Fishing off the beach

Our beaches are fantastic for fishing with surfcasting and longline gear.

If you're fishing, remember to:

keep your lines and equipment safe for others using the beach
always watch your lines, and never leave them unattended.

Cleaning fish | Rules and summer restrictions | Kāpiti Marine Reserve

Cleaning fish

If you're fishing, please don't clean your fish or equipment in changing sheds or toilets.

Longline fishing rules and summer restrictions

Longline fishing is fishing from the beach with long lines that have many hooks, no matter how you throw the line out (like using a kontiki, kite, or drone). Surfcasting is fishing from shore, especially by casting your line into the surf.

You can do longline fishing and surfcasting from all Kāpiti Coast beaches, but there are some rules during summer in busy areas.

You'll need to use flags on your line so others can see it while enjoying the beach

Restricted areas

There are some restricted areas where you can't fish off the beach or foreshore:

from 15 December to 15 February
between 10am and 5pm.

These places where you can’t longline fish are:

8 Marine Parade to 100 Marine Parade, Ōtaki
Te Horo Beach Road, Te Horo to south end of Rodney Avenue, Te Horo
Peka Peka Road to 250 metres south of Marram Way, Peka Peka
Olliver Grove, Waikanae Beach to Waikanae Boating Club
Kāpiti Boating Club to Takatimu Street, Raumati
Poplar Avenue, Raumati to Jeep Road, Raumati South
400 metres north of Paekākāriki Surf Club to 400 metres south of Surf Club.

See a larger version [JPG 676 KB] of this map.

Map showing areas where longline fishing is restricted in summer, as outlined in table above

Kāpiti Marine Reserve

If you want to fish near the Kāpiti Marine Reserve, it's really important to know the rules and boundaries. Check out the Department of Conservation's useful Kāpiti Marine Reserve guide to stay up to date.