Are there any enthusiasts of this fishing technique on this platform? Do you want to talk about it together and delve deeper into the topic? Are there any books that deal with this specific topic?
I've seen some do that when we are in Alabama (Dauphin Island), but have never tried it.
Can I post a screenshot of a magazine that covers this topic?
Yup.
From the February 2019 issue of Saltwater Sportsman
I've done it many times on long range boats out of San Diego. The deck hands set up the gear, and you man the rod watching for the flag to go down. It can be very productive or standing on the deck for hours in the hot sun squinting to see the flag( otherwise known as kite jail). The biggest advantage is the ability to use very heavy gear while still having a very life like bait presentation. Super exciting when it's working, the visual of watching the fish blow up on a bait, highly recommend it it if the opportunity presents itself
Quote from: Swami805 on October 07, 2025, 05:17:01 AMI've done it many times on long range boats out of San Diego. The deck hands set up the gear, and you man the rod watching for the flag to go down. It can be very productive or standing on the deck for hours in the hot sun squinting to see the flag( otherwise known as kite jail). The biggest advantage is the ability to use very heavy gear while still having a very life like bait presentation. Super exciting when it's working, the visual of watching the fish blow up on a bait, highly recommend it it if the opportunity presents itself
I know they use it effectively in Nova Scotia to catch giant tuna. This technique has the advantage of hiding the very thick lines out of the water from the fish's sight.
Saltwater Sportsman October 2025
The helium balloon with or without a kite has been a thing for quite awhile now. It is not a new invention. The biggest pain is probably dragging around a helium tank on your boat or hoping that your pre-filled balloon does not spring a leak.
Stick this string in your favorite search engine, and you will find a bunch of threads on how this is done in my part of the planet:
site:bdoutdoors.com helium
BTW, I don't think that hiding the leader from the tuna is why the kite technique works. Tuna brains are not developed for that kind of reasoning. It probably has more to do with getting the bait farther from the boat with an attractive surface commotion.
-J
Quote from: jurelometer on October 08, 2025, 07:46:34 PMThe helium balloon with or without a kite has been a thing for quite awhile now. It is not a new invention. The biggest pain is probably dragging around a helium tank on your boat or hoping that your pre-filled balloon does not spring a leak.
Stick this string in your favorite search engine, and you will find a bunch of threads on how this is done in my part of the planet:
site:bdoutdoors.com helium
BTW, I don't think that hiding the leader from the tuna is why the kite technique works. Tuna brains are not developed for that kind of reasoning. It probably has more to do with getting the bait farther from the boat with an attractive surface commotion.
-J
I had also thought about the vibrations of the bait fish darting in the water between the surface
In many parts of the world, anglers often face calm conditions and little or no wind, which makes traditional kite fishing impossible. So I came up with an idea: combining kite fishing with slow trolling, using a bow-mounted electric motor such as a Minn Kota, Garmin Kraken, or Lowrance Recoil.
The gentle, steady movement of the boat creates just enough forward pull to keep the kite flying, even when there's no wind. This setup works perfectly for small center console boats up to about 30 feet, where a bow motor can be installed. It's quiet, efficient, and lets you fish far from the boat,just like classic kite fishing, but adapted for calm seas anywhere in the worl
I've been toying with an idea for a while and wanted to see what you all think. I'm wondering if kite fishing, which is second nature for a lot of guys in the States, could actually make sense in the Mediterranean. The conditions over here are a lot different—clear water, heavy boat traffic, spooky fish. Still, the basic concept of the kite makes sense to me: keep the line off the water, present the bait away from the noise and turbulence of the boat. Out here, stealth counts for a lot.
What I'm thinking about is kind of a hybrid between drifting and slow trolling. The plan would be to use a bow-mounted electric motor to control direction and drift, keeping the boat creeping along at maybe 1 to 1.5 knots. The idea is to keep tension on the kite and hold a steady heading even with light or variable wind, all while staying quiet and vibration-free.
For the release, instead of the usual mechanical clips, I'm considering a series of small elastic bands rigged in line, breaking at around ten to twelve pounds of pull. It's the same logic Peter Pakula uses with his outrigger systems—simple, predictable, and consistent. For calm-air days I'd add a small helium balloon above the kite bridle—not to add pull, just to keep it airborne when the wind dies. The lift would have to be balanced carefully: too much and it gets unstable, too little and it doesn't help.
Another part of the idea is to run a very light chum slick. Instead of a standard chum bag, I'm thinking about using an automatic timed dispenser—something like a Chum King or ChumFeeder setup—that drops a fine slurry of ground sardine and a touch of fish oil at regular intervals. I might even tint it with a bit of water-soluble dye to see the direction of the slick and adjust the course. The goal isn't to draw big schools of fish, just to leave a thin surface trail, a subtle scent signature that hangs in the water.
The key piece, though, would be the baits. Two or three live baits staggered along the kite line would create an uneven vibration field, kind of like a small school of bait scattering on the surface. The combined effect of vibration, scent, and visible movement might trigger both the lateral line and the visual response of predators. In theory, it could work on mid-size tuna—skipjack, little tunny, small bluefin—and, under the right calm-water conditions, maybe even on Mediterranean spearfish.
This wouldn't be a "cover ground" technique but more of a way to build a localized strike zone. The boat would move slowly and quietly along current edges, color breaks, or over areas with a visible thermocline or small bait presence. Each drift or run would last just a few minutes before sliding over to the next patch. The theory is that if any predator is nearby, the combo of scent trail, vibration, and a clean surface presentation could pull it into range.
It's all theory at this point, but I'd like to hear from anyone with real kite or slow-trolling experience on pelagics. I'm trying to figure out what makes sense and what doesn't—things like the right release tension for those elastic links, how far apart to space the baits so they don't tangle but still act like a small pod, how light a chum flow you can get away with to keep just a thin film on the surface, and how much chop starts to kill the vibration effect. Any thoughts or corrections are welcome—I'm just trying to see if this concept holds water before I start testing it.
From reading textbooks and scientific papers on fish senses, I have learned the following:
The lateral line on fish only works for relatively close situations, usually 2 meters or less, and definitely under 10 meters.
Tuna can't see very far. Nothing can see very far underwater, due to light waves getting absorbed and refracted. For a target the size of a large baitfish, on or near the surface in clear water, figure maybe 15/meters maximum.
But sound travels very well in water. Tuna are capable of hearing frequencies made by schools of baitfish thrashing on the surface, but the volume has to be loud, like 80db minimum, if I remember correctly. The wake of a trolling fishing boat makes a similar enough sound that it attracts the tuna, which then find the trolling lures along the wake. If you have ever seen a tuna find and turn to attack a surface trolling lure, you can recognize how close the tuna has to be to the lure before it can visually lock in.
Some (but not all) sounds being generated are not so good. Tuna respond negatively to sudden changes in sound. We have all seen surface feeding tuna go down when we cut the RPMs on the motor. Multiple boats accelerating and slowing down to chase a surface school will really make them shy. This might be a good time to move off of the fleet, shut down the motor and deploy a kite or balloon setup.
Trolling live baits slowly is also an option, especially when you are searching or the tuna are not feeding on the surface. Unfortunately, you have to troll slowly enough that you don't kill the bait, so you are probably not able to use the boat wake as an attractant.
If you are looking for a trolling method with multiple lures hopping in and out of the water, you might want to also look into greenstick trolling. It was (is?) a thing for the Hawaiian sports fishing community for a while. I think it might have originated as a Japanese commercial trolling method. It seems kind of sketchy to try on a smaller boat though.
Just some thoughts...
-J
The green stick was a thing on the Wicked Tuna show. Everything I know about tuna fishing was learned on Wicked Tuna. Too bad it's cancelled now.