With their red skin, bony triangular heads, and flamboyant fins, gurnard certainly are an intriguing species. Beneath the captivating exterior lies a creature perfectly adapted to its environment. Gurnard are bottom-dwelling fish, preferring sandy or muddy substrates where they can hunt for their favourite prey: crustaceans, molluscs, and small fish like juvenile flounder.

Their flattened bodies and downturned mouths are well-suited for scouring the seabed in search of sustenance, and they use the lower three rays of their pectoral fins, which are finger-like feelers that contain sensory organs, to wander along the seafloor and detect slight movements from prey.

An average-sized gurnard is around 30-40cm, with larger specimens up to 50cm in length and weighing 1-2kg. Although they aren’t the best fighting fish and are a bycatch species for many anglers, their succulent, flaky-white flesh makes them a worthy target for inshore anglers.

Finding gurnard

Gurnard are distributed right around New Zealand’s inshore environs, making them a very accessible fish for any angler. They are most abundant north of the Chatham Rise in shallow waters up to about 50m. Some notable hotspots include the Manukau and Kaipara Harbours, Mahia and Hawke’s Bay, the Marlborough Sounds, Wellington, and the Kapiti Coast.

In the North Island, winter is a prime time to target gurnard in harbours, particularly on the west coast. As the water temperatures cool, snapper migrate out to coastal waters and are swapped by good numbers of gurnard in search of the abundant food sources that the shallow banks and intertwining channels of harbours offer. Gurnard move on and off the banks with the ebb and flow of the tide, and therefore a good place to fish is along channel edges and smaller feeder channels and guts that funnel fish from the main channels onto the banks.

Don’t be afraid to fish in just a few metres of water, and also remember that fish will not expend more energy than required, so high current areas such as the middle of deep channels may not be the best bet (especially during high tidal flows)!

There’s no doubt that the preferred habitat is a sedimentary bottom (sand, silt, or mud). If you‘re fishing in a coastal area beyond a harbour, it can therefore be hard to pinpoint exactly where to fish along the flat, featureless bottoms where gurnard will feed. When fishing behind surf beaches, depths of around 10-20m are generally favourable, and berley certainly helps draw in the ‘carrots’. It may take a bit of prospecting, but trial and error should yield success in your local area. For southern anglers, warmer water seems to offer the best gurnard action, with Canterbury surfcasters bagging good catches over summer.

How to target them

Given the modest size and fight of gurnard, light softbait sets are perfect for boat anglers targeting them in the shallows. The light braid produces less vibration in the current than thicker lines, a sensitive tip helps you feel the often-subtle carrot nibbles, and you might even find some string-pulling action.

Gurnard are suckers for baits fished on or near the bottom, so a simple two or three-hook ledger rig is a solid starting point for both boat and landbased anglers and will generally produce the goods. 

As gurnard hug the bottom, it’s worth tying the sinker close to the bottom hook, or modifying the ledger rig by incorporating two sinkers – one sitting on or above the swivel and one at the base of the rig – to allow all baits to be presented on the sand or mud.

Oily baits such as skipjack tuna, fresh kahawai, and mullet are favoured baits. Although gurnard have relatively big mouths, use small triangles of bait hooked through the skin once. This ensures you can penetrate the bony upper jaw plate when a gurnard nibbles. Try to give carrots a bit of time to suck down baits before striking (or slowly lifting the rod when using recurve hooks).

As the gurnard are bottom dwellers, get your berley near the bottom by tying it to your anchor chain or weighting your berley pot – well-placed baits behind the berley trail will often result in a stream of fish for the cunning angler on the boat! 

Gurnard are regularly snagged on artificial lures, too. Small softbaits or sliders dragged slowly along the bottom with subtle movements (or even left in the rod holder on the drift) are your best bet. Just remember that it’s important to keep any lure on or near the bottom, creating puffs of mud or sand and vibrations that attract gurnard.

Gurnard seem to travel in small groups. To increase the number of fish you catch, it pays to capitalise when there’s a flurry of activity by having more baits or lures in the water.

Eating Qualities of Gurnard

With firm, white flesh that cooks up beautifully, gurnard is a favourite among seafood connoisseurs in New Zealand and beyond.

Whether pan-seared, grilled, or battered and fried to golden perfection, gurnard offers an exceptional culinary experience. Check out Kaelah James’ gurnard taco recipe here.

- NZ Fishing News