Improvising Assignment - Primitive Fishing Kit

For this project, I wanted to utilize only natural materials to make everything required for an effective fishing kit (Pole, Cordage, Hooks, Flotation Device). In truth, I experimented with this idea as a young boy (10) with limited success, but I always utilized cordage (fishing line) I found near the fishing area. To replicate the entire kit without any modern materials was new territory.

I used information found in the book Ultimate Guide to Wilderness Living: Surviving with Nothing But Your Bare Hands and What You Find in the Woods by John and Geri McPherson (2008). 

To begin the production of the kit, I began with harvesting Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica), then stripped the fibers from the stalk and outer bark, and made cordage using the twist and twist over method. I tapered the line to attempt to make the finished cord tough, castable, and if broken easier to repair. 

After cordage was complete, I made a series of fishhooks and gorges from Black Hawthorn branches and thorns, choosing only thorns with appropriate angles for fishing hooks. I also made several sizes of gorge type style hooks. 

I finished by finding and processing a standing dead cedar sapling into a pole, tied on the cordage (in 2 different spots to avoid losing the cordage), and making a small flotation device from quills from a porcupine. 

The complete process is included in the video below. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJL_GqFI7zo