Hi All,
With summer just around the corner I'm setting and revising a few fishing goals and considering trying to handline a kingfish from my kayak.

Has anyone got any suggestions or video links that might help me understand the intricacies of this sort of tomfoolery please? I've seen a vid from a boat and they just dumped line on the deck when reeling in and then letting it go when the fish ran. I don't really have that option in a kayak.

When a fish runs, can I just hold onto the inside of a handline reel with both hands and let the fish take line by let my grasp off the reel so it slips and feeds line out? A bit like how I palm my Alvey reels during fights. and I guess when it gets too much or hands get tired or too hot, I can always let go of the reel with one hand and point the handline to face the fish (like sidecast mode on an Alvey) so line peels off faster/easier?

I'd likely be slow trolling livies so maybe make up some sort of holder for the handline that goes into a rod holder and hold the line with a release clip. then try to get the handline out of the holder for the fight when a king strikes and the clip goes off.

Which would be easier on my hands - really thick braid mainline or thick mono? It's going to hurt either way but if I can minimise the damage to fingers during the learning phase that would be great. Paddling with hands that are all cut up with braid cuts is not much fun.

Any help appreciated. If it were easy maybe more people would be trying it but I don't see many on a kayak giving it a go, if any. Perhaps they are all just a bit more sane than yours truly.

Generally there is no need for any sort of drag on a handline.

However, if you shop around you will find handline reels with outer turning spools. Like these pictured. These could be palmed or even modified with a drag.
The one pictured with the green handle has a locking spool. The red knob locks the spool so it could be used for trolling.

You could design and build your own !!

The reason a drag is not generally used is line thickness. Generally hand lines use very thick line specifically to prevent being cut. Usually the line is as thick as you can go for the type of fishing. Using say 100lb line or heavier, maybe 150lb is not uncommon. Always nylon never braid.
100lb is thin enough for casting but thick enough that it wont cut your hands.

Cheers itsaboat.
Got the plastic handcasters with no middle handle and no knob to wind.
Put 30lb mono on one and will use that trying to catch livebait and see how it goes, with a improvise, adapt, overcome approach.
Hopefully will iron out the kinks before the kingfish turn up here.
Has already proven trickier from a kayak than I first anticipated, but worth a crack.

See pic.

I take it you have a smiley face handline?

This is a vintage hand caster. It is cast just like a rod.

With a normal handline you take some line off and swing it around and throw...With this wooden design you do NOT take line off. You just hold it in one hand like you would a rod, and cast, one handed.

Imagine the spool part of the wooden reel being replaced with you plastic reel...So you want just the handle part.

You could make a handle on a lathe..Or buy a suitable size broom handle, table leg etc. So long as the Dia is larger than the "nose hole" of the smiley reel....Then drill the end and insert a thread insert plug. Steel plates, washers, drag washer etc just like you did with the Alvey...Fix it all to the reel through the center nose hole...Bingo you now have drag.
Make and attach winding (turning) handle between the "eye" holes. Or, use one of the eye holes.

You will then have a one hand cast reel that can be use in a rod holder...Has drag...Can use braid because you never need to touch the line.

https://www.marine-deals.co.nz/jarvis-walker-blank-handcaster-assorted-colours

8" model.

Plastic, no centre bits.

$5.49 each.

Nylon from here:
https://www.bunnings.co.nz/grunt-0-60mm-x-250m-nylon-line_p4310407

250m. $8.95

One of many goals for this summer is to nail some good fish on the cheapest gear and learn as much as possible through such challenges.

If I can pull it off for under $20, I hope to piss off as many closed-minded-open-walleted fishos as possible. Not the ones that simply want and enjoy a $600 rod combo (to each their own), but the ones that insist they "need" it. I'll be on a crusade this summer to shove it up as many of the latter types as I possibly can.