More than 200 competitors headed to Taranaki over the weekend to complete in New Zealand's largest kayak fishing competition.

Last weekend hundreds of fishermen descended on Taranaki for New Zealand's biggest kayak fishing competition, the Taranaki Kayak Classic. Jeremy Wilkinson joined them out on the water.

It's 6am on Sunday morning and New Plymouth's Ngamotu beach is already awash with coloured kayaks.

Mike McKenzie checks his four rods over, making sure all his tackle is in order, straps are tightened and anything which might tangle his legs is well out of the way.

1 of 3 Jeremy Wilkinson Professional filterers from Egmont Seafoods in New Plymouth were on hand to fillet the competitors catch. 2 of 3 Jeremy Wilkinson Jim Moorwood holds up Andrew Varcoe's winning John Dory. 3 of 3 Jeremy Wilkinson Jim Moorwood holds up one of many kahawai vying for the top spot on the leader board.

After meticulously double checking their gear, two fishermen with McKenzie slide their small plastic boats into the - surprisingly still warm - Taranaki sea.

Following a quick 20 minute paddle the trio fan out, anchoring up just off the breakwater, each dropping a bait bomb into the water behind them.

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Jeremy Wilkinson L-r: Dan Filihiaheka and Mark Nijssen from kayak fishing team Liquid Lunch in Wellington had some of their catch "taxed" by sharks."

They're all here for New Zealand's biggest kayak fishing competition, the Taranaki Kayak Classic, and these guys take their sport seriously.

Kayaks practically bristling with fishing paraphernalia, McKenzie, who travelled up from Wellington, says it was extremely difficult to not get tangled up when he first started out.

Balancing a paddle on your lap while trying to manoeuvre the locks on the dry hatch in the centre of the vessel is hard enough, let alone baiting up and casting four rods.

Jeremy Wilkinson Wayne Hickman traveled from Tokoroa to take part and had landed a few kahawai off the port for his troubles.

But these guys are each a model of Kiwi ingenuity. Their boats have been meticulously customised in order perfect their fishing experience.

They've thought of everything. One even has two un-assuming lengths of PVC pipe strapped to the front, "for sliding the rods through when you're coming in through rough surf," he says.

Every piece which appears aboard their vessels has a purpose, every rope, every notch, every hatch and nook and cranny is filled with something these fishermen will need for the hunt.

Jeremy Wilkinson Any fish that competitors didn't want was filleted and donated to charity.

McKenzie is kayak fishing mad, having spent nearly $8000 on his kayak and all the gear to go with it.

"I'll admit I've probably gone a bit overboard," he says while eyeing his craft fondly.

"That's $3000 on the kayak, $1000 on the fish finder, $3000 on the rods, then there's stuff like an anchor, chill pod [chilly bin which sits in the back] and other bits and bobs.

"I just love to tinker with the gear, I'll spend hours fiddling away in the garage making adjustments."

After dropping his burley, which McKenzie says is for kingfish until he catches a live kahawai, he drops a line in from a rod mounted to his left and then expertly casts the rod to his right, all the while keeping a watchful eye on his fish finder.

The Wellington men are bobbing up and down 10 metres apart, patiently sitting with a hand on each of their front mounted rods, periodically reeling each line in and re-baiting it from a carefully stowed tackle box between their legs.

To keep themselves amused they throw their used bait at each other, their laughter travelling across the calm port waters.

After half an hour of no fish McKenzie declares the spot a "dud", and the group head out toward Saddleback Island in the hope of deeper waters and hungrier fish.

Entrants in the Kayak Classic can only weigh in one fish per species, and after no john dory or kingfish were caught on Saturday many fishermen, including McKenzie, were targeting those gaps in the leaderboard and hunting a specific prey.

There's roughly 10 kayaks within sight of Saddleback, just a fraction of the 200 plus competitors who travel to New Plymouth for the two day competition.

They're all grouped off in pairs and everyone keeps a respectful distance to one another, not wanting to scare off the other's fish or encroach on their territory.

While some visiting entrants chose to play it safe and fish off Port Taranaki, others ventured further out and reaped the benefits.

One of those with a hard-earned catch was Carl Lottering from Wellington who was on the water off the coast of Cape Egmont at 6am and paddled for hours before landing a tropical mahimahi, a first for the Kayak Classic 10 year history.

Competition organiser Gary Harrison said Lottering was a prime example of how having the best gear didn't always equate to catching the best fish.

"Kayak's are all pretty much the same with a bit of variation in fish finders and rods," he said.

"In that way it's more of a sport than fishing from a boat, you have to be really fit to paddle out to the good spots.

"Some of the guys that got seriously amazing fish, like Carl, paddled for hours to get to their spots.

"I think a lot of boaties are making the switch, myself included, because their boats end up left in the driveway for six months of the year."

Harrison and other kayakers get out more than that and tales of them "cleaning up" are not half as tall as you might expect. Their general success at catching fish was one of the reasons for the change in the weigh in rules, limiting competitors one fish per species rather than three.

"Mainly it was done to conserve fish stocks," Harrison said. "In 2014 over two tonnes of fish were hauled in and we got a bit of criticism for it."

"Unlike boat competitions, having a tag and release or a photo only competition doesn't work so well on a kayak."

With so much going on in such a small space, asking kayakers to measure or photograph their fish could very well be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

For others the sport's attraction comes from meeting fish on an even playing field, without the intervention of too much technology.

One of these traditionalists is Dan Filihiaheka from Wellington kayak fishing duo Liquid Lunch.

Filihiaheka and the other half of Liquid Lunch Mark Nijssen are in their eighth Kayak Classic and take it seriously, they even have matching team t-shirts, and have earned a fearsome reputation.

An audible hush falls on the crowd as Filihiaheka and Nijssen stroll to the back of the weigh-in line, hauling a massive chillybin between them.

Filihiaheka laughed off any celebrity status the pair might have simply saying "yeah we do alright every year".

"I just love it as a sport, you do it all on your own natural steam," he said.

"Also coming from a Pacific Island background it sits better with me killing these fish when you're on an even playing field."

Filihiaheka rates Taranaki as having "the best fishing in New Zealand" and says it's well worth the trip up despite not claiming the top snapper prize this year.

However for some the call of the kayak came about as a result of frustration with fishing from the shore.

Nathan Thompson, from the Waikato, said as a former surf caster he always lost a lot of gear.

"You have no idea about the terrain when you're just casting," he said.

"With a kayak and fish finder you can see where you're dropping a line into and what depth, it's more targeted fishing."

Thompson said while he would almost always go home with a feed it was harder to catch trophy fish like marlin, kingfish and tuna because you had to trawl a line on manpower alone.

"Trawling on a boat is easy, you just trail it out the back and drive," he said.

"But from a kayak you're doing all the work to keep the lure moving through the water fast enough to attract something big."

Although some kayakers managed to find those trophy fish, with a kingfish and several tuna being weighed in on day two.

Kayak Classic regular Kerry Flowers managed to secure the top kingfish spot for the second year running, pulling in the only kingfish of the weekend.

"The secret is learning what the kingfish sound like on the sounder," he said.

"That's all there is to it...and maybe a few secret spots."