Other (Unconventional) Seafood Gathering Methods

Dave Sears, a reader who commented recently on my post about bowfishing, has had some interesting experiences in collecting food from the sea.  He sent these seafood gathering tips via email.  These are new to me, and sound fascinating. Here's what he had to say in his own words:

Not being a writer (I am a retired tug captain with 43 years experience all over the world), I really don't know where one would post articles such as: on catching shrimp with a junniper bush and a cement block anchor. The shrimp are attracted to the junniper for some reason and their whiskers get entangled in the dense shrubbery. It's maybe illegal I think, since it's basically a shrimp trap.   You shake the shrimp out of the bush into your boat. Haven't shrimped this way for 50 years. LOL. 

Or how about a trot line for catching crabs. My uncle used to buy "bull"  lips from the slaughter house very cheap. Theyr'e super tuff as cows actually pinch off grass with their lips, not their teeth as does a horse (which needs de-sanding frequently). These "bull" lips are twisted into a 21 thread line 100 fathoms long, every couple feet. The trot line is deployed along a channel side with anchors (cement blocks) both ends. No buoys for others to steal it as they do crab traps on occasion. Cross bearings enable you to relocate and grapple up the line when you want. A spool such as used for keel rollers on boat trailers, mounted on a bolt welded to a C-clamp affixed to the gunwale of your craft is your line lifter/guide. As the line clears the water, the tenacious crab drops off the bait, but you have sufficient time to see if it's a fat Jimmy or a berry crab (female w/egg clusters). We would flip the desirables into the boat with an old tennis racket while the other person paddled. You don't need to run it daily like servicing traps. The crabs are free to come and go. In Florida it's legal to have one 5gal bucket of blue crabs per person with regular fishing licenses. I suspect my uncle took me along more for the xtra bucket of crabs than any other reason. LOL. 

My dad was a Tampa boy and used to make cochina stew from the tiny cochina clams. He'd boil the cochinas, strain the broth, add milk, butter, and oyster crackers. Only seasoning black pepper.  well, not exactly survival food if you already have luxuries like milk and butter. if you want to use these ideas, feel free. I'm sure you'd write em up better than I can.

Dave Sears


Thanks for the useful tips, Dave.  I look forward to trying that juniper bush "shrimp trap" someday.

Now the cochina clams Dave mentions are something I have tried.  On my long kayak trip down the west coast of Florida and through the Caribbean, I boiled up a pot of these tiny clams on more than one occasion.  On parts of the Florida Gulf Coast, you can scoop them up by the bucketful right at the edge of the surf line.  Boil them until they open, then use a toothpick or sharpened stick to eat them right out of the shell.  It takes a lot to make a meal, but they are great source of easily-obtained protein on the seashore.


By the way, I welcome useful reader tips like Dave's, so if you have something related to Bug Out Survival that you want to share and don't have your own blog on which to publish it, send it my way.

Edible Plants: The Inner Bark of Pine Trees

Pine trees of one variety or another are plentiful in most parts of North America:

I just ran across an excellent article over at Survival Topics on how to harvest and prepare a widely available edible plant food that is overlooked by most foragers and survivalists - the inner bark of pine trees.  Yeah, I know, if you haven't tried it I know what you're most likely thinking.  But this is something I have tried, and like the author of this article, found it to be not only palatable, but quite tasty when prepared in a similar manner to how he does it.    

My first attempt at eating pine trees came at a time between two of my longest kayak trips, when I was out of money for more travel, but too used to living outdoors to adjust easily to any other lifestyle.  I went to the woods to think about what I was going to do next, launching my kayak on one of my favorite streams in my home state: Black Creek.  After paddling downstream a couple of days to one of the most remote stretches of this creek that winds through the Desoto National Forest, I pulled the kayak up a steep bank near a place where a spring poured into the main creek and set up a hidden camp in a stand of tall pines.

It was an awesome place to do what I had come to do, which was to get away from all people to think and to spend a few weeks practicing my hunting and gathering skills.  I had some fishing gear and my Marlin Model 60 .22 rifle, and very little in the way of food, mainly just some rice to fall back on if all else failed.

At the tail end of winter, it was not the best time of year for foraging for edible plant foods, but with several hardwood hollows within a short walk of my camp, the squirrel hunting was exceptionally good and I was able to take two or three each time I went on a on a short morning hunt as needed.  It was too early in the year for much in the way of fresh greens, but I did utilize things like palmetto hearts that I found in one area and every day I made pine needle tea and sassafras tea (more on those in future posts), while trying to stay warm as a cold, drizzly rain fell for much of the time I was there.  I had long planned to experiment with edible inner bark, and this was the perfect time to do so.

I found a medium-sized Longleaf pine felled at the creek's edge by erosion of the banks, but still green and fresh, and went to work with my machete, chopping away the rough outer bark, then using it like a drawknife to peel off strips of the white inner bark.  This inner bark is soft and flexible, and separates nicely from the trunk into strips about an eighth inch thick.  Back at camp, I sprinkled these strips liberally with my essential survival seasoning, Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning, which renders practically anything not only edible, but delicious.  I don't go anywhere without it, and will have as large a supply as I can carry in any bug out bag or bug out vehicle I have to leave in.  I know I would eventually run out in if the situation turns long term, but like coffee and other vices, it will sure make things nicer in the beginning.

The way to prepare this inner bark is to roast it until the strips become dry and crispy, with much the same texture as potato chips.  I used a rack I built near the fire to hang the strips much the same way you would hang meat to make jerky. Believe it or not, roasted inner pine bark prepared this way is not only edible, but pretty tasty as well, the only thing disagreeable being the slight flavor of tannin.  For the rest of that three week trip I kept a supply of it, roasting it every evening while sitting by the fire.

It's well-documented that many Native American tribes utilized the inner bark from a variety of trees as a staple of their diet.  The reason is simple: it is found everywhere, is available year round, and is easy to obtain and prepare.  You can harvest it from living trees as well, as they often did, and can do so without killing the tree as long as you only remove a small section from one side of the trunk and not all the way around.

For much more on the topic and for photographs of harvesting and preparing pine bark, both by roasting and frying, read the full article on Survival Topics:

http://www.survivaltopics.com/survival/edible-pine-bark/

Although this piece is specifically focused on  the Eastern White Pine, many other varieties of pines and other trees as well yield edible inner bark.  If you're serious about learning how to survive in a bug out situation, especially while on the move,  it pays to experiment with these kinds of plant foods that can be found most anywhere, regardless of the season.  Just don't forget to bring the Tony's.