There are many ways to catch fish without a rod and reel. Casting a fish net, spear, and most forms of commercial fishing are common examples. What I will describe is a very simple technique using hook, line, bait and flat stones. The only other item required is a boat or a dependable flotation device as this is primarily ocean fishing.
I first experienced this style of fishing on a little boat that could hold six people. The site was along an aquaculture complex with rows of sea cages about 150 meters from shore. I gathered over a hundred flat stones that were slightly larger than the palm of my hand a week earlier in preparation for this outing. After thawing a large block of small frozen shrimp along with a smaller block of larger shrimp to place on the hook, I was almost ready to begin. To set the fishing depth, I tied a sinker instead of a hook to the end of the line, dropped it into the water, and when it hit bottom I marked the spot just above the water on the line with a sliding elastic marker. The depth was 47 meters (a little over 154 feet). I decided to set my target depth at 45 meters (147 and a-half feet), and slid the elastic marker two meters higher.
I had two large wooden spools with a little over 300 meters of thick high quality hook line wound around each spool. After tying on the fishing hook and threading a nice, plump shrimp slightly larger than the hook on it, I placed the baited hook on the center of a flat stone. I used half a handful of small, miniature shrimp to cover the hook, and wrapped the line closely around the stone at all angles until my elastic marker was only about a foot away from the stone. The next step was simply dropping the stone into the water, as it served as a sinker to deliver the bait and set the hook to the desired fishing depth.
As I recall, I only caught four medium-large red snapper that day, but the main attraction took place three times when something huge easily snapped my line. The deep and powerful tugs from the fish were quite different from snapper. I imagine that they were probably from giant grouper, with the second one being so heavy and fierce that my line snapping probably saved me from dropping into the water.
A word of caution if you decide to try this; your hands are substituting as a rod and reel to tackle and haul in the fish. Be sure to protect them well with thick gloves. Even with the gloves on, it is not a good idea to wind or wrap the line around your hands. You never know what kind of monster will come around for a bite. A shark suddenly taking the baited hook would be disastrous, indeed!
This style of fishing was a pleasant change of pace, but my passion always leads me back to my favorite style, which is bait cast fishing. See what it is and how to do it. You may end up enjoying bait cast fishing for a lifetime! [http://www.baitcastfishing.com]
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