I am pondering over what extra gear I want to take for catching, cleaning, cooking, and eating fish on my John Muir Trail trip this August.
Do you who fish while backpacking add much extra weight to support that pastime.
I don't want to impact my gear weight to drastically, but I do want to fish and like fried fish. In any case, on this trip I will be carrying more than my minimal base weight of 7.5 pounds, since I need to take a bear canister and want to catch and eat trout.
I am planning to take the following stuff to support the fishing:
* TFal Grilled cheese sandwich fry pan 6.2 ounces with a lighter home made handle
* 360 Fountainhead Tenkara Caddis Fly Rod 3.3 ounces
* Line, leaders, flies, etc. 1.0 ounce
I am also debating over taking a bigger knife than usual. Normally I'd carry a 0.6 ounce Gerber LST UL, but am considering taking a 3.5 ounce Mora. I figure that it would allow filleting larger fish.
Additionally I am probably taking some other extra stuff like a nicer but heavier camera. Also my Kindle with all my planning documents and the Wenk guidebook as well as some general reading material.
With all of that, my base weight looks like it might creep up to a bit over 13 pounds which sounds manageable to me. Total weight at the heaviest food amount is probably about 23 pounds. I could skip the fry pan and bigger knife and save a bit over 9 ounces, but I keep thinking that it might be worth it to carry that extra weight.
Thoughts or suggestions on any of that?


