Folding Kayaks Forum

Do,s anyone use hand lines and not rods?, Years ago in the Scillies all the fishing was done with hand lines and they worked fine. The line was tied to and wrapped around a sort of square frame, cheap and simple. I might do some fishing this way, the only sports shop sells lots of rods which look expensive, is this really a sales gimmic as being on the sea and not on the shore allows the line just to be thrown over the side and i can,t see that casting is needed. Also in the early days we didn,t use bait, there were feathers on the line near the hooks. I can of course ask the "locals".

Hi John,

Re: hand lines, it all depends on what you want to catch?

If its just a couple of mackerel, pollack which are great table fish then a simple hand line would suffice,
i have rods (beach, boat, pier, kayak types) but i kinda like using handlines for their simplicity and space saving nature.

They are very easy to make and cheap too, there are so many different types on youtube, i use a modified kite handle winder with 15lb mono and a 5oz lead weight and yes feathers tend to work pretty well from June - August which means less needs for smelly / messy baits

Hope this helps and good luck

Thank you, thats about all i would intend to catch, preferably pollock, just one or two for a meal with chips and mussy peas.

Hi, I written about this in "spools for fishing"
VERY efficient system resulting in hundreds if not thousands of fish caught over the years.
I don't even bother with rods. Too expensive, too fragile, too hard to store on boat without dedicated rod holders.

If you REALLY want a rod for jigging, use a piece of bamboo with split in the end for line to wedge in. Simply pulls out when a fish hits. The bamboo makes it less tiring if jigging extensively.
Cheep and cheerfull..

Hand lines. I've relatives in Tahiti who are, or were, extremely adept at tossing lines in the lagoon. Many have become converts to rods and reels, however. Indigenous Polynesians almost always used hand lines. Haven't been there for some time. I wonder if it's still the way it's done. I do know that fish populations in the lagoon have declined considerably over the decades.