Manual

Lead sinkers warning

Handling the fishing lead bank sinkers (fishing weights) included with this product will expose you to lead, a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. WASH HANDS AFTER HANDLING.

• Children should not be allowed to handle the sinkers.
• If you plan to allow children to use this product, replace the lead sinkers with non-toxic steel fishing weights which are available at most local sporting goods stores.
• If you believe that anyone has ingested or placed the lead sinkers in their mouth, call the poison control center or seek immediate medical attention.
• Do not burn, melt, grind, shave or purposefully alter the sinker as this could increase your risk of lead exposure.

Hook injury warning

This product includes barbed circle hooks that are very sharp. Extreme care should be taken when handling these hooks as they can easily pierce flesh and once they are stuck in the flesh, the barb will prevent the hook from being easily pulled out.

• If anyone is injured by a hook, seek immediate medical attention.
• Embedded hooks should be removed by a medical professional.
• All puncture wounds, even though they may not seem serious, have the potential to get infected with bacteria including Tetanus.

Swing casting warning

Casting of the line by swinging it like a cowboy lasso rope should only be done by someone experienced. Swinging a weight at the end of a line creates a great deal of force. Serious bodily harm can result from someone coming into contact with the weight in motion.

In addition to the potential damage caused by a moving weight, the hooks attached to the line could cause injury.

Be aware that monofilament degrades with use and UV exposure that can eventually weaken it and the line can break during swing casting allowing the weight to travel towards an unintended target. If you decide, despite our warnings, to learn this casting technique, we suggest that you start without any hooks and with the smallest sinker (¼ oz) provided with this kit. Make sure that you wear adequate eye protection and that everyone is standing at a safe distance.

Line strength warning

The monofilament fishing line included with this product is of 20 lbs OR 30 lbs test weight. It was selected specifically to reduce the risk of been pulled into the water if the operator became entangled with the line while a very large fish pulled on the line unexpectedly. There is still a risk of injury or drowning for small bodied persons, children, or elderly people who might not have the necessary strength to break the 20 lbs line with their hands. DO NOT REPLACE THE MONOFILAMENT PROVIDED WITH A HEAVIER TEST WEIGHT LINE AS THIS WILL INCREASE THE RISK OF INJURY. WARNING:

Friction burn / cut warning

If a very large fish takes the hook at high speed there is also the risk of the line causing friction burns or cuts to the hands and fingers. Use a glove on the hand handling the line to protect the hand and fingers from injury.

Water safety & CDC drowning excerpt

Finally, the most dangerous thing associated with fishing is water itself. It is possible to drown in a few inches of water.

• From 2005-2009, there were an average of 3,533 fatal unintentional drownings (non-boating related) annually in the United States — about ten deaths per day. An additional 347 people died each year from drowning in boating-related incidents.
• About one in five people who die from drowning are children 14 and younger.2 For every child who dies from drowning, another five receive emergency department care for nonfatal submersion injuries.
• More than 50% of drowning victims treated in emergency departments (EDs) require hospitalization or transfer for further care (compared with a hospitalization rate of about 6% for all unintentional injuries). These nonfatal drowning injuries can cause severe brain damage that may result in long-term disabilities such as memory problems, learning disabilities, and permanent loss of basic functioning (e.g., permanent vegetative state).

The Kit Includes everything you need to fish in freshwater or saltwater:

• 1x silky smooth and ultra-compact gold anodized aluminum Yoyito handline reel.
• 30 lbs or 20 lbs tournament grade monofilament fishing line
• 2x small, 2x medium, 2x large circle hooks
• 2x small, 2x medium, 2x large J hooks
• 1x 1 oz bank sinkers, 2x 1/2 oz bank sinkers, 1x 1oz egg sinker, 2x 1/4 oz egg sinker 4x medium size barrel swivels.
• 1x reel/kit carrying pouch with PAL webbing for MOLLE attachment and two inside pockets
• User manual

Hand line fishing is a traditional method of fishing that does not include the use of a rod. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when people started fishing this way, but hand line fishing has been around for thousands of years. Today, millions of fishermen around the world subsist using this technique. My father taught me how to hand line as a young boy the same way his father taught him and I have been in love with fishing since. I still remember the first time I had a fish take my bait and pull on my line. Many decades later, I am now teaching my grandson to fish with the Yoyito. Although it is a simple process, it does take time to become proficient. Eventually you can tell by feel alone whether the fish has robbed your bait and even guess what kind of fish is on the line before you have a chance to see it. Remember, fishing is about practice, patience, and luck.

Typically, right handed folks use the Yoyito in their left hand and wind with their right and more dextrous hand. The Yoyito is shipped with the line wound clockwise for right handed folks. However, if you are left handed, simply unwind the line by winding it around another object such as a soda can or bottle and rewind it back into the Yoyito counter-clockwise.

The rest of the manual assumes a right handed operator. If you have rewound the Yoyito to suit your dominant hand, then simply reverse the instructions.

To protect your fingers from cuts and burns, use a glove on the hand not holding the Yoyito. Alternatively, for experienced line fishermen, use sports tape around the fingers. You might see pictures or videos of Yoyito fishing without finger protection; however, these experienced fishermen have thick calluses on their fingers that prevent getting cut by the line. The old timers used to use a piece of bicycle tire inner tube around their fingers for protection.ent here.

Hold the Yoyito by inserting your index, middle, ring and optionally your pinky fingers through the holes in the reel. The back of the reel (the flat side) should rest against the palm of your hand and the front of the reel (the cone) should be pointed towards the opposite hand. The thumb is free to apply pressure to the line -- controlling it and preventing it from unintentionally unspooling.

Casting is not really that important. This is not a shooting sport. Fish tend to swim everywhere and find your bait. There is no need to do a 50 yard cast to successfully fish with a hand line. More often than not, just casting a few feet or dropping the line straight down from a dock, bridge, fishing pier or the side of a boat, is more than sufficient to catch fish. But with practice it is possible to cast out the 250 ft of line your Yoyito came equipped with. YouTube is a good place to learn how to cast a hand line.

There are two basic ways to retrieve the line.

1. Wind onto the Yoyito Simply wind the line around the Yoyito. At first start by keeping the hand holding the Yoyito static and using your other hand to wind. Once you are comfortable with this method, you can wind faster by moving both hands synchronously and in a circular motion, effectively speeding up the retrieval.
2. Pull hand-over-hand Pull the line in hand-over-hand letting it drop loosely and in big loops on the ground. This method is useful when trying to land a big fish that you want to bring it in as quickly as possible. Be aware that this method can cause a person to get tangled in the line and can potentially cause a fall. Once you have removed the fish from the line, wind it back up around the Yoyito for the next cast or to store.

With practice, you will get faster at winding and eventually will be able to wind the Yoyito with or without a fish on the line.

Once the line is the the water, you can either hold the Yoyito in one hand and hold the line with the other (keeping the line tight so you can feel the bites) or you can place the Yoyito in one of your pockets and just hold the line. The larger of the two pull-string bags can also be used to hold the reel. Remove the smaller accessory bag from the larger bag. Then take the string loops of the larger bag and pass your belt through them as if the bag was a belt holster. Cast the line and wind enough of it to make it tight then place the Yoyito in the bag attached to your belt. When the fish bites and takes off, the reel will spin inside the bag and provide some drag for the fish. Slow down the spinning reel by putting pressure on the outside of the bag. Once the reel stops spinning, hold on to the line with one hand and use the other hand to remove the Yoyito from the bag. Then start winding the Yoyito to retrieve the line and the fish.

Note that the Yoyito came with circle hooks. These type of hooks do not have to be set and simply holding the line with some tension while the fish pulls on it is enough to set the hook.

There are times when you may not want to hang on to the Yoyito while fishing. You can fish unattended by either using the provided pull-string bag or the two holes on the back of the Yoyito.

Using the large pull-string bag, attach the loops of the bag to a structure using a piece of cord of your own choosing. The advantage of this method is that if a big fish pulls the Yoyito will spin inside the bag while the friction of the bag against the Yoyito creates drag for the fish.

The two holes found on the back of the Yoyito can be used to easily attach it to a structure. Pass a looped section of line through one of the holes from the inside of the reel toward the back (flat) part of the Yoyito. Use the protruding loop of line to attach the Yoyito to a structure. If you use this method, the reel will not be able to spin freely; therefore, it would be useful to attach the Yoyito to something that is flexible like a small sapling or tree branch in order to minimize the risk of a fish breaking the line.

Catfish are very easy to catch while fishing unattended since they tend to just hunker down and not move much once they are hooked. Also, catfish don't usually become unhooked by themselves due to the configuration of their mouth parts.