The beach demo last Sunday was held at Uretiti Beach. Conditions were perfect and we thought the wind was around 15 to 20 knots west south west.

Initially we launched a Power Air 3 inflatable kite.

While it was flying perfectly it was pulling well in excess of ten kilograms on average and much more in the gusts, so we decided it was overkill for the low rip and surf free conditions and changed down a size to a Power Air 2 kite.

From left to right : Morgan Barnes, Paul Bertelsen and Albert Meeuws with some of the fish and the kite used to catch them. Albert liked the kite so much he wound up buying my treasured test kite on the beach!

The first set was left to fish for three quarters of an hour and returned with two snapper and four gurnard, the biggest gurnard was just under 1.2 kilograms and the biggest snapper was around 2 kgs. It was a massive gurnard and went the entire length of our large chilly bin (See pic above).

One of the snapper was probably between 27 and 30cm but, because we didn't have a ruler we decided to release it which was really easy because we were using target hooks and the fish was lip hooked.

The second set was out for about half an hour and again returned with four nice gurnard and another two snapper up to 2 kgs.

Our last set of the day was also only fishing around half an hour and again we caught 6 really nice gurnard. All of the gurnard were a really good size.

The kitefishing club was also on Uretiti Beach on Sunday holding their monthly club day. It was interesting to note that club members we spoke to had caught snapper, but some had caught few or no gurnard at all. We put this down to the fact that many of them were using squid for bait which, while very good for snapper, seriously limits your by-catch of gurnard.

A big thank you to Paul Bertelsen who assisted us immensely on the day, we hope you enjoyed the snapper and gurnard!

Above : Windspeed Graph from the Brynderwyn weather station during our demo. I think they may have the anemometer in a wind shadow as everyone on the beach thought the wind was 15 to 20 knots. Does anyone have info on the reliability of this weather station?

Steve Barnes (no relation) and Sharon Richards fished the late afternoon at Uretiti Beach on the 12th of November.

They ran just one set with a large dropper rig powered by a Nighthawk kite.

With an incoming tide and overcast conditions they set 10 hooks baited with squid to just over 300 metres offshore.

Conditions were ideal for catching good fish.

Three snapper were caught including this great snapper which weighed in at 10kgs.

Steve also reported that this snapper was taken on a floating bead trace with a target snapper hook.

Waipu Cove

Waipu Cove is also fishing well.

About three weeks ago we were told that a kitefisher fishing with a pocket sled rig hauled in one 6 kg snapper and two around 2.5 kgs on just one set.

Kawakawa Bay by Paul Major

A very brief report just in from Paul Major, but the photo says it all!

8 lber on the first set at 7.00am.

Yes!

Paul Major

Weymouth Boating Club

Orewa Beach

We are receiving many excellent reports from east coast kite fishers.

Evening kite fishing is proving the most productive.

One kite fisher reported setting 10 hooks with a flexiwing rig from Orewa Beach last week and wound up catching five very nice snapper ranging from 33cm to 44cm and one shark.

Porangahau Beach by John Pothan

Hi all

The boys down here are having a field day with gurnard. I have one report of 43 gurnard for 3 days kite fishing at our beach. He was doing only 2 sets each day with a flexiwing kite rig and used the skyhook under the flexiwing kite on the lighter wind days for more power.

Will keep you posted.

Maureen & John Pothan www.porangahaubeachmotel.co.nz