Peter, this is good advice if:
A: You trusted your life to the police, which I do not. I trust my life to me.
B: You have had military knife training and feel confident you can use a knife to do someone bodily harm to keep them from harming you. I do have military training and I do feel that I could protect myself with a knife unless of course the other person has a gun, in that case I'd be glad I carried a gun. I keep a good sharp knife in a clip on my left side, just in case I run out of bullets.
C: You trusted that your cell phone would work in all situations and it comes with a force field to protect you from bullets, rocks, ball bats, ect. I sometimes cannot get service on the crapper and I'm sure not going to run at anybody holding my cell phone up screaming "I called 911! I called 911!" Why would anyone do that? What happens if it was that one guy that just didn't care, he laughs pulls his gat and the last thing you see is fire out of the barrel? Sorry, I like my life more than that.

I could go on but I hope you get the point. Don't trust your life to pipe dreams.

I've felt that I needed a gun exactly twice in my life and both were before the days of legal conceal and carry. One situation was ended with the judicious use of a mini aluminum baseball bat and in the other I had to show the pistol in my glove box before the guys knew I meant business. In neither of these situations would I have felt safe with a fillet knife or cell phone and I can almost bet that the guy on the other end of the bat wished I had had a pistol to point at him.

I often carry openly when I am fishing. There is nothing against the law about it and the most that will happen is the cop will run your SS# and tell you to have a nice day. I often fish from the bank on the Kentucky river. I notice people eyeing the pistol and there isn't nearly the amount of bs going on. I think the drunks just assume I'm a cop and they move on. I had a local cop come down one day where we were fishing. He asked how we were doing then asked if my pistol was loaded. I told him that it was and if there was a problem. He said no then we started bs'ing about holsters and where we go to shoot.

Geo- Invest in a small frame 9mm or 40, shoot it ALOT and get a comfortable holster. Get your CCDW. I carry a Kel Tec P11 most of the time concealed. I know people bad mouth them but mine has never had a jam and it is parkerized so no worry about rust. When I'm fishing I usually carry a Smith 40 or Ruger 45. They are both big but since I open carry they are more visible.