Kite Fishing

[bothyman]

Has anyone tried kite fishing??


>> http://www.fishingkites.co.nz/index.htm

MickT

 

[AJB]

I once caught a set of rugby posts on Aldershot Rec with a 10’ power kite – but threw it back!

Kite fishing, I fear this is going to cost me a lot of money – thanks for that

 

[jdlenton]

I wondered when some one would talk about kites on here my other big passion, I’ve tried this it works great gets your line out and well past the surf easily and it won’t cost you an arm and a leg. I used a setup like the big dropper rig but no where near as good. If I’d caught anything like what they seem to have caught I would have lost the hole rig we only bodged it together from one of my small play kites and some cheap bits from the tackle shop great fun though and we caught our dinner



One question how do you make a natural materils field expedient bushcraft kite? Think of all that cordage!

 

[AJB]

Hi jdlenton,

So are we going to break away and start a bushkite forum?

What do you fly?

Andy

 

[george]

One question how do you make a natural materils field expedient bushcraft kite? Think of all that cordage!

When I lived in Sulawesi...blah blah blah.

No seriously though, there are a number of places where Indigenous people fish with kites. In Sulawesi in Indonesia a lot of the local villagers fish from small single person "prahu" or dug out outrigger canoes. When the weather was too bad to take the boats out they would fish from the shore using a large leaf as a kite. The leaf was trapezoidal in shape and was stiffened with struts made from the ribs of palm leafs. They would attach their fishing lines to them similarly to the dropper rig shown in the previous link but much more basic. Main difference is that they would then just crash the kite on to the surface once they had flown it out beyond the surf line and leave it there like a beachcast line.

Cant recall what kind of leaf they used but it may have been breadfruit.

See pics here http://www.kiteman.co.uk/LeaveKites1.html

George

 

[Doc]

Very interesting.

I use a parafoil kite for antenna lifting. A half wave antenna on the amateur 80 metre band is 40 metres long, and the kite lets you get a lot of wire in the air. There are issues with safety and static to consider.

Never tried fishing with one though.

 

[jdlenton]

George;

Those leaf kites are lovely I wonder what indigenous UK/ European leaves you could use maybe horse chestnut leaves any one got any other ideas for large leaved uk trees we could use to make kites? What did the Sulawesi use as kite lines before nylon fishing line (if that’s what they use). I recon natural cordage would be too heavy for one of those small kites.



AJB;

I fly anything I can get my hands on. But seriously I have in my collection small fighter kites, a UFO, quite a few deltas, a Cody box, a Double Square Box, a Rokkaku I have a 3m Felxifoil Viper, I used to buggy and board a lot but sold all my power kit as I thought it a rubbish way of sailing (not good up wind) a windsurfer sale on a mountain board or a land yacht are far better on land and a short board windsurfer is far better in the water unless you want to get huge air at high risk and have a mate with a jet ski to bring you back in when you get blown of shore but that’s just my opinion.



Sorry all for taking this off topic back to kite fishing.

 

[Roving Rich]

THat loks like great fun, I'm gonna have to go try this at some point
Thanks for the link !

Cheers
Rich

 

[AJB]

Wow JD, that’s a collection of kites!

I always wanted to have ago on a buggy, I once had my hands on an original Cody Kite, made by the man himself, never got to fly it though. I worked at the Royal Aerospace Est in Farnborough, originally Her Majesties balloon and kite factory, where Cody developed his designs – there were still a few knocking about. How big is yours? Lifted anything?

 

[jdlenton]

Hi AJB

I've handled quite a few of W.S.F Cody’s kites my mate had a kite shop and used to specialise in making Cody’s he made one that had a 10m span! Mine is only about 2 meters pulls quite a bit in a strong wind though. I’ve lifted quite a few things with single line kites, things on small parachute, cameras, stuff that looks like UFO’s at night . Once had the chance to fly a half size Cody man lifting rigg and that at one point needed three of us sat on the winch to hold it down

James

 

[jason01]

I picked up a new Rev Shockwave yesterday to replace my old one . Mostly build my own kites though, so far Ive built and flown NPW's, 6ft/12ft Delta's and Revolutions. The Shockwave is my favourite kite, when theres enough wind, I'd love to build a Cody sometime!

 

[jdlenton]

I've always wanted a rev but never had the money when one turned up whats an NPW?

 

[AJB]

If only you could light a fire with a kite, we might get away with a forum!

I suppose you could always sleep under one

 

[jdlenton]

If you could sharpen with one then we definitely could LOL

 

[AJB]

Sadly, I think you have just summed us all up

 

[Lithril]

If only you could light a fire with a kite, we might get away with a forum!

I suppose you could always sleep under one

mmmmm now that would take all the effort out of a Bow Drill!

 

[jdlenton]

umm wind powered bow drill i'll bring my cody to the next meet and we'll give it a try ey lithril?

 

[Fire Starter]

I saw an instructor making one of these in Scotland when he was giving a demo on wilderness fishing techniques. Seemingly the Chinese were using kites for fishing hundreds of years ago.

He constructed a frame of hazel into a box shape and stretched the inner bark of the lime tree around it
I think the bark had been in water for sometime and was wafer thin about 1ft wide. It was rigged up with natural cordage but I can't remember what it was made of. Didn't see it fly though but it did look the part

 

[Stew]

I think a rev would work really well for fishing. The ability to hover it in one place then easily move it would be ideal.

The line length could be a problem...

 

[george]

George;

Those leaf kites are lovely I wonder what indigenous UK/ European leaves you could use maybe horse chestnut leaves any one got any other ideas for large leaved uk trees we could use to make kites? What did the Sulawesi use as kite lines before nylon fishing line (if that’s what they use). I recon natural cordage would be too heavy for one of those small kites.



AJB;

I.

Interesting to try to weave horse chestnut leaves and make a kite out of several panels made that way.

Nowadays they all use monofilament line but I was told that even up until recently (eighties, early nineties) they would make their own fishing line and weave nets from various materials that included a couple of plants very similar to nettles. I have some net bags that are made of fibres taken from some kind of orchid as well. The orchid fibres are very strong but I doubt they would be useful as kite lines. I know that in other places they used silk strings - I wonder if there was something similar in Sulawesi? Certainly they had cotton thread too and that could easily make a string.

I was also told that they use spiders webs - not for the line but as a mixture of lure and hook when they are fishing for a specific kind of fish. Basically a ball of spiders web is tied on to the end of the dropper line and allowed to hit the surface of the water. The fish they are trying to catch has a long thin mouth with long needle like teeth that catch in the web ball and they can pull the fish in with it.

I never saw this technique being used but was told about it by several independant sources so it's entirely possible that it was true.

All interesting stuff though - I think I'll need to try it with some of the big sled kites I've got.

George