New Member: Surfcasting or a Boat

[Wolfy]

Hi ya, decided to get into fishing as lived on the Kapiti coast for a few years now but only ever did the once a year thing. New to this so will probably be asking a few questions.
1st one is: Is it worth while in doing Surfcasting or will i need a boat

[DENYS]

Hi I had boats but now find a bit exspendsive to run although I`m keen surfcaster I`ve bought a electric kontiki cheaper to run and good fun

[Wolfy]

Thanks for that Denys, I'll have a look into it

[Karl]

Hey Wolfy
I live over at the island, depends what sorta fish and fishing your after and how confident you are in / on the water.
I have a few boats we use, my favorite is my 12ft tinny with a 15hp on it, easy to launch, retrieve, cheap to run, ok in reasonable sea conditions, takes me under 10 minutes to the mainland on a good day.
2-3k should get you up and running, probably be similar cost to setting up a kayak or kontiki.
Surfcastings an easy and inexpensive start up.
There's a lot more getting into sea kayak fishing as well.
Kontiki, kite, surfcasting, dragging a net off the beach, all work good here.
As I say though depends what your looking for.
All the best with the fishing

[Wolfy]

Cheers Karl ... Yeah had a look at the Kayaks but cost $800 ish and seems like hard work i would rather use horsepower so me and a mate have decided to get a small tinny to get us up and going ... have started looking around to see what is about.
Thanks for the advice and all the best to yourself and hope you keep catching many fish

[Karl]

Cool mate
I use a 12ft with a 15hp often, excellent for me and a shop or another person, my son had a 14ft tinny with an 18hp that went like a rocket, the extra two feet and slightly wider beam was noticeably better in the chop, it had a longshaft and higher transom as well which was nice when launching and landing at the beach, still with a little playing around you'll get the best system sussed.
My cuz just scored a fyran 440 with a 35 on it, surprised me how well it went.
It's all a bit dependant on the bank at the end of the day
I like the ease of use with the smaller boats as well as the economics pulling up on browns is pretty easy with most boats although I have had to drag a few off when the tides left them high and dry lol.
Theres been a few tri hull/boston whalers for sale recently for bugger all, my dads had a few of these due to the stability being excellent, I'd say inflateables are good but always dodge out on them around hooks, gaffs, knives etc personally.
My main user/larger boats an open panga style thing, its 6mtrs and currently i run a 65hp tiller, its made of plastic, same as mac and smartwaves, its been excellent for my use and is probably the best I've used here around the reef/rocks.
the macs and smartwaves seem to be a lil pricey compared to tinnies IMO.
Yachts are cheap ! keep it mind as an option, there have been a few used extensively here for fishing, no sails / mast, outboard, they are designed to be in a sea and have a bit of a cabin to shelter, cook etc.
I'm not really a fan of wood or glass over ply, and I had my faith reborne in figlass couple years ago after seeing my cousins 17ft figlass boat smashed all over the rocks here for hours one night, 140kmh northerly, we all nearly died getting it up off the rocks out of the surf lol, it floated the next day !!!!!!
Its often worth havn a bla to Kelvin Cudby who does mobile boat servicing 0224283297 or Scott Halliday at Coastal Outboard Repairs 905 8000 if they have any networks with boats for sale IMO.
Trademe always has a good selection lol, I spned hundreds of thousands a week on there, in my dreams.
I looking to set up a small alloy pontoon one day, Lotsa guys get out and do it in them when every body else is at home
Anyway Bro, happy boat hunting , come for a visit show me your new Boat

[Wolfy]

Hi Karl, started looking around on trade me etc.... doing a bit of research before jumping in a regretting wasting money. Definitely not looking at getting a yacht or a inflatable for same reasons and the fear of sinking ... lol.
Have mainly been concentrating on looking at the Fryan's 420 to 460 they all look good and seem to be a few around with good specs and xtras ..... also any alloy hull with a good motor and aux from 4.3 to 5m with trimmings etc.

Agree about the pontoon's see many out when nothing else is out pricey at the mo tho going for about 9-10k... might wait and see if xmas bargins come in the new year.

With the F/glass (excuse my ignorance)are they not too heavy to launch from the beach... which is why i was plumping for a alloy.

Thanks for the info on the numbers will definitely give them both a call

Suppose i'll have to go do some work now so speak later and have good fishing

[korin]

Surfcasting can be long hours around kapiti and often you will be getting Kahawai / mullet and of course red cod.

We sometimes used our 8ft zodiac with a 15hp, found it was easy to get in and out of the water. Boats always take time to wash down and if you are spending hours in the water a small boat is hard to stretch the legs out. However you catch a lot more fish and will be picking up Snapper, kahawai, gurnard. Every trip we would pick up a few snapper during the summer months and always would get gurnard and kahawai. Surfcasting we do a bit of and often we will get kahawai but sometimes we won't get anything worth keeping. We like to mix it up a bit as we enjoy walking around with the surfcaster for adventure but when we want fish to eat we head out in the boat. You don't need to get to Kapiti Island for good fish, we catch most of ours about 500m out infront of the kapiti boat club

[Karl]

Hey Korin As you say, we are lucky the fish are everywhere, well, most of the time, sumtime lol.
Your on to it wolfie, yea guess the fibreglas is a bit heavier, the 420/440s are swt to launch without the tractor, I found when ya get over 70hp you start getting into fuel costs.
Its nice to troll around and not stress on the fuel
I think I said my cuz jus got a 440 or similar with a 35/40, its sweet.
still big enough to put a rocket launcher/ baitboard/ sun cover etc if you want.
Kahawai just started kickn in
Been pridy lumpy last cpl days haha.

[Karl]

Hey Wolfy, on second thoughts, Its probably more about the trailer and technique when it comes to the launching, especially if your looking at something fairly light, say 40/50hp size on a figlass 4-4.5 ? Theres some mint deals now and again whea a reasonable figlass comes up with a mint motor and /trailer.
I fyou get into anything heavy its worth joining one of the clubs and grabbing a tractor key IMO
I messed up a few 4wd's when I was launching off the beach over there, I sussed that, dont go over there much