K S Lay

In the last couple of years, my son and I took up fishing. First, we learned traditional rod fishing. Some people like casting off rocks, but we decided to cast off beaches and riverbanks instead.

Good Catch from Kite Fishing

Our favourite spot for rod fishing is Marine Parade at Bucklands Beach where the yachts moor. Initially we did catch a couple of good snappers that were not big by any means, but of legal size. However over time, it turned out to be quite a non-productive activity — catches were few and far in between.

So we decided to investigate other methods of fishing that were more productive. Of course, there’s always boat fishing where you can fishing anywhere you like in deep waters where the fish were. But we were more interested in something cheaper. We didn’t want to turn our fishing hobby into an expensive sport.

We then looked into the fishing torpedo but decided against it due to a number of perceived disadvantages, including, the fact that the torpedo could only be launched twice before the battery goes flat, and that it needed ideal surf conditions to launch properly.

In the end we found an excellent system that was suggested to us by a friend — kite fishing. I will save the details for a future post perhaps, but suffice to say that with the system, a kite is launched away from the shore, in our case to around 1 km offshore. The kite drags along a dropper line with 10 to 11 hooks attached.

Kite Fishing Catch!

With kite fishing, we have had amazing results. The pics you see here are of a couple of our catches, consisting mainly of snapper and gurnard. We have had great fish dinners!

Our favourite place for kite fishing is Muriwai Beach off the north west of Auckland. It’s a nice sandy beach that is fishable all year round, but we tend to go there when the weather is warmer. Of course the most important factor is the wind — it’s got to be strong enough (at least above 10 knots) and blowing into the sea (ranging from N through NE to E is good).

When the warmer months arrive, my son (and sometimes my daughter) and I will be out there again!

In the last couple of years, I took up two sports, fishing and golfing. I’ll leave fishing for another post but suffice to say learning fishing is much easier than golf.

Golf is a very hard game to learn!!! And that’s in spite of the fact that I took up golf lessons from a pro, Stuart Thompson, who has toured internationally and won competitions. Imagine how worse off I would have been without proper lessons. I have been able to learn the proper golf techniques, all the way from stance, setup, address, swing, long game, short game, driving, chipping, putting, course management, etc.

Knowledge is one thing, but being in control of my shots is another. A lot of practice is required. Like they say, practice makes perfect. It’ll be a while yet before I have a low handicap, I am sure of that.

Here’s a picture of my current golf club — Whitford Park Golf Club in Auckland:

I have been told that the course is a rather challenging course. From experience, I found that to be true.

But it is such a beautiful course. It can be rather wet and soggy with continuous rain, as has been the case this winter. I have been re-assured by my fellow golfers at Whitford that this year has been a lot wetter than usual.

The fairways are just wonderful with carpet-like couch grass. Apparently, the laying of couch grass has only been completed last year. I joined this year, so the timing has been exquisite.

Indeed, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, golf is a very difficult game to learn. But that in a sense is a good thing for me. It provides me a challenge to improve my game gradually — something that is too easy to learn can perhaps be boring.

I have to add though that the main motivation for me to take up this game of golf is to have a form of regular exercise which is also fun. So far it has worked out quite well. For example, my right ankle which had been tender for a few years is now strengthened and feels normal again. When I walk long distances, my legs don’t seize up on me anymore.

Anyway, that’s probably all I want to say about golf today.