Living Primitively

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My home made fishing trap was only out for three nights. The spawning fish usually run during the night, especially in such shallow streams so having it out during the night is more likely to get you a good catch. The trout also doesn’t run when there is ice on the streams, which accounts for a lack of success the first night of fishing. Also, if there is a full moon, regardless of clouds, the fish don’t run.

This way of using the fishing trap does not make use of bait, but instead you fence the stream, leading the fish into the trap. The fence can be made out of sticks or rocks like here. It is an advantage if there is a little water flow through the fence, to ease the flow going through the trap. The holes must of course not be big enough for the fish to pass through. Especially, check under the trap, the corners there are easy to miss. You don’t have to fence much over the waterline since the fish will take the easiest route, which is through the funnel.

Be sure that you fence them into the trap. Fish arn’t terribly bright, which is why this trap works in the first place. So if you place the fence in the middle of the trap like the example here shows, the fish are unlikely to find their way in.

The trap must be weighed down a little to keep it in place. Place some stones inside too. See the fish?

Emptying the trap is easiest to do by taking the whole trap out of the water and take them out through the hole. It makes a mess out of the fence, but it will still reduce the time you spend fiddeling around with your hands in the cold water.

On these two nights I caught 7 and 14 trout. I carried them to a different lake which has too little fish, since food was ample at the time.

Fish is an extremely reliable source of protein in the area of where I roam. Killing it can be done either by hitting the head with a stick or by ripping the throat open. Cleaning it can be done in seconds using this method. Of course, with some practise.

Hold the fish with your off hand, belly up. Stick a knife into the anus and cut up to you are nearly at the throat.

Stick your thumb from the inside and out the throat. Pull off the front fins alon with all of the insides of the fish. You can eat everything of the insides also, except the digestive system.

Be careful to free all of the guts free in the lower end.

Scrape out the bloodlike substance (really the kidneys) clinging to the back of the fish with your nail. Rinse the fish in water and it is now ready for cooking.

Do however also try to cook one on a stick with all the guts inside. I have done that many times and it imparts a pretty good, slightly salty flavour to the flesh.

While a net is a security on it’s own. At this time of year you don’t really need any full sized gill nets. What you need is only 2 metres or so long net, you can even make it with a landing net. The key to this easy fishing is that the brown trout is running for the rivers and streams to spawn from August to October. This exposes the fish in a way that you can not usually experience. The trout run will at this time stand in shoals, often in shallow water. There are muliple tactics you can use to net the fish.

The quickest way is to carefully lay a net over a stream or a pond in the river. You will scare the fish standing right next to you, but if you don’t make too much commotion, you will not scare the ones close by. Chase the fish by throwing rocks into the side where you expect most of the fish to stand or wade into the stream yourself. The latter is most effective in small streams. Voila, you should have fish in your net. The capacity of the gill net will quickly be exhausted and the net will turn into something looking like a rope. All the remaining fish will escape. Because of this I really prefer to fence the stream and use a landing net instead, but I didn’t have such one this time. I will illustrate this method with some photos.

Photo 1: Chasing the fish.

Photo 2: Net with fish in.

Photo 3: Closeup of the net with fish in it.

The second method is a variety of seine netting. Except you use only a regular gill net. You tie the net to land in one end and start walking around the pond. This only works in round ponds and the net’s capacity will probably max out at around 30 fish. But you can take several turns of course. I have taken several hundreds in one day, fishing like this. For this method you need a longer net.

The third method is to simply block the river or stream and wait over night. It might provide you a few fish. A recommendable, passive way of getting food. But it might provide too few fish for survival on it’s own.

Happy fishing!

Making a bird ready for cooking is a simple procedure, but in case anyone are uncertain of how it is done I thought I’d illustrate it. Plucking is normally the most sensible way since it contains the fats in the skin, very important nutrition for people living off the land.

Pluck the bird by pulling a few feathers at the time in the direction of the lay of the feathers. I like to pluck the breast, thighs and back first, then take the wings in the end. Some people use water when plucking, but I feel that only makes a mess. Try not to tear the skin, though it isn’t a disaster if you do. Cut off the head afterwards or leave it on if you want to.

In the front, tear out a little piece of skin and pull off the storage stommach. Cut the connecting “gut” down to the abdomen. Pull out the windpipe from the neck.

Make an incision around the anus and make a cut further up towards the breastbone. Pull out the guts. You can leave all the other organs in the bird while coocking it.

The muscle/grinding stommach can also be eaten. Cut it open and just take off the inner skin of the stommach along with the contents. Wash it properly afterwards. No other part of the bird needs washing unless a shot has pierced guts or similar.

I have found a good way of slow cooking the bird on a stick. Take a stick and leave a flexible branch on and stick it into the bird. The branch resting inside the bird will keep the stick from rotating without the bird following that action. Although I didn’t do that on this occation, I recommend tying up the wings and the legs, or they will become excessively dry.

Keep it over coals for 2-3 hours, for a chicken sized bird. Use decidious woods for the coals, beaver sticks for instance, so that any flames will not leave foul tasting soot on the skin of the bird.

This particular black grouse tasted excellently by the way,

As much as I despise the wasteful practises of most modern hunters I am grateful for the opportunity it gives me for an virtually endless supply of free food, skins, sinew and bones. The moose legs are usually discarded and provide all of these resources. Even if I could get 1000s of legs I have limited capacity. This time I butchered somewhat more than 30 legs. I regret that I don’t use the toes and all of that, since there are some interesting bones there, but because of the mentioned capacity problem I focused on freeing the cannon bones, sinew and skins. That is the process I describe in this tutorial.

First, make a cut with your knife from the upper end of the leg and just push it down to between the dew claws. After you get the cut going it will easily travel down the leg skin.

Cut the membrane on the top a little, so that you get a good grip with your hands.

Make sure to free also the backside, so that the tendons on the back will not adhere to the skin, but remain attached to the bone.

Cut around the skin from just above the dew claws.

Skin a little in the lower end as well, to faciliate easier removal.

Step on the leg in the lower end, take a grip on the top and pull the skin off.

Next we focus on the tendons. First, free the small ones on the front of the leg. Make incisions from the sides from the top and skin it off with a cutting motion until you get down to the joint.

Do the same on the back side. This tendon is however much larger and is composed of several layers. Cut a hole on each side, all the way down to the joint. Make sure you free the tendon that lie in the depression at the same time. The example leg is a back leg, on the front legs there are also some bones that rest on top of the sinew. Free them first by cutting underneath from the top.

Cutting off the tendon can be rather difficult if the knife is dull or short. Get a good grip and carve your way down.

Now it is time to free the cannon bone. Start cutting from the backside of the joint. Cut the cross-supporting tendons first. They are on both sides of the bone.

Cut the tendon that rests in the joint by sticking the point of your knife into it and carve it off. Break the leg backwards as you work your way down through the tendon. Be careful not to snap your knife tip as that may easily happen if you force it into the joint.

Cut the connective tissue in the front and you have freed the cannon bone.

Here is a small pile of cannon bones, hides and sinew. Dry the tendons and skins in a place with good ventialation, to make sure they don’t sour. Outside is such a place, unless it rains. Stretch out the skins by the aid of pegs or similar. Make sure there are no closed folds where the skin can sour. The cannon bone can be split open and the marrow eaten at once, or it too be dried. The fat will store well within the bone, but you will have to render it if you use it while it is not fresh anymore.

In one leg only you have many potential projects. Enjoy!