Fishing with spiderwebs!

[Galemys]

A beautiful clip from the "South Pacific" BBC series, a man from the Solomon islands using spiderwebs and a kite to catch fish, enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-hmHuRKYP8

Cheers,

Tom

 

[Dano]

Now that’s clever

 

[Asa Samuel]

I saw that, it's a really good programe with great bits of filming

 

[Shewie]

Very good, thanks Tom

 

[Galemys]

Some background information on this interesting method:

Catching garfish with spiderweb bait (page 86, see also page 101 for fishing with kites, there's also a list with references at the end of the chapter):

http://books.google.nl/books?id=ziA...3J5cQI&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6

Catching drummerfish with spiderweb bait and a fishing rod:
http://www.spc.int/Coastfish/News/Trad/18/Atu.pdf

Cheers,

Tom

 

[Goatboy]

Hi Galemys,

Glad you posted that, incredible thought process must have gone into that.

Goatboy.

 

[BOD]

:You_Rock_

That is wonderful and illustrates so well the brilliance of early humans.

Those long toms make good eating.

Looking for a Long Tom BBQ soon. Going to try the technique w/o the kite using just a palm frond rod.

Thanks Tom

Ash

 

[Galemys]

Going to try the technique w/o the kite using just a palm frond rod.

If you are gonna try this out Ash, use golden web (Nephila) spiderwebs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_silk_orb-weaver

Are those fish really called "long Tom's"? Never heard of that.
It reminds me of a book in which the custom of cannibalism in the pacific was discussed (I think it was "the Happy isles of Oceania", by Paul Theroux). Some of the islanders that practiced it used to call the flesh "long pig" as human flesh apparently tasted like pig. He even suggests that there's a correlation between the former cannibalistic practices and the popularity of spam on the same islands...

Cheers,

Tom

 

[jimford]

I understand that an old method of catching eels in the fens, was to thread worms onto a piece of 'worsted' (wool) and roll it into a ball. The eels get their teeth entangled in the wool.

Jim

 

[Galemys]

According to `The book of the spider` (by Paul Hillyard, a funny book, filled with spider-lore) one E.A.Pratt mentions a second method of fishing with spiderwebs in his book ´Two years among New Guinea cannibals` (1906); a net made by the spider on a loop formed by a bent piece of bamboo. ´In a very short time the spider weaves a web on this most convenient frame`. I´ll see if I can scan the accompanying picture from the book, it looks like a huge scooping net, as tall as the man holding it up.
here you go:

According to Pratt , fish ´of about one pound in weight´ were caught using these nets.

One E. W. Gudger: has written about these spider web fishing techniques: ´On spider webs and spider web fish nets´ (1918) and ´More about spider webs and spider web fish nets´ (1924). If someone here has access to these articles I would be very interested to read them.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[BOD]

If you are gonna try this out Ash, use golden web (Nephila) spiderwebs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_silk_orb-weaver

Are those fish really called "long Tom's"? Never heard of that.
It reminds me of a book in which the custom of cannibalism in the pacific was discussed (I think it was "the Happy isles of Oceania", by Paul Theroux). Some of the islanders that practiced it used to call the flesh "long pig" as human flesh apparently tasted like pig. He even suggests that there's a correlation between the former cannibalistic practices and the popularity of spam on the same islands...

Cheers,

Tom

They sure are. Very common in Western Australia and around the top end to Queesnsland. Same here in the tropics

They seem to grow bigger in WA or maybe the fishing pressure is greater in Asia.

As for "long pig", according to my classmates who lived in PNG and I believe it is corroborated elsewhere the natives do prefer Melanesian long pig to Caucasian which they say does not taste as nice!

They are probably right since Corks eat processed and flavoured rubbish while they eat organic.

But its seafood for me. Golden orbs are not rare here so I'll "harvest" a web soon. Now got to get myself over to the sea somehow!


http://www.austmus.gov.au/fishes/fishfacts/fish/ahians.htm

http://www.oceanfootage.com/stockfootage/Long_Tom_Fish

 

[Goatboy]

Maybe the next step is putting a harness on these things like they do with cormorants??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolomedes

Goatboy.

 

[Matthew.Passmore]

That's brilliant, very clever, would be interesting to know the original thought process to use a spider web the catch fish.

 

[Logit]

thats crazy! makes me wonder if the advert for HSBC is real, lol. getting cormorants to get fish...

 

[walkaboutman]

just shows how outside the box you can think and get results...oh to be half that smart..

 

[Galemys]

Spiderweb fishing in a survival/bushcraft setting:

http://willowhavenoutdoor.com/general-survival/survival-spider-web-fish-net/

Cheers,

Tom

 

[Galemys]

Another clip of south seas fishing with spiderweb and kite as shown on a animal planet fishing program (select the clip called ´fishing with kite´):
http://animal.discovery.com/videos/tribal-fishing-with-jeremy-wade

 

[palmnut]

thats crazy! makes me wonder if the advert for HSBC is real, lol. getting cormorants to get fish...

It's certainly a story I've heard of for many years. I seem to remember that they use a tight ring around the bird's neck to stop it being able to swallow the fish.

Edit: Yep - good old WikiP ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormorant_fishing

Peter

 

[Huon]

We call needle fish pipers in NZ and they are very good eating. You can catch them with very small hooks but that wouldn't be as fun as with a spider web. I've only ever caught them twice. Once one came out of the water onto the deck of a raft we'd taken on a camping trip. The second time was on a hook about 10 times too large when I was actually fishing for snapper. I think the piper probably got hooked by accident from the outside rather than in any sensible way.

I enjoyed the windfall both times.