Hi, Again

On the kitefishing and kontiki scene Sunday was the only fishable day. The northwesterly change saw four or five kites and one kontiki fisher out trying their luck in the 15 knots of wind. Most had difficulty with the strong rip and high surf left over from the storm during the week.

One local fisher who uses a Flexiwing Rig dropped by the shop on Sunday to report his catch. He had managed to take eight big gurnard in the challenging conditions. He was running 12 hooks per set and used salted trevally bait brought from our shop. This was a great result considering the poor conditions on the beach.

The commercial fishing vessels who were targeting our bluenose fishing ground were driven away by the big easterlies associated with the low at the weekend. All we have had since is rain which has flooded our local river, so it's looking good for the whitebait season.

Speaking of whitebait, DOC has changed the season so there is a fair bit of confusion about the actual start date of the season. The whitebait season is 15th August until 30th November

The big story from this part of the coast over the weekend was the catching of a 14 foot white pointer shark in a net off Cape Turnagain. According to the story the fisherman was unable to pull it in onto his vessel so called up a local cray fisherman who came to assist. Being unable to land the whole fish they had to cut the head off and bring it in two pieces.

If you are in the area and want to find out more about kitefishing then call in and see our range of Pauls Kites on display.

Regards John Pothan

http://www.porangahaubeachmotel.co.nz/

Left New Plymoth 10am Saturday morning as a strong southeast wind was forecast (about 15-20knots and gusty when we left). Once we got over Mt Messenger there was no wind. Reached Mokau, very light winds from the south southwest. Stayed on as we had booked a cabin at the motor camp, and tried to catch the evening offshore breeze.

Breeze arrived about 7.30pm but by the time we got the kite gear on the beach the breeze had died. Up at 6.30am Sunday with a southeast wind of about 5 knots on the beach but much stronger about 300 metres out when we saw the float rise about 30 metres in the air.

Reweighted the Dropper Rig and left it out for 20 minutes at around 400 metres out. Caught one 1kg snapper on back trace, and that was all for the next two sets when the wind dissapeared about 10.30am. I was using mackerel for bait and put out a total of three sets of 10 hooks each.

Did one set with the Large Pocket Sled about 200 metres out but had no success with that either. I was hoping for a kahawai for fresh bait, which I have found to perform quite good up there. Saw one other kite up on the south side of Mokau river. (We fished off the Seaview motor camp.)

Kariotahi to the Manukau Heads.

Strongs winds are a must here as there are high cliffs close to beach all along the coastline. These cliffs can make kitefishing very frustrating if not using the correct kite.

A local problem in the area is near the Waikato River as lots of river weed gets washed down the beach and can tangle up in the kite line and sometimes bust you off following heavy rain.

Another local problem to watch for is the strong northerly sweeps and the longshore rip this creates along beach. If you are using a longline often the mainline gets pulled up the beach by this rip so a Dropper Rig is definitely the best option here.

Sharks and stingrays can also be a nuisance at times tangling lines and destroying tackle, (another good reason to use Dropper Rigs in this area).

Kitefishing is usually best during periods of strong easterly winds associated with low pressure systems to the north of N.Z.

The fish tend to be fairly wide out. Often best time to kitefish is on the outgoing tide just on dusk and often a feed can be aquired.

Best baits to use are salted bointo or squid.

Another good time to fish is when the whitebait are running. The variety of fish that can be caught from Kariotahi include snapper (which at times can be very big), trevally, shark, stingray, gurnard and kahawai.

Usually if you have one set and catch one type of fish thats all you will get for the rest of the day. So if sharks turn up go home and have a cuppa, but if you get onto snapper stay out kitefishing and a big fish might turn up.

For this area be prepared for the wind to unexpectedly change direction.

The best way to catch fish here is to be out there and at least trying every time you can. For myself it took over 20 times of unsuccessfull attempts getting snags and tangles until we got a good set in perfect conditions.

The result was a 8lb snapper and two kahawai, this certainly made all the long drives out there worth while.

We have had many eventfull trips since getting to know the area well. On one trip we caught a 40 kg bronze whaler shark, boy that was hard to pull in.

My personal tip for this area is to fish where there are lots of shells washed up on the shore as fish often feed in these areas at high tide.

Hi there, we were visiting Tauranga from Hawkes Bay this weekend.

I fished the eastern end of Papamoa Beach from 6.30 - 8.30am on Saturday using a Pocket Sled casting kite and a surfcasting rod.

Unfortunately the winds were too light for the kite to be effective, only being able to set 3 hooks at 100m.

However the surfcasting was another matter. I landed and released 9 kahawai to 1.5 kg in that time (maybe I should have spent time trying to fine tune the kite in those light and flukey winds)

We hope you enjoy your weekly kitefishing newsletter.

The only way we can maintain the quality and accuracy of the information is to receive your reports. Please take a couple of minutes and fill out a Fishing Report form of your last fishing trip or better still as many previous trips as you can remember. Click on the link below to see just how easy it is to file a Fishing Report.

http://www.fishingkites.co.nz/beachreport.htm

The reports do not have to be recent; if you have information from past fishing trips these can be input as well. Even if you caught nothing on your last fishing trip the information is important as it helps to build a real picture of what is happening at that particular beach.

Due to popular request we have started posting kite and rig instructions on site

Skyhook Instructions http://www.fishingkites.co.nz/instructions/skyhookinstructions.html

Flexiwing Conversion Kit Instructions http://www.fishingkites.co.nz/instructions/flexiconversion.html

Dropper rig Instructions http://www.fishingkites.co.nz/instructions/dropperinstructions.html