This week I was lucky enough to head out into the Hauraki Gulf with Kirk who runs the ‘jetski fishing channel’. This is the first time I have spent anytime in the water taking in this ever-growing part of our sport and learning why it is becoming so popular.
With the reliability of personal watercrafts improving immensely over the last decade and the price of a personal watercraft compared to a boat you can see why it is becoming so popular.
You are now able to purchase off the shelf specifically designed chilly-bin holders/ bait stations that mount on the back of you jetski which include rod holders, giving you everything you need within arms reach for $600 to $1000 depending on style and quality.
The size of modern fish finders has decreased making it no problem mounting them in an easy to access position on your jetski, your local jetski shop will be able to help out with installation on these devices and give you advise as to whether you will require a second battery installed to help power the extra devices.
After watching Kirk chasing fish for the day, I picked up on many great points about jetski fishing over boat fishing. One of the main ones being you can actually chase fish. If you are lucky enough to spot the big one on your fish-finder with the maneouverability of jetskis you can actually follow the fish until they take the bait.
Along the same lines you can get into a lot of spots that you wouldn’t be able to on a larger boat and the bonus of not having to worry about tides so much at the boat ramp. Our camera boat got stuck waiting for the tide to come in to be able to retrieve it on to the trailer at the end of the day, while the jetskiers walked the crafts through the shallow water, got the skis on the trailer with little effort and then washed down before the boat was even out of the water.
Some of the biggest events held in New Zealand involving personal watercrafts these days are Jetski Fishings ‘King of Jetski Fishing’ which is know to attract over 50 entries to battle it out for the biggest catch of the day, and after spending the day out watching you can see why this has become so popular.
