Gentlemen: Consider this and please provide your feedback: The purpose of kite fishing, as I understand it, is to keep a live bait on the surface, far out from the boat, where its struggling will attract game fish. Now, although I have never fished with a kite, I have problems with it--first, it's more gear to fart around with and second, it almost seems to require two people, and third, it is a little hard on a head boat, where, until I can buy my own 52 footer, I am likely to practice my offshore fishing.
I have known for years that people use balloons as bobbers and as sails to carry the bait out, and the bait typically hangs a foot or more under the balloon. Balloons are also used to keep the kite up in still airs. I even had an older buddy who had had groin surgery and after it was over, he couldn't...uh, so they took this balloon and uh...but that's another story.
But consider using a balloon for fishing livies in a different way: You blow up a small red balloon just enough to keep a livie from diving down at will. you then put a hook either in below his dorsal fin or near his rectal opening. You then run a rigging needle through his lips and bridle him with floss or mono to the balloon up close and tight. Then you drift him out just like you would a free-lined bait or a chunk. He stays on the surface, where his panicked thrashing will attract the attack of game fish, and in fact it virtually looks as though his asshole blew out from coming up too fast. (now read that last paragraph again and consider that you sometimes think that you've had a bad day!)
Points to ponder:
1. Would the balloon puncture due to contact with the bait (assuming you didn't blow it up real tight) and assuming also that you had the hook far enough back that he would not be likely to contact the balloon with it.?
2. Would the presence of the balloon so close to the bait be more likely to scare off game fish (read "tuna") or to attract them?
3. Is this process legal in Federal waters? (I have searched the internet and do not find that it is except in some county jurisdictions in Florida--where they don't even know how to punch a hole in a ballot.)
4. Even if legal, would it be considered politically incorrect since I understand that a couple of sea turtles once were found dead somewhere in the entire expanse of the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic Oceans? (Uncle Russ is a sensitive individual and would not want to offend anyone or run afoul of their disapproval.)
I would, as always, appreciate your comments on my hairbrained schemes.
Russ