Hey team,

Along with Shawn Sangster from Rippton Drones, Grunta and myself will be heading out to have a play around with our Rippton Fishing Drone on Tuesday the 10th of August.

I may be able to tag along for that. Be interesting to see that gear in action. Keep me posted 👍

Hey Steps - the guys are thinking between 9am-12pm to get a couple of drones up and hopefully catch some fish.

Since Awhitu.. get Counties sport fishing club, Pukekohe hunting and fishing... DKM in Waiuku, all on board.
 Maybe even Waiuku miter 10?

You thinking West coast or Harbour side?

Looking at around 20knot SW winds and 2.5/ 3m swells and showers to light rain, on the coast on Tuesday..
 Maybe a window thurs thu (??)

Ive fished Awhitu and the west coat in waiuku for over 10yrs with torpedo's and kite's....I would not fish hamiltons gap with your gear...you are likely to lose your backbone....there is alot of junk out there. I would fish karioitahi...maybe 4kms down towards the rivermouth ...by the "huts" on the hill....far less chance of snags and such. Good luck.

Be aware that the harbour side has extensive drone restrictions due to aircraft coming and going to the airport. Check here:

Hey guys,

Great to hear of everyone's interest in tomorrow!

We will be at Wattle Bay, Awhitu from 9.15am onwards tomorrow (Tuesday, Aug 10th). 

Hopefully we'll be tucked away from the SW. We'll have a few drones out so feel free to come check it out, have a chat and chuck your own line in if you're up to it.

Very interesting day, and meet some cool guys.
1st off..for the record.. I have never operated, or even touched a drone in my life before.
Arrived around the same time as the other guys .. Grunter Josh, and Peter, an avid U tuber there.. With KevenS turning up couple minutes later , but a little confusion in which Wattle bay for one out of Auckland person.
 Whos to figure there are 2 Wattle bays on the Manukau, not far off opposite coasts of each other.

Un packing out of rather a nice back pack.. And I do mean nice.. I have carried a few heavy packs in my day thru some rough bush. This pack is nice and the weight no where being classed as heavy.
  A couple (in this demo) electric reels rods, bit of bait, and a small super cheap jump battery.

Wasnt long before everyone was present, drone setup in an open space, way more than turned out was needed. .. destination programed.. drop the  sinker in 600m in 'that' direction .traces and sinker attached to main line, baited, mainline connected to Drone and drone navigation lights flashing , sitting on around a 1m x1m square of grass carpet out of the back of my ute.
Count down a hesitation , then it fired up, and lifted to a pre determined height directly above us...wind didnt seem to effect the vertical rise, then headed out to its destination.
 Now keep in mind all this is pre programed...and with over rides in if battery gets a bit flat.. it has more than enough power to come home.. by its self.
 Peter was on the rod.. his 1st time as well.. As the Drone lifted he headed out, feeding out the hollow core braid, walked to the edge of the reserve, down the bank, no rush, just keeping slack to the drone.
The drone gets to its pre programed destination.. just over the beach shelf into the edge of the channel, dropped the sinker, Peter takes up a little slack, puts the rod in the beach sand rod holder. While he is doing this the drone, pre programed, heads home, then hovered vertically down ... with only  2 of the 4 legs on the 1 x1m matt.

This thing could damn near be used on a crowed beach so long as have a clear space around 10m wide (that includes bit of room for wind error) to clear the traces clipping others sun hats.
I would not suggest to operate in that space, but thats all it used.

So 1st rod out, second rod set up thats sent out.. again much the same simple 1 man operation.

Now the retrieve... Again a simple pull in with the electic reel.
 Why electric? I asked before thinking about it
Well 600m is a lot of winding and time.. Start to get out to 1000/1500m plus and thats even more..
We knew had sent out over a 500 or so wide shallow rocky shelf from the beach... and the dreaded manukau red weed. Even this went far simpler than I expected. Couple snags, and someone pulling the few bits of red weed of fthe main line before it gets to the top of the rod.

Next line in, re bait, spare battery in the drone and both out again..

Im still astounded at the simplicity of the whole operation .. from rep programing to having lines retrieved... And to packing up back into the back pack etc.

I was a good day, good ppl, and learnt a lot.
 On the way home thinking
" OK wife has given me a budget to replace our boat, how can to keep that budget and buy one of these. Maybe without the electric reel to keep cost down, And how to build a light weight alternative main line spool.?"

Wife comes home, put it too her
" yes nps but must come out of the replacement boat budget" 
Down side, the budget is right at the bottom of type /age/ power/condition of what targeting.
Thinking around some creative accounting now.

I ask a lot questions, watch details, look for faults so no surprises...thats just me...
The only down side.. re charging is 25v so extra batteries and no re charge on site between several drops without an inverter.
Thats the only downside could find... (besides the wifes boat budget)

Im very impressed.

Thanks for the summary Steps, was certainly great to get out there and test the next generation of fishing kit yesterday + put some faces to names.