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!