The Pocket Sled kites allow landbased fishers to deploy from 1 to 4 hooks as far offshore as their reel capacity allows.
* Great for jigging, trolling, live bait deployment as well as conventional baits
* Ideal for targeting any species from kahawai to marlin - Lethal on kingfish!
* Balanced to fish 8kg to 15kg line weights in 5 - 40 knot winds
* Unlimited casting range from shore or boat * No spars required!
Pocket Sled Package
The Pocket Sled package includes the following
- 1 x Large Pocket Sled (light to moderate winds) and/or
- 1 x Small Pocket Sled (moderate to strong winds)
- 1 x Pre-tied dacron bridle complete with two coastlock clips and one swivel
- 1 x Drogue
- Full rigging instructions
Assembly
Tie one high quality coastlock clip to the end of the 8 to 15kg mainline spooled onto your reel. A 10 inch handspool will be required to store the entire kiteline, dropper connection, dropper line, bottle connection, leader line, safety trace and hook
sections.
The pre-tied dacron bridle is already attached to your casting kite. To fly the casting kite simply connect the coastlock clip (tied to the end of the kiteline on the handspool) to the swivel in the dacron bridle.
There are two sizes of Pocket Sled kites available.
The large Pocket Sled will fish winds from 5 knots through to 20 - 25 knots and the small Pocket Sled from 10 knots to 40 knots. Both kites require the drogue to be attached at all times.
In most conditions one drogue is sufficient however, in strong or gusty conditions added stability can be achieved by using two or more drogues in a chain.
The pull from the small Pocket Sled is easily manageable even in extreme wind and these kites have been designed so as not to deliver enough pull where the reel may be damaged.
These kites fly well in light drizzle or occasional showers but will not fly in heavy rain as the pockets, designed for wind flow, will remain closed.
By selecting the correct kite for the prevailing conditions retrieval is no more difficult than winding in a 2 - 8 oz sinker.
Tacking
The Pocket Sled Kites are designed to be basically a downwind kite although a small amount of tack can be achieved by shortening one side of the bridle by 2 to 5 mm.
This shortening of the bridle can also be beneficial for fine tuning the kites performance should it have a bias to one side due to stretch in the cloth or creasing.
Deployment
To maximise your fishing distance offshore the kiteline should be stored on the handspool along with the dropper line, bottle cord, leader line and hook sections.
Securely attach the clip on the end of the handspool to the swivel in the bridle of the casting kite. Fly the kite up from the handspool until the 3 way join appears.
Connect the coastlock clip on the end of your fishing rod to the 3 way join between the kiteline and the dropper line.
Release the drag on your reel and allow the kite to pull line from both the reel and the handspool.
The bottle cord connection is the next that comes off the handspool. Attach a 500 mil bottle to this. The easiest way to do this is to have a dacron cord already tied to the bottle with a clip on the end of the cord. Simply clip it onto the bottle connection
in the dropper line. Fill the bottle with enough sand or water so the kite cannot quite lift it off the beach.
Allow the bottle to run down to the waters edge, taking line from both the reel and the handspool as it goes.
Next to appear from the handspool are the two hook sections. Attach a weight (.05oz to 2.5oz, depending on wind strength) to the spare eye on the first crossline swivel and clip your baited traces to the pre-stoppered hook section. (e.g. clip one trace
on, let two stops go, clip another trace on)
This allows for an empty space between traces and prevents the traces from touching one another or becoming tangled.
Attach a second weight to the next crossline swivel.
Disconnect the coastlock clip at the end of the first hook section, keeping the second hook section on the handspool as a spare. Attach your back trace to the snap clip you have just disconnected.
This system is rigged for fishing over clear snag free areas. It is not designed to be fished on or near reef, foul or rocks which requires the terminal tackle to be altered to a ledger rig or dhan line to retain the safety of the kite and mainline.
(See diagrams)
Adjust the reel to a light drag, just enough to keep the mainline supported clear of the water but not enough to slow the setting speed of the rig. The time it takes to fully deploy the gear will depend largely on the strength of wind available.
It could take anywhere from 7 to 10 minutes in fresh or gusty winds to 30 minutes in light to moderate. The number of hooks being set and size of weights being used will also be a deciding factor in your setting time.
Find out more about different rigging methods here
Retrieving
Let the gear fish for around 10 to 20 minutes before winding it back in. Retrieving, re-baiting and casting the gear a number of times throughout the day is a really easy operation.
When the line is wound in to the point where the dropper line is within reach secure the rod in a rod holder, set the reel drag to light and grab hold of the dropper line.
As you pull the dropper line, bottle, leader line and hook section in, the kite
gains altitude as it stores the dropper line in the air.
With the bottle in hand, lock the drag on the reel and pull the bottle, leader line and hook section up onto the beach clear of the surf. It's then a matter of simply going through and removing the fish and re-baiting the hooks, and it's ready to be
cast out again.
Storing Your Fishing Gear
Packing up at the end of the day's fishing requires a reversal of the setting up process. Retrieve the line as previously mentioned and remove the traces and weights from the hook section.
Wind the hook section back onto the handspool first, followed by the leader line, bottle connection and dropper line. Unclip the rod line (mainline) from the dropper connection and wind the kiteline onto the handspool.
Taking a few minutes to store the line correctly means hassle-free fishing next time.
Store your kite in a rolled up fashion to prevent creasing.
Fishing Bait
The most commonly used baits for kitefishing are fresh or salted trevally or scaled mullet cut into strip baits 20 to 25 mm wide and 50 to 75 mm long. Fishing with these baits will result in catches of snapper, gurnard and kahawai that reflect the abundance
of each species in the area.
Pilchards are a very effective bait for those targeting kahawai or trevally and, if the hooks are set mid-water, john dory and kingfish can also be targeted with these baits.
Care needs to be taken when using these soft baits to ensure they don't
fall off.
Strips of high quality squid are a top bait particularly when large to very large squid are used.
Fresh or frozen octopus is a very good bait for targeting snapper on the east coast but should not be used on the west coast as it catches far too many
sharks.
Gurnard do not like squid or octopus so don't use these baits in areas where gurnard are the main catch.
Because of the distances involved with kitefishing it is important to use a firm fresh bait. Pre-frozen baits, unless heavily salted, often do not last the distance and serve only to feed the paddle crabs within the initial 300 metres of the shore.
Salted fish fillets can also be used successfully in areas where it is difficult to obtain fresh bait but catch rates will be affected. The best bait of all is trevally, kahawai or yellowtail mackerel taken on a previous set on the same day. The
fresher the bait the better the catch.
Target Snapper Fish Hooks
All of Paul's Fishing Kites rigs are supplied with Target Snapper Hooks.
These hooks are designed to reduce gut hooking to less than 1%, increase your catch of large snapper while reducing the number of undersized snapper you will catch.
Target Snapper Hooks are a recurve hook and for optimum fishing results should be baited as follows:
- Scale and fillet your bait
- Cut bait into strips
- Put the hook through the bait at one end of the strip, penetrating the flesh first then through the skin.
NOTE: Do not choke the bight of the hook and don't hook your baits through the centre of the strips as this can cause the bait to spin and may twist and tangle the traces. |
