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14K views 19 replies 15 participants last post by  Rett 
#1 ·
I'm after a bit of input from anyone who can help!

I like to fish, in particularly, with a handline.

over the years I've experimented with many types of handline, sizes, and setups. I've caught all sorts over the years, from trout as big as my finger to fair sized dogfish along the coast around the island and everything in between.

I'm now in the process of building one, which shock horror, isn't what you'd call normal cylinder based like the conventional 'hobo fishing kits'

I'm interested to hear from anyone who has successfully used one of the BCB fishing kits- how difficult did you find it to cast, what distance did you achieve casting, how difficult did you find it to land the fish, and what fish (size mainly) did it catch?

(yes I know some do gooders from the UK might pipe up about 'thou shalt not handline in fresh water' I started a thread up 2 years ago on BCUK, and nobody was actually able to answer .... and as I mentioned I used these along the coast here....

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=85768 )

Any input from all handline users would be great too, in any situation where you've used them
 
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#5 ·
What could be more carry-handy than a yo-yo set up? You could make an altoids can fishing kit....I think, survival wise, I'd just bait lines and set them up quietly. That produces way more fish. Just buy the kite-string thinkness fishing line at Wally World and throw big catfish hooks and dead shad on there. You'll get turtles and cats to feed a village.
Survival-wise, I wouldn't be giving fish a sporting chance. I gave them one today and got sunburnt and one good bass (put him back to give someone else a good time). That won't cut it for food-energy output ratio, though.
 
#7 ·
I have done it with line right off the spool. A small perch rigged on a treble hook with a stinger
treble hook in the tail.. I do this after the ice goes out when the Pike are a little peckish. I let out
about 50 feet and tie a piece of tinfoil to the line where it comes out on shore. I put a rock on the
line, and let it sit overnight. It works... you would do 4 or 5 sets like this if you were stuck and
needed to eat. If the tinfoil is in the water, you probably have a fish... I use 10lb Trilene..
 
#9 ·
Love those hand spools (yoyo reels? we dont call them that), I've done some of my best work with them. There are nifty smaller ones to be had for chicken feed, I like the ones about 8" across loaded with 100m of 35-45kg mono tho 20kg is probably better if there is no chance of bigger fish. Casting is easy, just whirl and and toss. I add a small wooden peg like a 2" piece of pencil about 2 feet from the sinker. This a finger hold to make casting it easier and safer. A 2 oz sinker can be sent down range at a fair old pace.
 
#10 ·
I'm not sure where the stigma comes from as far as fresh water fishing goes. This is my primary fishing tool on rivers or at the beach, with a tweak.

As said, it is a spool and line, the complicated part is at the end. I mostly river fish so I have current to deal with. Thread the end of (or better yet make rigs specific to open lakes, rivers or shore fishing so it is snap and go) your line with - it helps a lot to space the sinker up the line so the bait is a good 30 or so inches from it. The effect is the weight holds the line at the bottom with the bait out in the current. I've caught 20 pound river catfish this way and many 10 pound sea bass, even sand sharks and more at the shore.

Another modification to the Jeros yo-yo is to notch one side and file that smooth, that is the line holder if you need to leave it alone on a bank or shore. All you need then is a tree (cinder block for the shore) and a rock, unspool one circle of line and set a heavy stone into the circle of the yo-yo with the notch one the side. Once the fish bites and runs it'll set itself (shore fishing is harder but I use a brick wrapped in an old tarp to counter-act the surf to keep my running slack near the reel). Don't do this with large hooks as anything above 10 pounds can eventually work the set loose and steal your yo-yo unless you are there to catch it.

Get a very good glove for your reel hand if you are going for larger fish. I had to have a finger re-attached after landing a 5-ft bull shark in NC on vacation. Based on that experience and asking around a lot of people suggested and while good I found that if I PlastiDip'ed the glove it was more comfortable and less damaging to the line. I used this for my gloves (I got one for my wife as well). I used this on hers and it seems to be holding up well, just harder to apply, you want something you can dip the glove into so it covers the inside/outside collectively (just have some beach sand handy to sprinkle the palm for extra grip). While it seems like a unneeded expense it also doubles to help clean fish as you can get a damn good grip and not worry about knife cuts.

Definitely something I would suggest for every BOB and V-E&E as there is next to no tackle needed, only a little practice, and the means to process and cook what you catch.

Hope that helps.
 
#11 ·
Here in the US, freshwater fishing regs are written and enforced at the state level. They vary a great deal. While many states regulate the number of rods, number of hooks, size of catch, etc, etc, I know of no state that forces you to you to fish only with a rod vs hand lining.

I believe the fishing regs are written that way, because you would be at a significant disadvantage trying to fish with a hand line.

Hand lining would certainly let you feel what is happening at the end of your line, but it sacrifices the leverage of the rod, and without the control afforded by a modern rod/reel. In most of our waters the distance you can cast is not as important as accuracy and control.
 
#12 ·


This is my hand line fishing kit. Fishing knife, hooks and sinkers, and reels. I don't put the pliers in because I have a multi tool on me.

Breaking strain of each reel.

6lb
50lb
100ib
150lb

That BCB fishing kit is a laughable sick joke. The people that put that kit together know zero about fishing with hand lines or what is required to fish in open oceans. I sincerely hope no one trusts their lives to that stupid crap, which is based around a kite reel.

Rivers and creeks you can use the 6 lb reel with a live moth or frog as a surface bait.

Or set the 50lb line with a string of 6lb snoods tied on with either a long liners knot or surgeons knot.

The heavier lines can be set lines, I put heavy drop sinkers on the end and tie two dropper loops on each with circle hooks attached. The fish snag themselves.
 
#13 ·
The light lines you can cast up to 50 yards depending on the weight of sinker you use on the end.

The heavier the line the less distance you can cast.

With this style of reel you only cast once off the reel, when you retrieve your fish you lay the line on the ground. When you cast back out, the line just sails off from the ground, and these casts are much further.
 
#14 ·
back in the day we was so poor we had one fishing rod, so my father would use that and I'd use a hand line.
regular fishing line, wrapped around an H-shaped piece of cardboard.
worked fine. the fish didn't care.
something like what's pictured
 

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#16 ·
One of the biggest bass I've ever seen was caught by a seven-year-old kid (my grandson) who dropped a handline over the side of a dock on a Canadian lake. Just a length of discarded fly-line wrapped around a stick, with a short leader and a wet fly that his father had set up for him. If the fish are there, I kinda think the details of the equipment don't matter much.
 
#17 ·
We were down in Mexico years ago and watched kids fishing using coke bottles a hook and a rock. They were fishing the marina area of Puerto Viearto bringing in some nice fish. They had a short branch stuck in the opening of the bottle. I suppose they wet the brach to swell it up tight it was just long enough to get a hand hold. Interesting to watch but never tried it as we were tourists on the trip.
 
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