In my reading and research the last few years on prepping topics, I’ve vome across the concept of “trotline fishing”, and its applicability to SHTF. You can set the line, go about your business and later return and with any luck have supper/breakfast with out having to sit there and “fish” when there are amanu other more pressing things to be worrying about.

All the examples I’ve been seeing are from people on MAJOR rivers (MS, MO, OH, TN...) that are big, wide, and DEEP. Just curious if anyone has done this on shallow rivers and or narrow creeks.

In Nebraska we are limited by law to only 5 hooks on a line. Not that this manners SHTF, but I want to start practicing these skills in the meantime. Gear without experience is useless. Our local creeks do have catfish and bullheads. Larger (but shallow sandbars) Platte River has lots of little fish, as well as larger gar.

Second question is more about bait. SHTF, I’m not buying or making stink bait...

My uncle used to run trotlines in a large creek near the farm. He used chicken liver for bait. Always seemed to have good luck with it.

If a body of water is deep enough to float a fish, you can put a trot line on it. If you don't mind eating catfish or carp, it's an effective way to put food on the table - or feed your pets, if you don't care for eating suckers. I've not used one for years, because the kids are gone and I just don't care all that much for catfish, or for trot line thieves which are becoming more and more common these days. I usually ended up catching more gar than anything else anyway.

Onward and upward,
airforce

Airforce, back in 'tha hills' everyone but me eats catfish. I don't care for it. The lakes around here are ful of them. Some are huge. A couple of years back a guy caught one that weighed 43 pounds.

Thanks for the feedback. I’ve got the stuff I need to build a line. Thought I’d start doing this as a way to practice. Never going to learn how to clean fish if I don’t catch some. SHTF I’d like to kind of know a bit about what I’m doing.

Years ago, a cousin caught a flathead catfish that weighed in at 83 pounds. At the time, it was a record for a flathead by trotline in Oklahoma. For all I know, it may still be. Maybe I just don't clean them right or something, but all the catfish I ever caught tasted more like river bottom than anything else.

In the years I was stationed in Germany, carp was the most common game fish. It wasn't bad, and I actually developed a taste for gefilte fish. But it isn't all that great either, and I've only had it a couple times since I retired from the military.

Onward and upward,
airforce