SIMPLE SURVIVAL SKILLS TAUGHT BY PAPA
What a better way to spend an 80 degree February day than enjoying yourself with the family at the park?
I know that slides, swings, and other fun play equipment can be a lot of fun, but so can lakes, rivers, and streams. Often, the @little-peppers get to enjoy both.
Since we try to live a more connected life to the world around us, time and time again we like to teach our children what plants and animals can be used in different situations, just in case we are ever in a survival situation. Many things all around us can be used to food or other useful things, so today we learned a bit about food.
When you are in the wild and lost or in a survival situation, finding something to eat can be very useful. Obviously getting back to civilization should be a priority, and water is also a necessity, but food is also important.
Since most people do not carry a survival kit or a bug-out bag, sometimes all that you have is the clothes on your back, whatever happens to be in your pockets, and your body. Today @papa-pepper showed the @little-peppers how to catch some edible animals in the lake with your bare hands. Many times, if you can see an animal, there is a chance that you could catch it. Most of the time they will be too quick for you, but there is still a chance.
With practice and skill, eventually you should succeed more often. @papa-pepper often succeeds. Here are a few of the animals that we caught today.
CRAYFISH
Down in Arkansas they call them Crawfish, and up north we called them Crayfish or Crawdads. Whatever you call them, they are often easy to catch and can be very tasty. Perhaps soon we will show you the whole process of preparing Crayfish to eat, but today was just practicing skills and a bit of catch and release. We think that they are like getting free, freshwater mini-lobsters or shrimp!
MINNOWS
We caught a variety of minnow barehanded today. The easiest method is to scare them under rocks and then trap them with your hands. This one in the photo was almost 4 inches long. Minnows can easily be gutted and then either roasted or boiled. In survival situations, and perhaps just to get more nutrition from them, you can even eat the whole head… eyes, brain and all.
FRESHWATER SCULPIN
We had these little fish in the creek behind where @papa-pepper grew up, so he’s been catching them all life long. This one was in a stream, which is where you will usually find them.
They blend in really well can be found hiding on the bottom. Most of the time they will lie still, but when they dart, they are very fast. They feed on smaller fish, and especially like trout eggs.
FROGS
They ones are just little Cricket Frogs, but most varieties of frogs can be cooked and eaten. In the wild, you’ll often see them jump away from you and hide underwater. If you watch where they hop though, you can sometimes catch them.
Obviously when it comes to a survival food source, the bigger the better, but it is still good to practice your skills.
BULLHEAD
Small Bullheads like this are often easy to find hiding under debris on the bottom of the lake. Sometimes, bigger ones can also be found in this manner.
Like Catfish, the Bullhead had three sharp spines that can poke you and draw blood. When this happens, it can be very painful, so it’s best that the @little-peppers know this ahead of time.
PANFISH
With skill, it is possible to catch many varieties of fish barehanded. This Green Sunfish was a surprise, since @papa-pepper found it while catching minnows in the rocks. Green Sunfish can often be found hiding in submerged rock piles, and sometimes you can trap them between the rocks and capture them.
@papa-pepper had used a variety of methods to catch a variety of fish over the years, but it is nice to know that if we needed to, Papa could catch us some “real” fish, using only his hands, to keep us fed.
Days like this and memories like these are special, and passing on knowledge and skills to the next generation can be very rewarding.
Since we were just having some fun today, we let all of our little friends go back into the water, so maybe we will see them next time.
We know that we enjoyed our day, so we hope that you enjoyed what we shared about it!
UPVOTE-FOLLOW-RESTEEM
80 in February, doesn't that just make you scratch your head and wonder? I am always quoting my Dad as you well know, but one thing he says about Arkansas is that he has never been anywhere where he was more cold. My Dad have been everywhere, and I mean everywhere. A few places in Africa he has chosen to miss, but pretty much the rest of it. So, your post isn't about jacked up weather, but from what I can see, it's jacked up.
It sure makes me wonder! Just glad I'm not in the negatives right now, as Wisconsin often is this time of year!
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Wow what an amazing time you all had. :)
We sure had a great time! Thanks.
Listen up minnows, Papa Pepper knows survival fishin' !
Lol, thanks @paradise-found!
I have caught and eaten a lot of crawdads, minnows, froglegs (not the whole frog), bullheads, and sunfish. We had crawdad pizza for my sister's high school graduation party.
It takes a long time to clean little fish. I have cleaned one after another of 5-gallon buckets of smelt from the Great Lakes - the old-timers said they used to just throw them into a washing machine, back in the day when they netted them by the pickup truck load. And I once cleaned over 150 sunfish less than 3 inches long. They were tasty, but it took a long time to scale them all! never overlook tiny fish! Froglegs are the quickest out of all that list to clean, I think -- don't even need a knife.
But I have never eaten a sculpin! That would be interesting!
Smelt are very little, and so many! Crawdads can take a while too! Thanks @haphazard-hstead!
I think Wisconsin has a lot of smelt, too. Maybe you little-peppers can ask your grandparents or other relatives in Wisconsin if they ever caught smelt. If they did, ask them how they caught them. It's quite a process!
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