# Using Kites to Surf Fish



## GaryPoyssick (Nov 22, 2010)

Do any of you use Kites to fish bait or arties offshore when you're surf fishing?

Like 200 yards offshore? The reason I ask is because we often use them sailfish and kingfishing. But not sitting on the sand. We hear tell people do it BIG time in Australia. 

If any of you have done it, I would love to talk to you on the phone so I could use your experience to write a story about it.

gary


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## Dklimek (May 17, 2010)

I looked on youtube. Type in "Kite Fishing Navarre Beach." You may be able to e-mail those guys and get what you are looking for! Make sure and send me a copy of your story! :dance:


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## Dklimek (May 17, 2010)

Also try "What to do on New Zealand Beach"


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## Flight Cancelled (Jul 7, 2010)

Would that work in the summer months considering we have mostly south southwest wind blowing????


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## cobra_steven (Jun 2, 2010)

Depending on the location of the beach. I know it wouldn't work on surfside beach!! Maybe SLP area since there's different angles to the water....but idk!!


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## TomCat (Jan 6, 2006)

It'll take a hail of a kite to pick up half a jackfish and 2 pounds of lead. I know they're available but they look hard to controll from what I've seen.


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## Charlie2 (Aug 21, 2004)

Flight Cancelled said:


> Would that work in the summer months considering we have mostly south southwest wind blowing????


I know that you can sail against the wind, but a kite? C2


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## Mustad7731 (May 23, 2004)

*Successful kite fishing from the Beach*

Gary,
I wrote a post on my only try at kite fishing off the beach about 5 yr ago on this
board...It went step by step how I did it....It was in Jan or Feb of the year...I
don't have time to look it up...You may want to try the search system...We used
kites instead of kayaks to take our baits out for Bull Reds....
Mustad7731
Jackie


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## SurfRunner (May 22, 2004)

I think it would be a great way to fish a live bait as long as you had the offshore wind and there wasn't a bunch trash in the water to deal with. It still sounds like it might be a lot of work though.


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## Charlie2 (Aug 21, 2004)

*Fishing From The Beach*

If I want to fish heavy baits off the beach, I resort to what is known as a Trolley Rig.

I use a 15 foot fiberglass rod for my anchor rod. Cast it out and slide baits down all day long.

I have seen (from a distance) some kind souls attempting to use balloons to carry the bait out and they didn't look like they were doing any good.

A kite seems to be too much to fool with. JMHO C2


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## scrambler (May 28, 2004)

You would need a northwest wind for the kite to work and we only have a northwest wind a small percentage of the time. You could probably buy a kayak for what it would cost to buy a kite with the loft neccessary to carry lead and bait out. You could use the kayak year round.

I've often thought about kites and other methods on days when it was rough or cold but have not come up with anything better or simpler than my kayak.


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## inshoreangler (Nov 22, 2010)

Nice replies all but let me give you a piece on kites, you'al don't know. There is a kite out there, to which later I will explain where you can get one if interested that tacks to the extinct of a sailboat. It will work at around 60 degrees to either side of a blowing wind. You can put up to three, as that is the most I have used, lines on it at a time, off the beach. Yes, it will take out half a Jack and the weight and further than you could ever throw an anchor rig for a Trolley; up to 500 meters! Light winds, medium and heavy 25 knot plus winds as the kite comes in three sizes. AFCO or SFE kites can not do this, they are just kites; straight up and out. Buy a SFE kite and pay 130 bucks up, same with AFCO. This baby is like 72 for the biggest kite and goes down in price from there. The company that builds the kites has not changed their prices in years and are not planning on so either. Now if you could shark fish to Kings off the beach at 500 meters, do you think you might purchase one of these jewels of a kite?


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## Sea-Slug (May 28, 2004)

inshoreangler said:


> Nice replies all but let me give you a piece on kites, you'al don't know. There is a kite out there, to which later I will explain where you can get one if interested that tacks to the extinct of a sailboat. It will work at around 60 degrees to either side of a blowing wind. You can put up to three, as that is the most I have used, lines on it at a time, off the beach. Yes, it will take out half a Jack and the weight and further than you could ever throw an anchor rig for a Trolley; up to 500 meters! Light winds, medium and heavy 25 knot plus winds as the kite comes in three sizes. AFCO or SFE kites can not do this, they are just kites; straight up and out. Buy a SFE kite and pay 130 bucks up, same with AFCO. This baby is like 72 for the biggest kite and goes down in price from there. The company that builds the kites has not changed their prices in years and are not planning on so either. Now if you could shark fish to Kings off the beach at 500 meters, do you think you might purchase one of these jewels of a kite?


 If that was the only way I could catch fish or it was a much more successful way of fishing I might look in to it but yaking your boy out works just fine for me or just wading and swimming it out and casting or dropping it works just fine for me to. No need to change what it took years to learn that works. I can see it perhaps in the winter months with a steady offshore wind and the water is to cold to really be comfortable except in a wet or dry suit. But in my experience, the redfish and blackdrum do not bite as well after a front blows thru. And sharks are few and far between in the winter on the Upper Coast. So it would be quite a challenge.


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## inshoreangler (Nov 22, 2010)

*Challenge?*

What is the Challenge? Did you never "Fly a Kite" as a kid? OK! At least in kiting, you never have to get wet.


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## outtotrout09 (Apr 21, 2009)

Not with a SouthWind on Texas Coast


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## inshoreangler (Nov 22, 2010)

outtotrout09 said:


> Not with a SouthWind on Texas Coast


What are you referring to? That statement meant what...?


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## SurfRunner (May 22, 2004)

inshoreangler said:


> What are you referring to? That statement meant what...?


I think he is reffering to the fact we don't get many days out of a year to be able to use a kite.

We do get north winds in the winter but it's not exactly the preferred time of the year to fish. There are days it coulod work during the spring and fall but most of us are challenged with timing it on those days because of work and family. With that said, I think most people would rather just use their kayak.

I do think fishing with a lite would be neat though. Especially with live baits suspended slightly below the surface. Kind of the way they fish for sailfish in Florida.


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## inshoreangler (Nov 22, 2010)

Caught in Flight Kites require little to no wind on a mini kite and up to 25 knot winds for the maxi. the midi is an all purpose kite and yes it is the same way I catch sailfish in Florida. The difference is, as I already stated you can have a wind blowing directly up the beach, say north and this type of kite will fly out, off the beach at a 45 degree angle to the north wind meaning the kite is west out over the water, with a north wind. No other kind of kite does this, yet! Also, I do not have a kayak but do fish daily in my 16 foot 1979 Mohawk canoe. I use the kite to not only propel my craft through the waters, at break neck speeds but with use of a sea anchor, we kite fish with it as it pulls us along.:rotfl:


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## Swells (Nov 27, 2007)

Kite flying is a deadly kind of fishing that puts live bait acts probably the most natural of any presentation. You want to suspend the live fish about 5 feet below the surface, and the bait will freak out and want to swim down ... this attracts big like a rocket. The hook-ups can be spectacular. The Florida guys perfected kite flying and it's quite a rodeo that Texans are just picking up.

Basically you need two lines, one for the kite because it can pull like the devil, and one for your fishing line. Your fishing line has a large orange float on it 10 feet up the leader from the bait so you can hang that the float where you can see just in the air above the waves. You have a clip fitting on the kite line so that when a fish strikes, the clip releases and the kite stays up the air. You have to crank pretty quite to take up any slack from line in the air. 

Hopefully, a ling, mack, tarpon, jack, over-size red, shark, or other nice fight in the surf line ensues, yeehaw.

How to catch live bait? That's where your trout pole comes in. Catch some smalls in the surf and hook 'em up. The pros use a steel wire to poke a hole in the meat just behind the head and pull a rubber-band through it to fasten a hook. It you're good, you can send out TWO baits on separate poles, all on the same kite line. Fishes great even in heavy seaweed. 

Fishing ground terminal and for sharks? Here, you might want to get the baits way out there and jerk the line hard to release the line clip, pull in the kite (which can be a chore), and then you're fishing "normal" again.


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## inshoreangler (Nov 22, 2010)

SurfRunner said:


> I think he is reffering to the fact we don't get many days out of a year to be able to use a kite.
> 
> We do get north winds in the winter but it's not exactly the preferred time of the year to fish. There are days it coulod work during the spring and fall but most of us are challenged with timing it on those days because of work and family. With that said, I think most people would rather just use their kayak.
> 
> I do think fishing with a lite would be neat though. Especially with live baits suspended slightly below the surface. Kind of the way they fish for sailfish in Florida.


Did I mention, unless weather patterns have change a whole lot back in Gods Country, I know a little bout Texas. Born in College Station, (Texas A&M), High School Aldine Texas, Charter Captain/Comm. Fishing Rockport, Texas, two sons born, one in Houston & the other in Aranass, Brother in Austin, family in San Antonio & Ft. Worth...Texas born, Texas True!:texasflag


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## newsharker (Oct 31, 2009)

ive used baloons at bryan at mob. works well.


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## Jerry-rigged (May 21, 2004)

*Spam?*



inshoreangler said:


> Did I mention, unless weather patterns have change a whole lot back in Gods Country, I know a little bout Texas. Born in College Station, (Texas A&M), High School Aldine Texas, Charter Captain/Comm. Fishing Rockport, Texas, two sons born, one in Houston & the other in Aranass, Brother in Austin, family in San Antonio & Ft. Worth...Texas born, Texas True!:texasflag


If you know Texas Coastal weather, you would realize that, even with a 60 degree tack, if you stand at the high tide line, your kite might make it to the DUNES. The prevailing winds blow almost straight off the water onto land. For ~300 days out of the year, the only way your going to get a kite to fly over the third bar is to be fling it from a boat, 1/4 mile off the beach...:headknock (out of the other 65 days,you might get 5-10 that have the winds blowing the right direction to fly the kite over the water. The other 50 or so days will have no wind...)


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## LingKiller (Jul 9, 2010)

I would be willing to try it, sounds like fun..


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## inshoreangler (Nov 22, 2010)

Jerry-rigged said:


> If you know Texas Coastal weather, you would realize that, even with a 60 degree tack, if you stand at the high tide line, your kite might make it to the DUNES. The prevailing winds blow almost straight off the water onto land. For ~300 days out of the year, the only way your going to get a kite to fly over the third bar is to be fling it from a boat, 1/4 mile off the beach...:headknock (out of the other 65 days,you might get 5-10 that have the winds blowing the right direction to fly the kite over the water. The other 50 or so days will have no wind...)


If I'm fishing, the dunes are behind me? or I am standing on them. I do not know where you fish where 60 degrees or less on your right or left are dunes but to me, say off Goose Island, Rockport, its water. Anyway, before you fish it, you got to fly it so after you cannot get er done, then complain because otherwise you really do not know, your speculating...:headknock


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## Jerry-rigged (May 21, 2004)

Let me draw you a picture...


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## Mustad7731 (May 23, 2004)

*Beach Kite Fishing*

Jerry-Rigged,
I think that you have got your numbers wrong...I use to work in the Air Pollution
Law Enforcement. Back then a lot of my job was wind dependant...

The wind charts that the Natl Wx Service supplied us for the Galveston/Texas City
area was there was quite a bit of North to NorthWest wind during the late fall thur the 
early spring...As I remember it was approching 30%-40% with a northerly component.

I know that you were not making a scientific statement...But under the right
conditions Kite fishing off the beach of the Upper Texas Coast can be done suc-
cessfully in either of 2 ways. The conventional method of holding a live bait up close
to the surface or using the kite to carry the bait out and then jerking the bait rod 
to release the bait out past the 3rd bar....

I never used a "Fishing Kite". I thought that a $15 cloth recreational kite with a release
clip was all that was needed. The kite takes up about as much space as a 2" sandspike and
worth the investment for the times that the conditions all comes together.

My $.02
Mustad7731
Jackie


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## Jerry-rigged (May 21, 2004)

> I think that you have got your numbers wrong...I use to work in the Air Pollution
> Law Enforcement. Back then a lot of my job was wind dependant...
> 
> The wind charts that the Natl Wx Service supplied us for the Galveston/Texas City
> ...


Yea, I am not scientific. I just know that 9 out of 10 of my beach trips the wind is blowing from the water to the land. If you say 30%, sure. But for some reason those are almost never the days I am on the beach...


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## SurfRunner (May 22, 2004)

I seldom take big baits way out anyway, but if I did, I would probably just take my kayak. The reason being, is that you pretty much have the drill down for loading and unloading a yak after a few trips to the beach and its use on the beach is simple as well. Therefore, it's really not that big a deal to pack it up and go and throw on a wet suit if it's cold.

I do think the kite might be a good idea when those times are right. But, when people are used to doing it one way, they usually prefer to keep doing it the same way....Just because they got the drill down.


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## baytownboy (Jul 24, 2009)

inshoreangler said:


> What is the Challenge? Did you never "Fly a Kite" as a kid? OK! At least in kiting, you never have to get wet.


I was in my back yard trying to launch a kite. 
I threw the kite up in the air, the wind would catch it for a few seconds, then it would come crashing back down to earth. I tried this a few more times with no success. 
All the while, my wife is watching from the kitchen window, Muttering to herself how men need to be told how to do everything. 
She opens the window and yelled to me, 'You need a piece of tail.'

I turned with a confused look on my face and said, 'Make up your mind. Last night, you told me to go fly a kite.'


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## inshoreangler (Nov 22, 2010)

Jerry-rigged said:


> Let me draw you a picture...


Well, according to the way you think?? All sailboats would end up in the dunes because they would blow that way, right? Wrong, taking is a method of moving back to fro across a blowing wind in order to move against it. It works in moving a one ton sailboat and to, it works in moving a six ounce bait. I am not trying to fight with you, prove you wrong or make you kite fish; I am just telling you the facts, it can be done. Your 60 degrees is behind you but there is also 60 degrees in front of you and in tacking, your baits move back and forth between two angles until you either get a strike on top or you drop the bait at your desired location. People have been fishing with kites since before we were born. Kayaks work fine to, as do canoes to wading to trolling to ; oh hell, just buy a boat......................:work:


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## inshoreangler (Nov 22, 2010)

baytownboy said:


> I was in my back yard trying to launch a kite.
> I threw the kite up in the air, the wind would catch it for a few seconds, then it would come crashing back down to earth. I tried this a few more times with no success.
> All the while, my wife is watching from the kitchen window, Muttering to herself how men need to be told how to do everything.
> She opens the window and yelled to me, 'You need a piece of tail.'
> ...


I Like that one!


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