Forum: outdoors.stackexchange.com
Tags: <survival><fishing><improvised-gear>
Title: What are some alternative ways of fishing - i.e. catching fish?
Question: If I'm out in the wilderness and want to catch fish to survive, what are some ways I can do this  without  a conventional fishing pole/line?

Answers:
sents: text: I like the native american fish trap ( fishing weir ).
text: It's relatively easy to build if you have the right access to a stream.
text: The basic idea behind this trap is to create a funnel that the fish follow into a trap that they cannot easily get out of.
text: To build it, you simple stake off an area with small branches pushed down into the mud.
text: The water must be able to get through, but make sure the sticks are close enough to prevent the fish from coming through.
text: Notice in the picture that the bottom set of sticks creates a funnel that fish easily follow into the trap.
text: Once in there, it's very difficult for fish to find the one point where they can escape the trap.
answer_details: author: outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/27/Timothy Strimple
score: 22
sents: text: You can actually reach in to the water and grab the fish.
text: No running or chasing.
text: You just quietly get in position, and then when it's time, you quickly grab the fish.
text: Thomas Elpel describes the process in his wonderful book, Participating in Nature: Wilderness Survival and Primitive Living Skills.
text: The nice thing is that it requires no equipment.
text: He says the technique is illegal in many places, because it is so effective that if widely used it would harm the fish population.
text: In a survival situation, I would accept the legal consequences.
answer_details: author: outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/23/Jay Bazuzi
score: 9
sents: text: Spearing is both viable and varies in legality within the U.S.
text: Spearing during salmon runs has been done for centuries in the pacific northwest.
text: "
text: Darkhouse" spear fishing is popular on frozen lakes in the upper midwest and during the summer natives still spear for pike and walleye on many upper midwest lakes.
text: Indian Fishing and Hunting Rights
answer_details: author: outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/3674/Sam
score: 6
sents: text: One time in the Bihor mountains I watched a group of locals catch quite a remarkable number of fish by hand.
text: They would walk upstream fairly fast running creek, two of them actually in the water, and several of them on the sides.
text: The ones in the water would every once a while throw themselves down, scoop a fish with their hands and throw it to the bank, where the rest of the guys would immediately fall upon it and kill it with a hatchet.
answer_details: author: outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/55/Jan Hlavacek
score: 5
sents: text: You can use a net to catch fish like you would do in an aquarium.
text: Fastening a net at a strategic place in a rapid can, in theory, act as a fish trap, but I've never tried it.
answer_details: author: outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/131/Shawn
score: 5
sents: text: Trotlining is popular in the southern U.S. for catfish.
text: It’s reminiscent of more commercial techniques and is a passive means of catching fish, where one sets out temporary rigs of rope along a several hundred foot area and then baits hooks every few meters, so that there are ~25-50 hooks in the water.
text: Then it’s left for some number of hours and checked to see
text: if it’s caught any fish.
text: After fishing, the trot line is hauled up to avoid boats, swimmers or divers from getting caught in it inadvertently.
answer_details: author: outdoors.stackexchange.com/users/15764/user15764
score: 4

Summary of the answers:
Alternatives to a pole include the native American fish trap (fishing weir), trot lining, spearing and netting. Otherwise, reaching into the water and catching fish by hand is a possibility.
Fish can be caught by hand, using fishing weirs, nets, spearing and trotlining.