Homemade Kontiki - West Coast Help
Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: Saltwater Fishing
Forum Name: Kite Fishing, Kontikis & Torpedo's
Forum Description: The place for chat about beach toys!
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=127270
Printed Date: 05 Nov 2026 at 3:24pm
Topic: Homemade Kontiki - West Coast Help
Posted By: FlightlessKiwi
Subject: Homemade Kontiki - West Coast Help
Date Posted: 17 Feb 2018 at 3:39pm
|
Hi guys, so I have just returned from my kontiki's maiden voyage on the west coast.
Been home built, 46lb motor, electronic timer, electronic adjustable rudder (not GPS yet).  For the first time out it went well. Was water tight and had plenty of get up and go. My brother and took her out to Ruapuke on the south end this morning. After 2 hours of trying to get her out we spent our battery life and patience. Granted the it was rather rough, and set face was about 2m, we simply couldnt get it out past the breakers without a wave broadsiding and sending the konitki on a bee line parallel with the beach or straight back to us. We tried applying drag to the line to pull the rear end around to straighten her up, tried sending her out at and angle to the beach to allow for some current drift, sent her out in some rips but simply couldnt get past the last set of breakers into calmer water.
As a newbie, was this simply to rough to send out? I thought about GPS guidance, but really the way it was getting chucked around out there, I really dont think it would have made a difference. I've no doubt I could set her out on Waihi beach or Papamoa with relative ease (providing its not too rough), but as for the west coast, are there any tips and tricks? |
Replies:
Posted By: fish-feeder
Date Posted: 10 Mar 2018 at 8:20am
|
Anything over a 1.5 set face out west is almost always a no go. Also GPS is only good to combat cross currents really,or push from wind. Try the west coast on a 1m swell,ask any other fisho which way the current is running on any given day,have a little drag on the line till it gets past the breakers,ad at least 30oz of sinkers and try that. ------------- dont get my personality mixed up with my attitude,my personality is me,my attitude depends on you. |
Posted By: denbo
Date Posted: 12 Mar 2018 at 6:58pm
|
make the rudder twice the size and make sure it is in the flow of water from the prop ------------- If things don,t change they will stay the same |
Posted By: Got-ya
Date Posted: 15 Mar 2018 at 4:42pm
|
I have got my seahorse GPS out in a 2m swell but it is a waste of time as for whatever reason the fishing is bad. 1.5m is about the limit I find worth fishing. I don't agree with Fish-feeder's comment about the GPS function as IMO it makes a heap of difference. With GPS it is way easier to get the unit out consistently, no holding the line to straighten up the unit or guessing how much side current just point and go. ------------- THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF FISHERMAN, THOSE WHO FISH FOR SPORT AND THOSE THAT CATCH SOMETHING. |
Posted By: fish-feeder
Date Posted: 16 Mar 2018 at 9:01am
|
I didn't say it doesn't make a difference,it does,compared to a non gos unit. That's all the GPS dies though,gets through cross currents. If the swell is big,the GPS won't stop it getting turned around . I fish with GPS and non GPS units ------------- dont get my personality mixed up with my attitude,my personality is me,my attitude depends on you. |
Posted By: durleyzz
Date Posted: 01 Mar 2019 at 9:18pm
|
what a difference -----Ive always made my own torpedos from way back and recently have been brassed off with a more recent lithium cell one ----I make total fibreglass ones (30 lb one i sold years ago,)Thing i was first to get 46 as tried radio control for turning and off.(just trouble)..the acid battery one i have (46ib motor )was so heavy (3 --9ah ) but it would not have got out where this new Bullet one went the other day. With GPS the principal i reckon is totally different . the longer from prop to pulling point is more a disadvantage the shorter distance allows the rudder to work more without struggling against the leaverage of the longer pulling one. The big difference is when a wave throws the bullet (as this new thing is called) back with pull line becoming slack it has a chance to push ahead in direction of the gps tracked rudder. Man I wish I'd bought a gps one earlier.... yep 2 m wave to big but some waves have crash harder and others beak just at the top making them easy to recover. Will it o through that wave out the back as thats the one u cant pull her straight after the wave which i always do ..Timing that one out the back is everthing.
|
Posted By: macrayfish
Date Posted: 03 Mar 2019 at 8:21pm
|
You could try the 12v 10 ah lithium batteries sold by Seahorse. They'll give a longer, more powerful burn than the SLA's. (32mins at full power until they die, as opposed to 15 mins at full power and approx. another 10 mins at half power for the SLA's). But they are expensive and only around a third of the weight of an SLA, so if point of balance is a factor you'll have to add ballast.
I use nothing else in my GPS Seahorse (on the West Coast), and have been able to get through 2 metre surf. But obviously the higher the swell the more energy and time it takes to get through, and hence less power left for making distance. But, generally, I too don't go out unless swell is down to 1.5m or less. |
Posted By: Steps
Date Posted: 04 Mar 2019 at 9:46am
|
Currents... Old school.. non powered home made square sale early 60s.. A big part of launching in small surf was choosing the right part of the beach.. ie knowing and recognizing how the surf bis running where the rips and holes where to take advantage of them. Same principle goes for surf casting and surfing
|