Catching fish from a balloon

[scottish_and_mental]

The rod wouldn't have to be different in the slightest ! after all a 5lb fish weighs 5lb pulled up from a pier or pulled up a skyscraper.
what you would need is a kindey harness and a butt pad because by christ your arms are gonna look like popeyes by the time you've landed the fish ! I have had the misfortune of fishing a place called the deep which means pulling up a pollack from 600 foot - a right B******%$ when you find its an 8 oz pouting !
As stated your biggest problem would be line capacity on a reel although if you had a bulk spool of line that you simply attached the end tackle to you could theoretically do away with a rod and reel..I reckon some sort of power winch would be needed as your only REAL problem will be getting the hook to the water and then the fish to the boat .You also would need line of a tiny diameter otherwise any wind would cause a huge bow in the line.
At what speed will the balloon be travelling ? Look at the speed Marlin boats troll for big game - this is probably the maximum speed you could travel.
Surely though if the surface is too hot it would be the same for the oceans so wouldnt you be fishing for deep fried fish ?
Steve

[scottish_and_mental]

Can i also add i think you are stark raving mad ? Either that or you go to the same school as Harry Potter !

[fullcreel]

I would be inclined to think that you would need some vanes, for wind as you haul your fish up, perhaps they could act like a wing and give some lift as its a great deal of hauling to bring your catch up. I would go for a winch to bring your catch up. Bite indicaton is another important factor, how will your know when a fish has taken your bait? Braided line would be a must, as it has thin diameter.

[HarryVermeulen]

These buckytubes (named after buckminster fuller, who designed very strong architectural shapes) seem to be perfect for the job. It's an extremely thin wire, with enormous strength. I reckon it's the same as mentioned earlier as being used by NASA.

http://www.3dchem.com/molecules.asp?ID=104

Given the balloon will be traveling at a certain speed, I'm starting to think a fishing net scooping through the water could be more efficient. That might also prevent the fish from falling off when reeling in the catch. It'd be less fun though ;)

[scottish_and_mental]

Originally Posted by HarryVermeulen

These buckytubes (named after buckminster fuller, who designed very strong architectural shapes) seem to be perfect for the job. It's an extremely thin wire, with enormous strength. I reckon it's the same as mentioned earlier as being used by NASA.

http://www.3dchem.com/molecules.asp?ID=104

Given the balloon will be traveling at a certain speed, I'm starting to think a fishing net scooping through the water could be more efficient. That might also prevent the fish from falling off when reeling in the catch. It'd be less fun though ;)

Couldnt possibly work mate....get just one of those tiny hand fishing nets and push it through the water....notice how much drag there is ? Your balloon would have to be tavelling through a hurricane before you made any headway !

[spirit42]

You must have seen those comedy sketches with the self inflating life raft in a car. All you would need is a hellium activated one of those. something like a weather balloon. attatch one baited hook to the triggering mechanism with upva string and just chuck the whole kit and cabodle out of the balloon attached to your line. fishy swims along and eats your bait. inflates the balloon. balloon floats up to you. Simples. Could be a bit of a bugger if there is weed around though, and you would need a stoater of a reel but!!!!!

[paul p]

Ive got it, you can do it from a balloon easy peasy. The word catch from a balloon is the key and all you need to be to get your goal is a few feet off the water. Right same way a rope holds the balloon i dont know what its called but you know the one there is 4 off them i think on each corner, well get 4 trawlers or same size boats and get a platform go out and each boat forms a point square and you in the middle, getting the picture i can feel your heartbeat. Now you can fish the same as you would from any boat with standard set up, land fish or as many as you wish, smile for the camara and us offcoarse, let the ropes go and go and grow whatever you wish, at least YOU DID IT:eu sa_clap

[HarryVermeulen]

Heh, interesting solution stud ;) The whole idea of being in a balloon is because every kilometer you go up into the sky, the temperature drops by 6.5 degrees because of the air pressure. In the scenario it's so hot on the surface that we have to go live up higher to avoid the heat, so it has to be from a decent altitude.

Having said that, helium is an earth-gas which is unlikely to be attained when flying in the sky. However hydrogen (also lighter then the air) can be made out of water, which can be attained by condensing clouds. I'm not sure however if it's possible to make a hydrogen cartridge up there that I could inflate to reel in a fish. Perhaps a co2 cartridge could inflate a bright coloured balloon when a fish is on the hook, so that I could see when I've caught one and when to reel it in.

Wonder how those cartridges are filled.

[paul p]

Youve lost me mate, my job is to advice how to catch a fish only mate everything is up to NASA. If you ask 4 trawler men or good size fishing boats with good skippers on them. You say reel in fish up there, i said a few feet off the sea water, your basket would be say 10 feet or so off the water and you are useing the 4 boats as an anchor. Paul

[HarryVermeulen]

Sorry if what I'm saying is confusing, I'm probably going too fast as I've been working on it quite a while now. I also realize I'm not asking very common questions, so I don't expect an answer to everything.

I understand your suggestion, but for this project it needs to be from up higher, say about 3-4km at minimum. It'd be cheating a little bit just floating 10 feet above the sea ;)

I've made a little sketch of a balloon inflating device, I could lower from the balloon into the water. The idea is that the yoyo on the left rolls out when the fish grabs the hook. By rolling off the thread, it unscrews a bit of metal that's blocking the gass in the cartridge on the right from going into the balloon. Basically when the fish grabs the hook and fights with it, the balloon will be inflated which will be visible from up high and possibly help lifting the fish when reeling it in.

I'm still trying to figure out a mechanism to keep hold of the fish when it's struggling. It might turn into a kind of fork jabbing into the fish when it comes up close to the yoyo. I'll try and post another sketch later when I've figured that out.

Any ideas are welcome!

Thanks for your time,
Harry