Thanks, Jason - it's been fun.

As a sidelight from my previous post, several of the retailers I've discussed Bixpys with have made the point that the devices are most useful for keeping station a la MinnKota on a boat, rather than as a paddling assist to get from A to B.

Well, yes, one could equate Bixpys with e-bikes, which latter do seem to be bringing people back to a mode of transport they abandoned as teenagers. In my years of kayak fishing, I have not seen a general trend towards simplification. Instead, the trend has been for newcomers to kayak fishing to be ...

Too late for the OP, but this might be of use for later readers. Caught a couple of slender tuna out by Little Barrier a couple of weeks ago. One way I cooked some was in the same way as I do marlin steaks (but quicker and hotter frypan, for less time; make the steaks about 35mm thick). Use rice bra...

The problem with Catanas - of which I am quite a fan, owning 3 or 4 of them still, one of the old purple ones is well over 12 years old and worked hard in kayak fishing all that time - is that they are graphite composite and thus prey to tip loading by novice anglers. I know this by adverse experien...

@Kingifiddler: "Please excuse my poor comprehension. Hopefully you'll find a way to clarify it for me. I suggest mirroring IGFA rules on hooks and keep your words to no more than two syllables so this simpleton can understand. Thanks in advance." The rules of a comp do not matter to my way...

I cannot think of any way of being comprehended by you.

Sorry.

So by your reasoning the foot-powered paddles that allow manoevering whilst hands are fully occupied with rod and reel should be banned from kayak fishing comps as well.

That argument was lost years ago.

I’m happy with rules approximating IGFA rules; which is pretty much that the vessel is irrelevant but that the tackle be sporting tackle, as defined in a lot of detail by them. As in any of the other sports I have competed in - motorsports, rugby, cricket, rowing and surfing - the rules seek to pit ...

@kingiFiddler: Obviously, opinions will vary. I was just reporting on competition organisers’ views. By all means create and run a comp reflecting your own views of what constitutes “sport”. I imagine, for example, that there are comps catering to the operators of mechanical longline devices such as...

Too much like harvesting, too little like sport.

“Electric”, as in none of the electric-motor-powered reels; as contrasted with “electronic”, as in the electronic-line-counter reels.

Most of the comps let you range far, as long as you get your fish measured/assessed by a specific time.

Yup - lots - most of the sport fishing clubs, for example.

Some - like NZ Lure Masters on 2 and 3 October this year - don't differentiate as to location or vessel or landbased, but on the fishing technique.

Yeah, I'd forgotten you were in on that stunt - maybe its originator?

Nah, too easy.

We had a little local comp between friends a few years ago using the Warehouse kids’ set $5 rod and reels.

Was bloody hard, because they had only about 25m of cheap light nylon and the reels’ drag washers were - I am not fibbing - cardboard.

Something I forgot from my post above: Very gentle and seemingly tentative takes are typical of big snapper in the winter months - on baits and softbaits alike. So don’t do a big mean strike at a bite; just gently put a bit of pressure on the line. You’ll know soon enough if it’s a good fish. The sm...

Yup, each in our own ways.

That is part of my point.

My main challenge is to do the best I can regardless of the gear.

And, yes, I seldom paddle more than about 10km a day fishing now, though in Potty’s comp I think Nick and I did paddle 15 or 16 km.

Nick writes in each issue of NZFN now as well - there was a period of some months when we both had items in the mag, as our good friends and father and son Craig and Josh Worthington had done before.

@TBreezy: it's already happened this year. Potty's 3-species kayak fishing comp based at Port Jackson on the shortest day this year; 20 June and a shotgun start. About 40 or 50 entrants, and several of them had Bixpys. My son Nick and I were the only anglers without any electronics at all, and on th...

Yes, you do need to evaluate who it is posting the reports. My son's a charter skipper operating out of Westhaven. He covers ground from the Mokes down to Cuvier Island (though not necessarily on the same day every day...). He's on the water every day the weather permits, and just has to put people ...