Chasing carrots on a very big tide in the Harbour - a hard day out in the little Osprey

Fishing the Harbour on a very big tide chasing carrots
It's not often I fish the Harbours on such big tides due to the strong currents you get, especially this time of year when I target gurnard. I had not been out targeting them as yet due to the weather and other obligations, so I just had to go give it a shot. It was late in my season calendrer now when I do prefer to target them, but I've been dying to hunt them before the snapper turn up and start to take over. Late winter into early Spring the big snapper start to appear (we call it the change over) There's still carrots there for the taking but once the snapper turn up they can over run the gurnard - most times we have to move to get away from the snaps to find the gurnard. I also prefer to fish those smaller tides and slack tides either high or low. The bigger tides seem to push them along when they turn up, where as the smaller not so strong tides, they seem to stay put around your berley a lot more. With a very good looking weather map, I just had to go give it a shot. My sister's partner Glynn was keen to join me on the little Osprey for the day so we hatched a plan to leave home at 4.30am so we could be on the water by first light. I told him it would be a long day, but I don't think he realised we would be leaving home in the dark and arriving back home in the dark. The plan was to fish one of the Harbours I like to fish when targeting big fat carrots.
Picking Glynn up just on 4.30, we arrived at the ramp an hour later. We had our first bait's in just as the sun was making its way out of bed, it was a spot that can hold good numbers of carrots but also one that can be barren at times. I told Glynn that we should pick up at least a couple here before we head further down the Harbour. It's not my favourite gurnard spot, but going past it first it's always worth a shot and a good place to start. With the berley down I could see that stronger current already. We were fishing a little back channel and because we were far enough away from the main channel we get away with fishing lite sinkers. With the tide being stronger we had to use 3-4oz's, normally we are fishing no more than an oz and even fished floating baits here before. I was trying to explain to Glynn that it was probably going to be a tough day on the gurnard when all of a sudden my rod gave a twitch and nod as I cranked on the berley.
Grabbing it I struck and I was hooked up - it wasn't even light yet and it was my very first bait. It had that nodding sign of a gurnard. I don't think Glynn could believe it, especially when saying to him we will be targeting gurnard then hook up on one on the first bait. It was a nice fat gurnard and our first for the bin. I said to Glynn looks like they could be here for us and lets just hope no snapper turn up. I don't mind a couple thrown in but once they turn up they can over run the gurnard. The time of year was still on our side and the water temp was still cold enough that they wouldn't be here in big numbers, but we may fluke a couple for the bin. Glynn was up the front getting a drink when all of a sudden his rod buckled and his reel screamed - "your on your on" This one was definitely not a carrot "this ones a snapper fella" The other good thing about catching a snapper this time of year in the Harbour is, if your going to catch one it's going to be a good fish.
He was having fun fighting it even though I was telling him off for catching one... "no no no we don't want these things turning up" (he was laughing) and I think he thought I was joking. It was a nice snap at around 60-65cm, he was stoked and told me that it was the biggest snapper he's caught in a very long time. I was pretty happy for him knowing he was pretty stoked with it. After that it went pretty dead, so we up anchored while the tide was still running out and headed to a spot I like to fish that out going for them. The big tides where playing a big part with us trying to get onto the carrots, so we decided to move right in close to get away from the strong current. We picked up a couple more from here but also dropped a couple as well which was a bugger.
Once again after a couple of fish the area became dead, I said to Glynn we'll go try one more spot to see if we can fluke another couple of snaps before we call it a day. The new spot was hard going as well. apart for one more nice fat winter snap that joined the others in the bin. Although I don't like fishing these big tides knowing it could be a hard days fishing, it was great to get out at last to have a shot at the carrots and have Glynn on the boat for the first time. Even though it was pretty quiet he enjoyed the day as much as I did, and having 3 nice snaps going 50-65cm and 4 big fat carrots and a couple kahawai in the bin we made our way back to where our Reel Kiwi Fishing adventure began.
Tight lines
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[@coreytelford2865]

Yo bro. Yeah awesome flat sea. Some nice carrots in the mix there. Chur to much.

[@jono999s]

Cracking fish bro 👌

[@justinnznz]

😊