What catches more Tuna?

[TeamLithics]

With all things being equal, if two boats are fishing in the same area and one is using a green stick and the other a kite which do you think will hook up on more tuna?

[Roddy Hays]

A few questions, if I may :

- what species of tuna, and whereabouts in the world ?

- is there lots of traffic ?

- structure ?

- current ?

- sea conditions normally ?

- bait species ?

- migrating fish or resident ?

- live bait available on the grounds ?

- are there lots of sharks ? They can be a real problem for kite-baits. So can sailfish and whites too

- is there anyone else there using a stick or a kite ?

- are the fish shy, aggressive or very tide related ?

Give us a few more clues and I'm sure someone will help you out !

[aloop]

EXPERIENCE!

[canyongear]

IMHO..you cannot compare kite fishing to trolling with a greenstick. To your question, I agree with the above answer..experience will win the "catch more" debate everytime, no matter what method is used.

[TeamLithics]

OK Roddy,
I was just on the Gulf Stream (out of Hatteras) fishing on a boat using a green stick. There was one other boat with a stick and two with kites. The bait presentation is very similar and I was just wondering which would be more effective given the exact same conditions for all the boats. No sharks, no bills, 3 ft seas, partly cloudy, artificial lures (rubber squid), we were hoping for some yellowfin but found a lot of aggressive blackfin. We boated 17 blackfin. Would a captain and mate with equal experience as the ones I charted with expect to see similar result with a kite? I have never been kite fishing. I understand the theory, but have never seen the results.
Canyon,
Yeah of course, experience in the angler, mate and captain are the bigest factor in "catching more", but I was wondering wich delivery system given the exact same conditions on the exact same fishing grounds would attract more tuna. Getting fish in the boat is a different matter. Hooked up and dinner can be a string of "ifs". Thanks for everyones input.

[Roddy Hays]

Are you talking about traditional kite-fishing from a stationary boat with suspended live-baits, or the new technique of using them while trolling ?

[Patudo]

The new technique developed in 1909?

http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/vi...ontext=sio/lib (see page 6)
http://www.coachwhipbooks.com/chapte...a-tactics.html

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TeamLithics... that day how did the two kite boats fare compared to you?

[Captain Michael Buffington]

two sets of bob lewis about 15 36" balloons, about 50 27" balloons, a cylinder of helium, some live sardines and dead flyers and you can troll that green stck all day long(as long as you stay away from me) and the kites going to do better 85% of the time imho. The difference I think is like they said experience. I think theres a lot less know how involved in a stick presentation as opposed to the hundred different things you can do with a kite and balloon or just a kite or two kites and a baloon down the middle with two live sardines side by side or a rubber band rigged flyer or a little mahi you just caught...you get the idea.

Mike

[TeamLithics]

The kites were trolling.
I didn't see any balloons with the kites. It looked like a single kite. I don't know how the kites did.
I was thinking about it after I got home and thought someone here could give me some insight.
I've been stick fishing 3 times and two of them we filled the box in a hurry. The third time was an all around bad fishing day with 6 fish total and one was a cuda. My wife got a citation for it and wanted to know if there was a cuda flag we could fly when we got back to the docks.

[Captain Jay Kavanagh]

Stick no question.

However, I don't have or want a stick on my boat.

1. It is hideously ugly.

2. You have to use excessively heavy tackle to employ it properly, and it aint a whole lot of sport catching tunas on the stick set up.

You can killem with the stick.

I use a kite and two baits, on the kite, usually yummies.

Light stand up rods with spectra.

we also troll two flat lines and catch on them while kite fishin too.

You are dictated by the wind how you can troll, sticks can go anyway they want.

Stick will out catch the kite every time around here, but the kite is a whole lot more sporting and fun for the anglers.

Give me a couple good anglers that are willing to pay attention to the kite bites and we can hold our own with the sticks.

Keep in mind that sticks or kites are no magic bullet, you can't catchem if they aint there or if they aint keyed in on the flyers. I have seen many days when conventional trolling has out caught sticks.

there is a reason it is called sportfishing.