Catching fish from a balloon

[fullcreel]

The size of the reel is another thing to fantasize about too.

[The_Knight]

This sounds totally crazy, therefore you have my interest!

What made you decide to take on this survival challenge? I am assuming you are well versed in the piloting of a hot air balloon?

[rob@home]

I've seen kite fishing done (with mixed success to be honest with you) never seen balloon fishing however curious to see how that would work your a bit limited to the fact that you cant go after the fish can you?
Surely the fish would have to come to you unless you go back round the world & get them the 2nd time round, winds prevailing of course...

[HarryVermeulen]

Haha, thanks for all the funny and helpful remarks! I'll clarify a bit why I've made this post and what the intentions are.

I'm working on an art project, which I've called "Enjoying the view". It's an exploration of a possible future scenario, where the surface of our planet has heated up so much that we have to avoid it and hence start looking for ways to live up in the sky.

Obviously catching birds would be easier and more likely to do from a balloon, but the idea of fishing has caught my mind and I would really love to pull off some illustrations of strange fishing rods or curious ways of fishing specific to "high-altitude fishing".

It doesn't have to actually work, but it needs to look compelling enough to make people wonder what it would be like to fish from up there (i.e. not completely silly, but build on theorie and reality).

Since I'm not a fishing expert, I don't really know what you would change to a fishing rod in order to fish from a longer distance or with longer thread for example. Would the rod be much longer, how can we maximize the feeling of catching a fish, how to make sure the fish doesn't fall off when reeling it in. I'm sure there are no definite solutions to these problems as of yet, but I imagine there are ways of making your rod more sensitive or more robust.

It would also be possible to do night fishing, where we'd be able to fly lower (let's say 2-3km) since it's less hot during the night.

Crazy thoughts are welcome, but I'm really looking for some form of theorie to base the design of this fishing tool on!

Again thanks for all the quick replies already, it's great to see such an enthusiastic fishing community with an open mind to crazy stuff ;)

[JustMark]

Harry, scientists in America are working on a carbon 'string' To date they have one about a Kilometer long and one micron wide. Theoretically this is being developed as a cable for a possible 'space elevator' to take passengers to an orbiting jump station for space exploration.

It is of course currently a mix of actual fact (The cable exisits already in early design form) and future science prediction.

Yet more scientists in the Netherlands are working on generating electricity by flying large kites up and into the jet stream, (Which incidentally start at about 6km ASL) as the kites rise and descend the electricity is generated.

I can see an amalgum of these ideas forming the basis of your theoretical project. It certainly would be the ultimate in long lining

[fullcreel]

Try to get hold of some book from Time Life, they did a series on flight and there was on which I think was called 'The Atgonauts', I remebver it having lots of illustrations of ideas of the furute of flight, this was at a time when the combustion engine was not involved and visionaries thought of airships as the means of air travel.

[paul p]

Look we all are bonkers in some way or the other who cares, if you have the passion all i can say is "go for it". I cant talk i met my wife sky diving. One thing i do ask my good friend is bring a camara and get some pics off the fight between you balloon and fish. I like you love when someone says you cant do it, it makes me more detemined to do it and in style. Good luck

[fullcreel]

Try looking for some ideas from the Steampunk community, www.brassgoggles.co.uk or www.steampunknetwork.co.uk
Might find some interested folks here or there.

[HarryVermeulen]

What about fishing though, I mean, I know there are different kinds of fishing rods, with their own purpose. For now I'm considering two possibilities, one is a machine powered fishing rod, which would assist the fisher in pulling the fish (and the thread) back up to the balloon. The other is a someone self-invented balloon-fishing method, where a balloon with weight is dropped down into the ocean, then when the fish grabs the hook, it basically pulls the weight off the balloon and they fly back up together. A thread would have to be attached from the fishing-balloon to the big balloon so we can reel it in after the weight is dropped.

Any thoughts about that? I would really love to build a fishing rod for that height, but I have no clue what changes I would have to make to be able to use it and feel when a fish hooks on and so on.

I've also looked into these spring-based yoyo fishers they use for cat fishing? Perhaps those could be interesting in some way as well :)

[paul p]

With the weight of the fish coming up mate it would fall of the hook, 1 rule in fishing never lift the fish up out of the water, soon as that fishes tail is out of the water and starts shaking its head= fish off and thats everytime you catch one. Paul. Allthough it does matter what size of fish your after. Ide go shark and once you touch the leader he counts.