Dave Arnold specialises in fishing the top end of Muriwai Beach into the Kaipara Harbour.
On Saturday April 20, in extremely light winds (2 to 4 knots) that defeated most kitefishers on the day, he managed an excellent catch of snapper.
He uses a custom made rig designed specifically for maximum power and safety.
It is a 100 kg dropper rig with a 100kg kiteline powered by a Mega Mouth Kite and Large Skyhook in light winds, and a Power Chute Kite or Delta Force in stronger winds.
He says the rig is nearly impossible to pull in without leather gloves.
When he needs more pull (which obviously isn't often with the assortment of huge kites he uses) he attaches a large plastic rubbish bag to the kiteline.
Dave tears the rubbish bag and fits it so it fills like a spinnaker. While it does pull the kite
down a bit, Dave swears by the method for beating the 4 to 5 knot rips he fishes in at the mouth of the Kaipara Harbour.
On Saturday Dave fished the outgoing tide at the South Kaipara Head with the Mega Mouth Kite and Skyhook. There was only a slight swell. Using a mixture of salted mullet, bonito and fresh just caught kahawai Dave and his mates cleaned up.
They wound up catching over 50 snapper up to 3 kg, 3 kahawai (one of which was used immediately for bait) and 1 gurnard.
Dave is a firm believer in releasing anything under 35 cm so many of their snapper were released unharmed.
Dave is confident that he could have fished even if the winds were lighter by using the rubbish bag spinnaker. |