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Kaipara Harbour
Phillip Moore of Auckland spent last weekend on the charter vessel the "Kaipara Star".
A party of 12 headed out for a days fishing on the Kaipara Harbour for a very reasonable rate of $ 50.00 per person. According to Phil the over all catch for the day was around 60 fish including snapper up to 7.5 kgs.
Phil was using the sliding rig technique in conjunction with the new floating bead traces and was totally amazed with the results. Phil and a couple of his mates were using the Target snapper hooks and were not
only catching two fish for every one caught by the other fishers on regular hooks, but they were also ALL lip hooked while the normal fish hooks were being swallowed.
Phil also reported that because of the sizes of the snapper being caught on the Target hooks, he and his mates were safely returning anything under 40cm back to the sea.
Phil's average fish were 45cm to 50cm.
Mokau Report By Geoff Preston
There are still good numbers of large snapper being taken along Mokau Beach. Geoff reported that while kitefishing on Monday March 3 he landed 1 very large thresher shark and 3 snapper, 4.8 kg, 5.4 kg and 6.9 kg using fresh kahawai for bait.
The following day he caught several school sized snapper and 1 which weighed in at 8.1 kg. Geoff was a bit disappointed however as this broke his winning run at the local pub. The winning snapper was 10.7 kg.
According to Geoff the best catches have been taken during the offshore winds in the morning when the seas are slight and conditions are perfect for kitefishing.
Fishing Report from Rob
On Wednesday March 19 we were at our shop in Onehunga and noticed a Flexiwing Rig which Rob was in the middle of repairing.
According to Rob the novice kitefisher couldn't quite work out what the line on the handspool was for and wondered why there was no allowance for hooks on the mainline of his dropper rig.
Instead of reading the instructions, the kitefisher made an executive decision on the spot and decided to tie blood knots in his mainline for attaching his running traces to, effectively turning his dropper
rig into a longline rig.
The good news is that the kitefisher did not lose any gear and in fact managed to catch 5 good sized snapper on his Flexiwing Rig from Orewa Beach.
The rig is now back to it's original state being a safe and efficient small dropper rig.
Editors Note: We do not recommend tying blood knots in the 31 kg mainline of the Flexiwing Rig. These knots weaken the line by as much as 45 %. If you HAVE to tie a dropper knot, check
out this one it is much stronger.
Several kitefishers have however got a 75kg pre-stoppered hook section which they clip in to their flexiwing rigs so they can run them as a 10 hook longline on the east coast when conditions suit.
Bay of Plenty from Mike Te Hiko
Kia Ora from the sunny Bay. Such a lovely day on Sunday, out we went to kite fish. We had plenty of practice putting our kites out but no fish.
The great thing about Sunday, other than being out fishing, was that there were another 6 kites out there as well. What a sight to see, that many kites out fishing, all at different altitudes and distances offshore. Fantastic!
For the record, 1 fish caught from the 7 kites, after 2 sets each lasting about 1 - 1.5 hours per set. Not great, but a great time had.
Regards Mike Te Hiko
Muriwai by Phil Carter
At our place, east side of the Waitakere ranges with a clear view to Coromandel, on Sunday morning the wind was SE blowing a steady 20 knots gusting to 25. Rang the team, daughter and partner in Kingsland, meet you at Westgate 9:00.
Got to Muriwai and the wind was SE 5 - 10 knots at best. Drove North and passed a couple of others just setting up at about 5 kms up the beach. We picked a spot where the rip didn't look too bad, wrong!
Tried to launch the kite but it kept diving. Must have had something to do with the way the wind was coming over the dunes. Moved South about 2 kms, set up again baiting with mullet and the kite took off with a tack to bring it about 15 degrees offshore.
Sent it out with 10 hooks and left it for about 15 mins to fish. Hauled it in and caught 1 small kahawai. Reset the line to about 600 metres and left it a further 15 mins. Next minute the kite did a big loop the loop and crashed!
Bugger! I hate it when that happens. Got the kite about half way in and my daughters partner was nearly dragged back into the surf. I rushed back to help him and next minute nothing. We lost our brand new, first time out, pink Delta Force kite, float,
kite line, rolling sinkers (in tubing), 5 Jap hook traces, 5 floating bead traces and about 300 metres of line.
I think it must have been a large shark. If anyone finds this gear, and I know it's a long shot, but can you please give me a call on 027-439-8239.
Cheers Phil Carter
Ed: Tacking a kite in a south easterly at Muriwai can be very difficult. This is because easterly winds from the south kick 10 to 15 degrees onshore on the coast and the rip normally goes up the beach at the same time. In a south easterly
turbulence from the sand dunes is also at a maximum.
A northerly wind is much easier to fish at Muriwai because it kicks 10 to 15 degrees offshore at the coast and the rip works to your advantage. The only exception to this rule is when the swell is from a north or northwesterly direction as this can
often change the rip direction.
The temptation to continue adding weight or drag to one side of the kite to overcome the rip is considerable but not helpful in this situation. I suspect the reason the kite came down was due to over tacking. Kitefishers can really benefit from practising
tacking in good clear air in a park.
By doing this you can wind up with a variety of tack ropes, tested and labelled for different tacks and wind speeds. This can make life so much easier when you get to the beach. You simply put the kite up with the appropriate tacking rope for the
conditions and away you go!
Paul and I have fished the main beach at Muriwai in a south easterly but we have never really done well and now we only fish a dropper rig at the top end of the beach in these wind conditions. The following two links will take you to some very useful
kite flying information and are well worth reading.
http://www.fishingkites.co.nz/articles/articleeight.htm
http://www.fishingkites.co.nz/articles/articlenine.htm
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