[kchoo]

I think this is fascinating. Has anyone ever tried it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kite_fishing#Kite_fishing

[mel]

Last month I found a kite floating in the water. Snagged it up and put it on my line. Didn't catch anything but the attention of tourists. Yippee.

(Click on the pic)

[makairaa]

It works great on boats. It keeps your bait flopping around the surface. Unfortunately, the wind is rarely going the right direction to be very productive from shore

[capt.raysharking]

i was waiting to see if the kite was gonna yank your little old ass off the pier.. looks like fun, hope your well Mel..

[skyhook]

I used to do some kite fishing along the shoreline near the Aqua Visa pier, not far from the ball park. It's on the eastern side of the city where the winds blow off shore.

The kite I use is a Delta Sled. The design is found in the books Super Kites II and Super Kites III by Neil Thorburn. The kite is easy to make, has a wing span of about 60 inches, is very stable and only requires a tiny drogue chute to assist in take offs and landings.

My target was perch, but the real trick was trying to guide the kite so that the bait would dangle right next to the old pilings in the area.

I tried to keep the set up on the light side. The rod is a 7 foot long boat rod and the reel is a Penn 330 spooled with 40# or 50# P-Line. I fish a simple drooper rig with the bait under a bobber.

[mel]

[tackleholic]

Ive tried it a couple of times on long range boats in mexico. Its pretty commonly used to go after bigger fish...you can use 200 lb. leader and the kite skips either 2 sardines, a flying fish, or a dead humboldt squid on the surface...so the leader is never in the water and the fish dont see it. I never hooked anything big on my rotations...just a couple of 40 lbers which aint much of a challenge with a big 50 sized reel and 200 lb. spectra. Seen other guys hook some nice ones in the 100 to 130 lb. class along with some ig wahoo and watching the fish sometimes jump completely out of the water and crash on the bait is a sight to behold...heck i get a kick out of a bonita boiling on a bonita feather trailing a bubble. They used special aftco kites with release clips, and theres another guy usually up on the upper deck ( if there is one) that has has a rod with some heavy braid on a 6/0 with an electric attachment to retrieve the kite after the fish bites or the kite falls. A lot of folks dont like fishing the kite because sometimes you get stuck standing, holding a big, heavy 50 sz reel in a harness in the hot sun for like 45 minutes without getting bit and houncant rest the rod on the rail becquse your in the middle of the deck behind the bait tank. On the last trip that i tried it, i got to try the three boat rigs with 50s..a tiagra 50w, a penn 50w, and an accurate atd 50, to catch the little 40 lbers...not much fun but at least i got to pull on something on each reel and try them out.

I think if you tried using a kite from a pier down here in sou cal, youd probally hook up with a paddleboarder, a jetskier, boater...just too much surface traffic. Either that or a pelican, seagull, or seal. Nice way to tweak a good reel...hook a 200 lb + seal with heavy line.

[makairaa]

If you could get the right wind direction it would be killer for threshers