Fishing without a rod or reel

I was wondering wether any on e could help i remeber my father fishing by putting to stakes with a line attached in to the sea floor when the tide was out .He would wait for the tide to come in and then leave he would return when the tide was on its way out and his line would be full with fish .Is this a legal way of catching and if so what is the correct way to do this set up .Hoping someone can help me thanks

The method is longlining, it is still done commercialy by boats in some areas I'm not sure about doing it from the shore, as I would have thought that there would be health and safety issues to be addressed and would be covered in local authority by laws, This is not a recognised form of angling it is a commercial thing and local anglers would be up in arms about it as they would get caught up when retreiving their gear.