What are the benefits of Drone Fishing?

Drone Fishing is still relatively new to New Zealand, but over the last twelve months this exciting style of fishing has gone ballistic as more people understand the benefits of using a drone to get your baits out faster and further.

What is Drone Fishing

Effectively, drone fishing is a cross between the traditional surfcasting technique, that many kiwis are familiar with, and the longline, Kontiki, or Torpedo-style of fishing.  Let me explain further…

Surfcasting

Surfcasting is an exciting way to fish because it uses rod and reel you get to actually feel the fish when it nibbles, bites and gets hooked on your line!  You also get to play the fish back into shore and witness the fruits of your hard labour as you see what you have caught!

Longlines, Kite Fishing & Torpedo-style

Longlines, Kite-fishing and, these days, the more popular Torpedo style of fishing are a passive style of fishing (unlike surfcasting). You effectively bait up your 25x hooks, set the torpedo to tow out your traces 500+ metres offshore, and leave it for half and hour to an hour before starting up an electric winch system to wind the line back in.  This can be a successful way to catch fish but the trouble is, you don’t really know if you have caught anything until the traces start coming up the beach!  What this does is take away all the excitement of the fish biting and actually knowing you have it on the line.

Drone Fishing – Finding a Great Balance

This is where drone fishing, with the right drone fishing kit, really strikes a great balance – you get the best of both worlds:

1. You get to feel every nibble, bite and strike on your line.
2. With most fishing drone bait release you can set your baits up to 1km offshore (although most people fish 300m – 600m).
3. You have the ability to set multiple baits (in NZ you are limited to 7x baits).
4. Unlike Torpedo Fishing, you don’t need all the gear at the beach – NO winch, NO trolley,  NO complicated trace system.
5. You can use your existing boat rod or surf-caster set to get into the game, at least to start with anyway, which also helps lower the costs a little.

Flying a Fishing Drone is EASY

One of the biggest questions we often get asked about Drone Fishing is:

“How hard is it to fly? I have never flown a drone before and am scared I might crash it”.

Drone technology has improved greatly over the last five years. Most drones on the market today in this part of the world are very easy to fly! Most will even self-hover without any remote control input at all! They hold their altitude well and, with “GPS Mode”, they lock onto positioning satellites allowing for a fixed horizontal position. This is especially useful if there is a bit of wind (which quite often at the beach there is…) – the drone stays locked in position rather than drifting with the breeze.

Here is another great article that looks at drone fishing from another perspective: Drone Fishing – Is it really fishing?

So, is Drone Fishing Worth It?

Absolutely! Together, all these points make drone fishing exceptionally easy, exciting and effective.

Of course, here at Drone Fishing New Zealand, we have been fishing with fishing drones for a long time. If you need any help or support feel free to reach out to us anytime!