I ride in all sorts of out of the way places. I have recently found a couple of collapsible fishing rods in the shed. My plan is this.

Go on bothy/ bivvi trip.
Catch fish.
Gut fish.
Cook fish.
Learn to like eating the stuff.

First step is easy peasy, as is the third one too. Fourth one should be OK. Not sure about the last one until I’ve done it.

Step two might be a problem. Do I just get hook (fly?) into/ onto river and wait?

I’m naive yes, but prepared to learn.

You might be better pff with some small spinners or a float and just grab some worms from the ground. Fly fishing takes a lot of practice and needs quite a bit of space. Then there’s all the complications of fly choice, line choice and presentation. and you don’t get many collapsible rods that will be fly fishing compatible. The biggest trout I’ve caught was on spinners but of course you might catch a pike! (though the germans love to eat them so they can’t be that bad)

Ta for that. Just any old wriggly worm from the ground?

Used to use sweetcorn when I were a lad

forget it, dont be hungry

Go to any fishing shop, have a chat there. I used to go fishing for food, overnight camping, tent, fire, fresh fish. Yummy!
You can use worms (best from a compost pit), maggots (keep in the fridge at home), semolina, even bread. Spinning is easy if you want active, float gives you the total silence. Great hobby for the outdoorsy types.

First thing , find the fish. You could have the best bait or method ever made but if you use it were theres no fish you will be a hungry boy.
Also prepare yourself for the fact that 90% of river/lake fish in thus country tast of mud.

My mates family had to survive in the jungle when chased out by the Khmer Rouge (a while back admittedly). Their preferred technique was to drop a water pump into a pond and drain it, walk in to pick up the fish and then run away before the baddies found them.

Where will you be fishing and will it be Loch/Lake/River Sea Water/Fresh Water?

As an angler might I suggest you check you have:

a: the necessary permits/licences to fish for the species you catch
b: permission to fish the water of your choice
c: permission to remove fish permanently (times are changing)
d: check the fishing season applicable to your area and fish species
e: fun. Good luck.

Edit: P.S. Not all fish make for good eating!

Use some dynamite.

Fishing – “a worm on one end and a fool on the other”

Fishing – not catching

Most of the freshwater fish in the UK you can eat – I’ve eaten tench, carp, chub, pike, zander, catfish (wels) and perch. Of them perch and pike taste the best but both have loads of bones. Tench (and carp) are muddy but that can actually be ok. The Polish eat tench whole (guts included)when they are about 100g, the spanish like them smaller but tend to flash fry them alive when they are about 20-30g. Personally I’d have some spinners/plugs and wire traces in the back pack as that should catch chub, perch, zander and pike.
I think the biggest problem will be the issue of if you are allowed to remove fish from the river. IIRC the EA have issues with ‘permanent removal’of freshwater fish, so it’d be worth checking the situation on the rivers you plan to visit.
I would be prepared to go hungry though – there was a program on Sky a few years ago about two guys on a scottish island doing almost the same but included sea and freshwater fishing; but they didn’t catch much and they were ‘professional anglers’.
Good luck!

If you insist, do it properly:[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tgPoi0hWjk&feature=related[/video]

Do we really? Never eaten the beast that way. Gotta check my birth cert and get it corrected.
Very few still water fish isn’t edible, when you’re hungry in the middle of nowhere (don’t think Birmingham, please) the flavours change.
TuckerUK is right too, listen to him.

I assume you will be after trout in fairly small streams. Worm on hook is best. You can simply have the line wound round a largeish tin or something (easier to hide quickly) but a rod and reel makes it easier. You want a little weight on the line about a foot from the bait so you can cast it but not enough to sink it totally. Cast it into faster water just upstream of a pool and let it follow the flow into deeper slower water where fish will be waiting for food.

One day I’ll get a rod, a licence, and a permit from the post office for the Teifi Pools, been wanting to do that for ages….

Dan- Funny you should say that, I was thinking of somewhere relatively close to there. I have a spare collapsable rod you can have if you come and collect it. Or I could hide it up at MP for you next time I’m passing, where I usually hide the coal.

Roof looks good by the way.

if youre lucky you might be able to just drop a couple of traps in to catch signal crayfish.. this is dependant on the watercourse you’re at..

they’re a rampant and agressive predator.. not natural to these shores and are a danger to our native crayfish..

and they taste a gazillion times betterer than any of our coarse fish..

I would say deadbaiting for pike is your next best bet.. only you’re using a fish to catch a fish there.. which is probably defeating the object..

If you are going to be in the mountains you could always try trout tickling. Although my Dad swears it’s a myth – his technique is to carefully stick your fingers around a rock and as soon as you feel fish fling the whole lot towards the bank as fast as you can.

Re pike, I’ve eaten it in Finland, it was lovely 🙂

Or you could get a Pot Noodle

What are the rods you have? Are they fly rods, spin or float?

And what fish are you wanting to catch?

BTW – most freshwater fish is quite edible (so long as it is big enough to make anything meaningful from it).

The problem you will have is just plonking a line with bait of some kind on the end into a river/stream/lake etc with no idea of being able to read the conditions, understand where fish might be, what fish you expect to find, how you will bait to catch them will just lead to you going very hungry I reckon.

You would be better off shooting rabbits.

Edit – when I am older and greyer I am going to start fishing again – spent my teen years permanently camped by the River Nidd in Yorkshire – I even regularly took a poacher’s rod to school in my bag so I could fish at lunchtime.

As an angler might I suggest you check you have:

a: the necessary permits/licences to fish for the species you catch
b: permission to fish the water of your choice
c: permission to remove fish permanently (times are changing)
d: check the fishing season applicable to your area and fish species
e: fun. Good luck.

Edit: P.S. Not all fish make for good eating!

Yay! Sergeant Buzzkill is here. 😛

Oh yes.. that’s what else I was going to say. Fishing is extremely technical and difficult 🙂

As an angler might I suggest you check you have:
a: the necessary permits/licences to fish for the species you catch
b: permission to fish the water of your choice
c: permission to remove fish permanently (times are changing)
d: check the fishing season applicable to your area and fish species
e: fun. Good luck.

Edit: P.S. Not all fish make for good eating!

And don’t forget to check the H&S regulations and EU protocols which apply to fishing, fishing rods, hooks, worms, flies and maggots in whichever area you are in

VERY technical – much moreso than a non-fisherman would ever appreciate I reckon.

So I can’t just go and try and catch a fish in a river for my supper, even in the middle of the Welsh mountains, miles from the nearest habitation?

In Wales? Oh sure, **** it, you can do whatever you like in the Wild West

You can try – I doubt you will get caught any more than you stand a chance of catching anything 😉

And BTW – I would suggest at the very least, that if you are fishing remote stretches of water, the fish will not be accustomed to specific baits such as maggots, garden worms, sweetcorn etc (as the rivers are likely not to be fished by anyone). You would be better off foraging at the riverbank for foods they recognise – dig for local worms, look for berries on overhanging trees etc.

Some of the Teifi pools are marked fly only etc, we didn’t have much luck up there last time. The res over might be a better shout.
Beware of the baylifts they do exist

Snugs due for refit October Ambrose! Is the Rat still in Clearduu??

Most rivers/lakes are either commercially owned or someone owns the fishing rights to the water.

Taking fish from a commercially owned/run water would be theft, so you probably ought to be careful where you fish.

Some coarse fish would taste nicer than others.

Beware of the baylifts they do exist

dodging the bayleafs is part of the fun, no? There used to be a guy who rode around on a 100% matt black bike round our way.

When I were a lad I spent a whole season fishing. I had all the right gear, a nice flicky rod, a special tackle box with cantilevered trays to organise all of the different floats and hooks and wotnot, a nice reel, and a catapult for firing maggots into trees to make nice splats, or at mates the water.

Lo, what fun we boys had in the great outdoors on fair albions majestic waterways!

Didn’t catch a fricken thing though.

and a catapult for firing maggots into trees to make nice splats, or at mates

and a catapult for firing maggots into trees to make nice splats, or LG shot at mates
FTFY

I went line fishing from a little boat in the sea once in Scotland somewhere when I was kid – piece of piss, we caught loads. 🙂

Line fishing off a boat is completely different – the skipper will have ultrasonic equipment to find the shoal and you just dump a paternoster rig over and pull a load of (normally) mackerel out.

Dan- I have a whole load of lads waiting to volunteer to shift building materials for MBA, give me a bit of notice and I’m pretty certain we could work something out. And I’m keen to help out labouring etc if needed. Or just making tea.

Claerddu seemed vermin free last visit (Nov or Dec).

A mate of mine claims to have caught frogs and eaten their legs when wild camping. Not sure it is true but couold be an option for you.