Is it a man, is it a plane? No, it's a flying Kiwi fishing line

A drone and long line developed at AeroKontika on Eastern Beach, Auckland . Photo / Doug Sherring

A Kiwi invention that uses a drone to take much of the hassle out of fishing is gaining global attention.

From his garage in Auckland, electrical engineer and project manager Kyle Parshotam has been designing and building high-tech "fishing drones" that can haul line hundreds of metres out to sea and drop the bait right in front of fish - upping the odds of landing a big one.

The carbon-fibre aircraft - dubbed the AeroKontiki - can hover for up to 12 minutes and has been built to fly up to 500m with the maximum height locked at 60m.

It also has two GPS systems that allow it to return to shore on autopilot.

"It's fast - you can deploy the line very quickly with the whole mission just taking a few minutes," Parshotam said.

"And you can also use it in some pretty harsh environments where you've got rocks and big surf which traditional kontikis can't go through. You can be quite precise with where you drop your bait."

The drone costs close to $4000 so ensuring it would not be lost in the breakers was a priority. Parshotam developed a telemetry system that relays information to the remote control about the aircraft's height, distance and how much battery life it has left.

"And if anyone gets panicked while it's out there, a click of a button and it will return back to shore on autopilot."

One of the most difficult aspects of designing a suitable aircraft was the variable weight it would have to carry, which started at just a few hundred grams but increased to several kilograms once more line was taken out.

AeroKontiki sales and marketing director Zaid Ismail - Parshotam's son-in-law - said that since a video of the aircraft was posted online interest had been incredible, with inquiries from all over the world.

In the four weeks the drone had available all six produced so far had been sold.

Parshotam hoped to increase production capacity soon.

"It's looking like I'm going to have to move from the garage."

The rapid rise in drone use has seen the Civil Aviation Authority work on new regulations for their operation.

Internationally, drone use has led to a raft of safety concerns, including a near miss with an Airbus A320 as the passenger jet was preparing to land at London's Heathrow Airport in July.