Peach Seed Survival Fishing Hook

As a student of the primitive skills from yesteryear, I am always amazed at how our ancestors (and even some tribal cultures in the present day) utilize even the most basic of resources that we in the modern world cast aside as trash. I always try to challenge myself to use ever part of whatever resource I might have the opportunity to hunt or gather. With animals, I use more than just the meat for food. I utilize the hide for the leather, the brain for tanning, the bones and/or antlers for tools, the stomach for a container, etc… and the list goes on and on. I continually challenge myself with this mentality.

Recently, in late autumn, I enjoyed a perfectly ripe peach. After I finished I was amazed at the size of the seed inside. I’ve seen 100’s of peach seeds in my life but I don’t think I’ve ever really taken the time to really inspect one. They are really quite the marvel and look like something from another planet indeed. They are hard too – actually harder than almost any other natural wood-like thing I’ve ever seen.

Peach Seed

As I admired this seed I noticed the bottom of it was shaped kind of like a fish hook and I began to wonder how my primitive ancestors might have used such an odd little object. With that, I took out my knife and began to slowly carve the fish hook that I envisioned. Wow, carving the seed was no easy task. With many of the wooden primitive fish hooks I have carved in the past the main problem was always that they broke very easily. This was not the case with this hook. It was almost like carving rock. Using stone tools with this task would have been very time consuming.

Peach Seed Fish Hook

After carving the hook and a tying notch, I braided some milkweed fibers and fashioned a very solid fishing line that I can pull on with all my strength and it won’t break. There is no doubt I could catch a fish with this hook and line.