Catching big Spring snapper and gurnard in the Harbour in the little Osprey 450SC

Last weekend I had my first chance to target Harbour carrots. It was tough going with a very big tide which made it hard fishing in the strong current. The great thing was we managed a good feed of not only carrots but a few nice solid Spring snaps that turned up for us. This adventure started at 4.30am just like the previous one, but this time I was accompanied by Pea. We had the little Osprey launched and heading to our first spot just as the light started to over run the morning darkness. We not only had bait'n berley onboard this time but we had the softbait gear which we decided to use at our first stop. It's quite a bit of fun when you're flicking Zman's along the shallow banks and channels that we fish and hook up on solid Spring snaps. With a warmer water temp up by a couple deg from last weekend I was still on the hunt for gurnard, but I knew at some stage we would get a little flurry of Spring snaps through the day.
It Was pretty quiet and hard going just like the week before, so we decided to drop a bait which didn't really change our luck at all, so we moved further down the Harbour to one of my carrot spots in hope to land a few for the bin. This time we dropped the pick and berley and started with bait for now, if fish did turn up in good numbers we could flick a softie around even if we were at anchor. Our first few baits were taken by small and a couple bigger kahawai. This time of year bait fish start to move into the Harbour, which can bring kahawai with them in plague proportions and make it difficult to get a bait down for the gurnard.
Although it was frustrating at times we stayed put as I felt I had had a couple gurnard touches among the kahawai catches. Soon Pea had our first carrot coming aboard, although only being around 30-32cm which was takeable we decided to put it back as we know we can get some solid gurnard here up to 65cm. We started to pick up the odd one between the little kahawai then all of a sudden Pea's rod buckled over and line peeled.
Dang it, I knew it was a snapper. I don't mind a couple for the bin, but I was hoping they wouldn't turn up and take over now that we were picking up the odd gurnard. Most times when we target gurnard here but the pesky snapper turns up, we have to up anchor and move to try and get away from them. Pea was loving it though as he hadn't been out for quite a while, I didn't really mind too much until we started hooking into them a lot more.
I knew they would turn up for us at some stage and probably take over. With them now in good numbers we changed it up and put on some bigger baits, big fresh slabs of kahawai and half pillies. Most of these Spring snaps we were catching were around 50-60cm with the odd one pushing out close to 70cm. Pea was yahooing with his rod constantly buckling like a horse shoe. This time of year it's normally a quick hot 30-40min bite as they aren't in big numbers so we just concentrated on catching a few for the bin.
Every bait we dropped was getting smashed by some solid Harbour reds in just 3-4mtrs of water. It was a lot of fun not only catching, but also releasing the odd one at times. We were dropping fresh kahawai baits which they were just gobbling up in no time. I was still wanting to get onto the gurnard and move but I knew Pea was loving it to much and I knew it wouldn't last much longer so we stayed put. Although I do love catching these big Spring Harbour snaps as it's a lot of fun, I decided to drop in a 3oz jig head with a 5" Zman right down by the berley. I knew it was my best chance for a gurnard and sure enough with a couple little up and down yoyo movements up came a nice size gurnard "Yeah boy"
Pea stuck with the baits for the snaps with a smile on the dial while I kept trying my luck using the softie for carrots. I was using a heavier Nitro berkley lumo head jigheads with the hook that sits on a split ring. After having a play with it and picking up the odd little kahawai, I just left it hard on the bottom.
This allowed the little Zman softie to flutter around in the current like a wounded baitfish, which was attracting the gurnard. Bang I was hooked up again, this time to an even bigger carrot. The snapper were still pestering me with a couple of hook ups on them but soon the snapper thinned out like I knew they would. That hot bite was over and now we could get back to trying for gurnard. I stuck with the big jighead and Zman while Pea dropped little cubes of pillie. We picked up a couple more gurnard before we called it a day. It wasn't a bad looking bin with eight 45-65cm snaps and 5-6 fat carrots stacked on top. We did catch lot more through out the day but released just about as much as we kept to fight another day. The Spring snaps have definitely turned up so a big bait'n berley bash for big Spring snaps is on the cards and if in good numbers we'll throw some softies at them as well next time.
Tight lines
Music by - Royalty Free music
Nver Avetyan
Deep Future Bass

[@nonuman1]

Good to see Pier again...👍👍 he's like a kid at the lollie shop😂😂😂 choice

[@guttavontusck4094]

Loved it Brothas 💯 ChurChur

[@damonbunting9114]

Great vid, enjoyed it.

[@snappyvalleyfishing]

Nice action. Good catch guys.

[@yeahbouyfishing]

Love ya contest bro kiwi as!

[@calvinlim2615]

good to see ur old mate. pia fishin agian

[@nikosm193]

Go the corn beef 🥩

[@mooks2523]

Make it worthwhile yo😂

[@normantewara5540]

His rigs saying snapper lol not gurnard

[@JustJokingNot]

What soft bait rod ru using? I’ve gt a nano matrix 2 peice.

[@Reel-Kiwi-Fishing]

Running with the CD extrasense softbait rod.