Kite Fishing
An Article by your guide Ron Brooks
When I was a kid, one of the favorite summer pastimes was kite flying. We would spend hours adding just enough tail to keep the kite straight, but not so much that it would not reach some altitude. We would ride bicycles with the kite string tied to our waste and the kite suspended in the air 30 or 40 feet above and behind us. On calm days we would run sometimes an entire city block trying to launch our kite.
I still enjoy kite flying, only these days it is from the stern of a boat! And the kites I fly today are a far cry from the newsprint and balsa wood versions we used to make. These high tech kites I use are for one purpose, and that is to catch fish.
The method is relatively easy. It just takes a little practice to keep the boat motion either with the engine or with a drift such that the kite remains in the same relative vertical space all the time.
The kite acts as an outrigger of sorts, although you might better name it and "up" rigger.
The kite is
launched and flown from the stern of a boat, usually on a line from a special
rod and reel. The fishing line is attached at the kite similar to an outrigger,
only instead of keeping the line out, it keeps it up. Boat speed
determines where the bait is in the water.
Usually a slow
troll or drift, this fishing is designed for live bait. A live blue
runner, or ballyhoo, or other bait fish is suspended from the kite right on the surface of the
water. The bait's attempts to get below the surface
coupled with the motion of the kite keep the bait in and out of the water, right
on the surface. It really drives billfish in the area crazy!
But don't be fooled into thinking that this is strictly a billfish tactic. King mackerel, cero mackerel and occasionally wahoo are also caught from kite rigs. My fishing partner has even caught yellowfin and blackfin tuna from his kite.
Any one can use this method. The expense involved is minimal, even for the special designed fishing kites. Many fishermen make their own kites to save money, but when they are made from paper, they usually don't last through the first day. So, a vinyl kite made for fishing is recommended. Simply catch your live bait, get to the area you would normally be trolling, and dangle a live bait on the surface under a kite. A nice lazy way of spending a day - no hard fishing, no weeds to clear from the bait, and a whole lot less gasoline used.
Tell us your fishing experiences and reports on the Saltwater Fishing Forum.
Comments? My Email.
