Fishing For Food

"Everyone has to believe in something: I believe I'll go fishing" Henry David Thoreau

There is an abundant resource out there that I would like everyone to consider which is fishing for some of your food. You don't have to store them you just have to catch them.

Here is an excerpt from an article linked below you'll have to scroll down the linked page as the artcle is not placed well in the link.

"However, there is a wild fish resource that's both self-renewing and so abundant that the lack of exploitation can be a problem. It is also free for the taking and easy for anyone to catch.

I don't mean "Government Fish": hatchery-raised rainbows, togue, or lake trout, nor do I mean lunker black bass, landlocked salmon, or walleyes, tacklebustin' Northern pike, or muskies. These are all properly deemed gamefish—a public natural resource that, like ducks, deer, and other wildlife-is husbanded by sportsmen's groups such as Ducks Unlimited and B.A.S.S., and managed by relatively beneficent government agencies for the benefit of recreational sportsmen ...who willingly underwrite their friendly Fish & Game wardens, hatcheries, and stocking programs through license fees, stamps, and taxes on bait and tackle.

I refer to the abundant, easy to catch panfish that are seldom sought for sport, but are left to kids with cane poles and bent pins ...if they're fished for at all. An intermediate link in the freshwater food chain, these mostly foot-long-or-under species feed on bugs and minnows and in turn are eaten by bigger game fish, raccoons, fish eagles ...and by you and me. Indeed, they got the name "panfish" because they fit so well into a hot frying pan."

http://www.motherearthnews.com/library/1995_August_September /Fishing_For_Food

Panfish, I love panfish.  I spent my childhood summers reeling in many a Bluegill and Bullhead... ah, glory days.

However, I have to caution about the "live off the land" philosophy.  In the great depression wilderness lands were hunted and fished virtually "dry" of game.  The problem was not so much the farmer hunting his own land as it was his neighbor, who figured that city folk would pay for any venison he could kill and dress, who hunted the land sterile to fill this demand.  Since deer don't know where property lines end, it was only a matter of time before "your" deer ended up on the neighbor's property, and that's not even considering all the poaching that went on.

Long story short, depend on what's in your pantry, and consider anything else a windfall.