unless they swallow it, I just can't see that one bringing anything in before it flops off. On the lake I grew up on, we used to catch channel cats with nothing more than bright stainless hooks. Those things would hit anything shiny.
The hook on the far right must have worked as it is an ancient design. The photos don't do it any justice but if you where to look at it in your hand it looks like a small fish,the hooks face backwards and the fish swallows it. Flops off?
I was thinking the same thing about the triple hook maybe not working well but that is in fact an ancient design. I’ve always wondered how in the heck that would work. Keep up the good work and let us know how you do with them in the field.
I going to have to disagree with you on that since not everything that was an ancient design worked. I'll agree with you, if the fish with the right size throat swallowed it, it was hooked. I've never fished in the UK or its surrounding waters so I don't know how fish over there react to being hooked but the fish over here flop, wiggle, squirm, do all sorts of movements to unhook themselves. I've had them flop off of treble hooks before I could get them on shore or in the boat.
Well at the end of the day I made a hook which was good fun to do,now if all I have on me Is a knife in the wilderness and I need to fish I have a very good chance of making a hook that will catch me food. Now if I made a few hooks of different shapes,sizes and design then I think that ups my chances some what and Im sure that I would find out what worked and what didn't pretty quick. The fish In the UK act like any other fish But please if you can make and show me a better design of fish hook than the ones I've posted then I would be very happy to see it.