Really good points, Mike60, which should be thought about by folks who find themselves in a bug out situation. I thought about emergency fishing gear a while back and finally just shrugged and got a couple of gill nets and, as you mentioned, a selection of snares. (Squirrels are damn tasty in a stew!)....The weight is certainly an issue.......
Thanks Walrus for the kind words. While a bug out situation is probably one of the least likely things to have to deal with, it is by its very nature one of the most catastrophic. When I started looking seriously at this a number of years ago I determined that even though it's only a remote possibility, the cost of failure was simply to high. So, given the conclusion that I had come up with. I decided to see if there was anything I could do to increase the odds in my favor. One of the things I quickly decided on was to get back into an old hobby of mine from many years ago - hiking. But given the fact that I'm now in my fifties....and...um...generously proportioned....I needed to be a little more careful and not go nuts and kill myself. But on the plus side of this research, it did give me plenty of justification to buy lots of stuff to play with it and try out. I've always been sort of a gear whore anyway.
When I finally started really using my stuff I found out quickly that to take everything along with me that I wanted I was going to need two mules to carry it all. Weight becomes an issue the first time you slip that pack on your back until you take it off. That is why I have the opinion I do about shotguns. They are great for sport and homes and even base camps, but that is all - unless you have a mule.