PRIMITIVE FISHING KIT. Making and Testing. Nettle cordage, Thorn Hooks, Bushcraft Survival Scotland 

Never be sorry for the sound of a waterfall, mate! Water is life!

What a great cordage video! In future, you could try using a drop spindle to twist needles fibres into long singles before plying them together. This should make the process much quicker and easier. The Gaelic drop spindle (mostly found in the Western isles but also in other parts of the Highlands) was called a dealgan and was just a carved stick. They're fairly easy to spin with and could even lead to a video on Gaelic fabric production and traditional Scottish ways of making yarn and clothing that lasted well into the 18th century

I wanted to learn fishing but I was fruatrated by the amount of modern plastic stuff people use. This is just what I needed!

already have caught a 30# Blue Cat off of these (going to try to get a 60#+ next year). ru-vid.comUgkxzXmlErSqVAEGWFEKO530BvTqFDw53QW3 Definitely very strong, and sharp. Additionally, the gap is wide enough to actually hook a fish (not always the case with circle hooks). I purchased the 8/0, but probably should have got the 9/0 (they seem slightly smaller than other 8/0 hooks). Additionally, having the point in-line helps if you drift fish. I have yet to get a serious snag with one of these hooks.

Never thought I would ever here a Scottish person say “split that bad boy in half”

I lost it at "Just keep twisting, just keep twisting, twisting, twisting" You deserve a lot more credit for this video, this is amazing

Tom seriously your channel has taught me so much about bushcraft. I'll never be able to repay all the knowledge you've given me. Thank you.

The wax also helps keep the fibres together. Tallow is another option but it's not as good as bees wax. If you are going for smaller fish then a goose feather quill with the vanes removed works well as a float but it's a good idea to again use bees way to seal it. Both wild hemp and flax (linseed) make good cordage but are far more of a pain to process for differing reasons. Flax does have the advantage though that at moderate temperatures (bees way melting temp approx) the "glue" on the surface of the fibres softens and sticks them together. This is removed for linen but works really well for cordage.

"That's fishing!" too right. Great video.

If you boil the natural string in wood ash water and leave to dry it strengthens the fibers

Wow, I discovered this channel yesterday and it is so interesting! Thanks for sharing your wisdom, mate! Cheers!

Ummm... About the "stinging" part. Do those needles come off when you strip the leaves, or are they destroyed by the pounding, or what? I spent several years in the UK as a boy, and to say I developed a healthy respect for nettles is to substantially understate the case, so that's my big question.

Hello there from Northern Ireland, very knowledgeable and interesting video lad.....Thank you

nothing wrong with the spot your fishing in. Your just fishing it wrong. Take off the bobber. fish the white water and let the bait bounce on the bottom as it goes down river. The Hole below you looks great if you had longer line and a longer rod you could let the bait sit on or under the edge of a rock in the flow. the fish will pick up the scent and come to investigate. Great Video! You cleared up a lot of the crafting for me TY! Subscribes.

Really great film mate. I've caught many fish using nearly the exact same kit as you. Mainly perch on the local lakes but I've had some good flatties using the leaders and Hawthorn hooks on the coast . It definitely works. Shame the trout werent interested 👍

beautiful river...and beautiful place Great video

Well done. Your next challenge could be to do all of this with no steal knife of modern tools. It is totally doable. Thanks for the upload

Primitive people. genius minds!

Wow!! You never run out of ideas!!

Oh baby, let's twist, like we did last summer! Oh yeah, twistin' the night away!

Brilliant video. looking forward to the next one. it would be cool to see you catch a fish with these primitive components.

The thorn for the hook is clever as, the Kit itself looks lovely "nothing like plastic, its beautiful in my book. thank you for your video much appreciated.

This is the kind of stuff I could get into! I have always enjoyed learning about historical practices.

Wax coating the line will make it far more buoyant which is something to keep in mind if you are looking for bottom feeding fish.

Always enjoy the videos about primitive skills. Nice fishing kit. Safe journeys.

I know new comments rarely get seen - but, I Caveman'ed out when I saw this video pop up. (Okay... truth - I squealed like a little kid. 😄) I *love* this channel - especially the staff vids - but, all of them I have watched. *I can't wait to try this out,* while I roam around the Little Missouri river valley in the South West corner of Montana this summer. Maybe catch myself a fat catfish for the cast iron... Thanks for another great vid!

An absolutely superb video. A great addition to resources for historic re-enactors interested in angling history.

maybe should you put a kind of little burden at the hook, like a little stone for example? Make a silex hook could be a good solution too. It's very important to immerse the bait if you want to have more chance to caught something ahahah

Nettle is delicious when steamed or boiled too. Waving them over the fire until wilted or boiling the leaves takes away the sting. Great for you. Tastes like a rich spinach

Our ancestors got all the time of the world so they could afford to spend long time in dauntless tasks like this. After all they got busy and get entertained at the same time without all the distractions of the modern world.

Thanks for another insightful video! I grew up in the southern US and us kids used to make very similar kits with my grandfather. We didn't have many willow trees in our area so we usually used cane for our rods, but we had plenty of hawthorns for making hooks, and we used tallow instead of beeswax since it was much cheaper and easier to source.

I absolutely love that knife you have. Wish I had something nice and simple like that.

your dedication is great!

I believe the main problem while trying to catch a fish was the lengh of your fishing pole aswell as the depht of the hook. Location looked beautiful tho.

Awesome job on this one Tom! Been looking forward to this video since you mentioned of it back along. I find making nettle cordage quite relaxing which is nice as it takes a while. Been working on a slightly different process with the nettles so if it successful i'll let you know

Superb video. Educational, entertaining, beautifully filmed and edited. The right balance of detail where it is needed, step by step instruction without being long winded. Really good stuff. Keep it up.

"Com' on and twist again, twistin' time is here!" -- Chubby Checkers

Never a disappointing video with you! Really informative and gave me some good ideas! Seriously nice work!

As an American, the way you say "hook" makes me giggle.😊 This was awesome, thank you!🙂✌️

Once again, a video of unparalled quality that actually teaches you how to do something useful.

This channel is amazing. Happy to have just found it and to subscribe. Thanks for the great content!

Wonderful video. Great info and I love how you added lore and science to make a nice complete picture of tool use and reasoning.

I loved this video man! I really liked the process of showing the creation of cordage (always wondered how that was done) and I really enjoyed the segment of you testing it out. Have to say though, I love catching brown teout and that stream looked like a place I could stand all day and just fish. Once again great video!

Nice! One minute in and I already learned more than in any other Survival/Fishing/Bushcraft video!

Ah natural cordage... She's a cruel but irresistible mistress 😬 Fantastic looking kit though man you've given me some ideas 😁🤜🏻

I like it. Really good video. One of the best ones I've seen.

This is a interesting topic I have been looking into, trying to make a more traditional pocket fishing kit.

Just a thought. I use longer thorns to make gigs. They are simply crafted and gives you options in your kit. Your closing remark about cordage is spot on. In the wild cordage is gold. You never have enough. Great vidio. 👍

Seen plenty of desgins for cordage and fishing hooks but never these! Thanks for the video!

This was awesome! A really relaxing watch and also very educational! i really have a new found appreciation for the modern convenience of purchasing cordage!

I like the thinking, the skills and the honesty!

Riveting all the way through. I can’t believe how often we use nettles for our projects. Great vid covering a great plant.

The most desired leader lines were made from the tail hair of white stations. If you can get access to any stallions or geldings you should give it a try. (No mares because the urine damages the hair)

After long time seeing an old Indian fishing technique thank you.

Wow. I'd be happy to just have an emergency fishing kit made with modern manufactured tackle. This is way beyond what I would do. I'm impressed!

Sooo cool 😎 Thanks for sharing these skills! The kit looks awsome!

Whilst the one time as a kid trying Petrify Fishing (private land with permission) was unbelievably successful for zero effort. Nothing is as satisfying as making a line to meal in a day

Awesome work man, gonna give this a try for sure, greetings from Perthshire 👍🔥👍😀

An idea. Look into "drop spindles". May be much faster making the cordage.

Delightful video. Exemplary writ large as to why my boots are each laced w/ 6 feet of 550 cord and a 25 foot hank of 275 cord( bundled so tightly it’s the width of a AA flashlight) is part of my EDC. Carry a couple fishhooks & leaders in my wallet, on a tape sachet. Nonetheless the bobber hack & primer on twisting nettles cordage was outstanding. I love this channel .

Are you familiar with the leg roll form of reverse-wrap cordage? It's a tricky technique that requires some finesse, but once you master it, it makes the manufacture of cordage much, much faster. Anyway, brilliant video, mate!

Great work Tom. Nate

Haha victorinox the best EDC.... Great video like from Germany Bremen

very impressive channel you have bro , really enjoying it and have already learnt alot :) found your channel while searching for how to make a great kilt

Wow, great video and i never realised nettle could be used for that! As an engineer i would love to put some weights on the end of the cord and see how strong it is. Would some simple blacksmith-made hooks be feasible and fit into your time period? Cracking video, i look forward to the next one :)

Twisting, twisting, twisting! 🤣🤣 Nice video Tom, looks like an interesting spot to fish and enjoy nature!

Nice video thanks. I thought that dog rose barbs would make good hooks. Also if you used your rigs as night lines I am sure they would catch.. 👍 Water reed stems make good floats too..

Good video. Thanks. Please show us some pictures when you catch a fish.

Simply brilliant. Your video quality, composition and lighting are great. The content is superb. The amount of research you do is fantastic. Have you thought about teaching over here in the states? I was thinking, if you could meter out the number of strands, and measure weight bearing. In other words, perhaps 2 strands can support 4 pounds, 3 strands 6 pounds. Then your line might be thinner based on expected fish weight and fight. That might make your lines thinner or thicker. Also the wax might cement or glue microfibres sufficiently to created additional strength. This would be a great lab class. I great learning experience. If the world disintegrates into chaos tomorrow, you will survive. Thank you for all your videos.

Very much looking forward to primitive kit version 2.0!! Great video!

A but late to the party but you should try horse hair line and gorge hooks. They're smaller and more likely to get a bite than thorns or even simple iron hooks. Theres also a theory that fish were just generally bigger back in the day so don't be discouraged by not getting a bite.

Was always curious about primitive fishing, and this is such a lovely video!

Видео похоже о том, как я провёл лето! Познавательно, но нет в этом необходимости. Спасибо за видео! Проводите своё время с пользой!

Fantastic video and easy to follow, thank uou

you took "teach a man to fish" to a hole new level!

Unique work. Keep it up.

Уважуха тебе брат, благодарю за обучение. В природе всё взаимосвязано

What About A Cordage Cast Net Or Fish Trap? Great Video On Making Fishing Cordage And Kit. Thank You For The Wisdom On A Nearly Lost Art.

This was so so cool! I’m definitely going to try making nettle cordage, we have so many nettles around where we are and I can’t get my family to eat them, so rope it is lol

AWESOME. Thanks for sharing!! 🤘🏽

I want an open world game where you follow the life of a highlander, and there has to be a fishing simulator too! Such cool history, I'm gonna visit Scotland one day and see some of its beauty for myself. Hopefully I meet some MacGillivrays along the way

try adding some kind of sinker to the very end so it dangles down in the water more

Don't know which I like better, nature sounds or your accent. Oh, yes I do..,... Your accent. But I love your videos on all things historical.

I always enjoy watching your videos. I learn so much about my ancestors from the Highlands. Keep up the good work brother

Nettles , the stronger the sting the stronger the string 😊

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this technique has been used since Paleolithic times. Very interesting and revealing video. We often look at archeological digs, and a lot of artifacts like this simply have rotted into oblivion, leaving us to wonder, "hows did they do that"?

Thanks for the video!

You could probably treat these Nettle stalks like Flax stalks. They may do better if you rett, scutch and hackle them in the same process as Flax. Either that, just use Flax. Pretty sure Flax was grown in Scotland for cordage and linen. Ireland grew it.

Love the channel! My question is on the hooks, winding card, and cord winder. Do you have any documentation on wether or not these particular methods were actually used in ancient Scotland? Your use of them was brilliant and they all certainly could have been used exactly as you did but are there any surviving examples for instance.

Informative video, Tom. Thank you for sharing !

Line used to be made of woven hair read The Compleat Angler Izaak Walton, Charles Cotton published in 1653. You will love it.

Some great skills shown there. You deserve to catch fish after all of that effort.

Great video I liked it very much.

Brilliant work. Next a naturally sourced umbrella and chair? 😀

Very cool. You make it look easy. Well done, and quite the skill.

Great video ! thank you so much.

Great make Tom

thanks for making this man, i always wanted to know how this type of kit was possible to fabricate in the UK forest type area. keep it up

Great video as always, mate. So interesting to see how the ancestors might have gone about their business. Tioraidh!

Great video. You put alot of effort into making that kit but it would be a great achievement to land a trout with it.keep up the good work cheers