Even if you subscribed last time you need to re-register so we can get some idea of numbers attending and how many vehicles are available.

We are hoping to have another one or two free fishing trips in October.

I have put an area space on the registration form where so you can now enter information on where you live if you are too far from Auckland to attend the Auckland area events.

If there is sufficient interest in your area we may come to you.

Launching The Kite in Light Winds

The first free fishing trip on the 22nd of September and was just north of Rimmer Road. The winds were so light and flukey we fished right by the 4WD entry because it was doubtful if the wind would fill in.

With winds this light it was a fantastic day to show the effectiveness of the up-rigger roller two-kite dropper rig system in marginal conditions and demonstrate the incredible performance of the Mega Mouth and Powerchute kites in very light winds.

With ground winds from calm to three knots at 8.00am we elected to use the huge mega mouth kite on a 65kg Dropper Rig. The 1500 metre rig was spooled on a 200watt Paul’s Fishing Kites winch. After a long distance power launch - which quickly got the kite to 400ft – we found the wind at the higher altitude was around two to five knots.

While there was enough wind to keep the kite up, there was insufficient pull to tow out any fishing gear.

We waited for three quarters of an hour until the wind rose slightly to five to seven knots - gusting to 10 knots - although the odd two to three minute lulls kept us concerned as to what winds the rest of the day held.

This slight increase in wind resulted in two or three kilograms of pull coming from the kite.

The Fishing Gear

As the wind was light we decided to set only 12 hooks instead of the full complement of 25 to make sure we got the gear at least 1000 metres out. We also used a Powerchute as second kite flown from a separate kiteline stored on a beach reel.

The purpose of the second kite was to hoist an up-rigger roller, which the mainline of the 65kg dropper rig ran through as it was setting. Read more about the roller up-rigger rig here

This worked very well as the mailline was starting to sag into the water when the Mega Mouth kite was about 400 metres offshore.

The instant the line was lifted out of the water by the up-rigger – and freed from the drag created by it - the big fishing rig set a lot faster. Once the gear was out we left it for around half an hour to fish.

At times during lulls we winched in a little mainline to keep the kites airborne, letting it out again once the wind filled back in.

The first set returned with only a small shark and a gurnard. Conditions stayed the same for the second set except the length of the lulls increased, a couple of times we winched the line in 50 – 100 metres to keep the kites airborne.

The Catch

The second set caught one gurnard, a dogfish and a medium school shark. The schoolie was extremely lively.

I didn't want it to sever the line so I waded into the surf to grab it.

The line was in a mess!

The shark had tangled and badly nicked the hook section with it's teeth, nearly severing it completely in a couple of places.

It only took a couple of minutes to unclip the damaged hook section and clip on our spare for the third set. With the set 400metres out the wind stopped completely and the kites fell into the water despite the fact we started the winch while they were still airborne.

The reason we couldn’t save the kites by winching became apparent five minutes after the event when the wind blew straight onshore at a steady 10 knots.

The kites simply couldn’t handle the lull followed by 180-degree wind shift. We winched the kites in, the safety traces on the kites broke and eased the load while preventing damage to the kites.

All were surprised to see we had caught a dogfish and another gurnard on such a haphazard and short set.

PS: I filleted the shark immediately on the beach and put it on ice so all who wanted got a feed. Everyone who contacted me after the demo said they really enjoyed eating it.

Everyone seemed to really enjoy the day on the beach.

The Key Points Shown at the Demo

1. For those without winches the up-rigger roller system avoids the hassle of trying to haul two powerful kites in on a single line. The up-rigger kite is always hauled first and usually is only let out to 200 to 300 metres offshore.
2. The Powerchute and Megamouth kites can fish in incredibly light winds - those with delta kites were struggling to get their kites out - few succeeded
3. Dropper rigs are superior to longlines on the west coast in light wind or high surf conditions
4. Sharks pose little threat to dropper rigs

A special thanks to Neill Sperath for all the excellent photos above which were taken at the demo.

More Demo Reports

Check out the report on the following fishing trip the held the next week which demonstrated a 2000 metre two kite dropper rig. It has heaps of fantastic photos of the catch and the fishing spot plus valuable fishing information.