How we like to target gurnard off the bays - harvesting our east coast bays carrot patch.
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- čas přidán 31. 07. 2020
- Harvesting our east coast bays carrot patch.
The plan was a catch up carrot sesh with Pea in the little FC off the bays, it's a great time of year to try and track down a few of these succulent morsels. The snapper thin out and the carrots move in, over the years they have taken up residence off the bays over winter. When we first started catching them a few years ago we would get 2-3 to every one snap, now that we target them a lot more when the snapper have thinned right out it's pretty much a 100% catch rate. It's pretty cool to head out and target a certain fish and only catch that species and nothing else. With a high around just after 10.00 we launched around 9.00, the plan was to fish that last hour of the tide and into the slack. I do like fishing them on the slack but you get them right through the tides.
Arriving at our spot and with the wind not to strong we decided to start with a few drifts using softies and micro jigs, it can be a lot of fun catching them on the light gear. Pea was running a little micro jig and I was on a soft bait, part of the plan was to trial a few different techniques to see what works best when targeting them. I do prefer the good old bait and berley and really think you can't beat it. We caught a couple on our first couple of drifts then dropped a few over the next 2-3 drifts so the micro jig and softies worked well even though we had to work a little more for them - it is fun drifting and hooking up..
After a few more drifts and no takes we changed over to drifting with baits but as the tide slackened the wind picked up and it got a little to difficult to fish on the drift, it was time to drop the pick and berley and let the fish come to us. Although a lot of fisho's hate the mess of bait and berley I still think that old school fishing is one of the best ways to target fish if you are wanting to land good numbers. Don't get me wrong I do love a bit of softbaiting and micro/slow jigging but only when it is the time to do so. This time of year in the shallows or just off shore bait and berley comes into it's own.
Setting the berley we dropped our first baits, cubed pillie is one of my favorite ways to catch them - just the right size to fit in their mouths. It normally takes a good 10-15mins before you start to get any inquires, we normally get a few little nibbles with the odd hook up or miss then 30-40mins in they can really come on the bite as the berley kicks in. Our first few carrots were of small size but at least we started getting a few, but as stated above the bites came on more and more and soon we were getting bites within seconds of the bait hitting the bottom. I stuck with the strayline rig but Pea was starting to get hammed on the Ocean Assassin flasher rig which he likes to use when targeting gurnard.
Our east coast carrots are a little different to the west in the way of size, we can get some goodies but off the bays they probably average around 35-40cm. We kept the ones reaching over the 30cm and soon we had a few more hitting the bin around the 32cm. There were plenty there for the taking and after adding 5-6 to the ones we got on the drift we had a big front come through and drag us off our spot. It gets a little annoying especial when they are on the bite and after resetting a few times it went pretty quite for us, we managed a few more once we stayed put and better ones around the 42cm.
With the wind up and a good 10-12 carrots in the bin we called it a day - our carrot plan came together perfectly and it was a great catch up gurnard sesh with Pea.
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Took my boy out and nailed some Gurnard there last weekend 👍. Keep up the good work bro, I enjoy your vids.
Cheers D 72
Always good to get out with the young fella's and catch a few fish :-)
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Yet another great vid thanks Jason. Interesting, enjoyable and informative. That;s a great trick with the two micro jigs.
Cheers DP
Yes Pea has a few little tricks up his sleeve like that even I get surprised occasionally :-)
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One of the best eating fish.!
My second favourite next to blue cod .
Pretty hard to bet blue cod but john dory is mine then puka then cod - all great table fish 👍
Very good tutorial, thanks
We used to drift a lot n stronger winds until we put a longer anchor chain on worked a treat
Keep it up guys
I started watching your fishing clips when I lived in Melbourne Australia, now I am living in the East Coast Bays in Auckland, so I'm getting to go out fishing every week, I love it. I have caught a lot of decent snapper and some big king fish and kahawai about 1km from shore.
I enjoy watching your trips and always learn a thing or two.
I have been using the flasher rigs for gurnard myself this year. I was fishing near you last week--I fish from a kayak about .7- 1km out from the bays , you were further out, perhaps 3kms...
When I find a few fish and put a berley out I am getting onto good schools of gurnard close in . I have been using the flasher rigs with the sinker line shortened to be close to the bottom hook, it seems to be a good trick for gurnard. I have also been experimenting with the 3 bar circle hooks, they always catch the fish in the corner of the mouth so I haven't had problems releasing smaller fish, but I have found the 3 bar hooks have caught me a boat load of big gurnard. 3 bar circle hooks with kahawai bait are doing well for me this winter. cheers
Nice - it use to be a lot better fishery along the bays, we use to get a lot of 10-15lb snapper with 20's in the mix and so goodies up 25-28lb. I think I seen you on the way out in the red yak? It's great to be able to head out and target gurnard now. About 10yrs ago we use to just get the odd 1 or 2 but last 5-6yrs you can go out and catch just gurnard now.
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@@Reel-Kiwi-Fishing Yes that was me in the red Yak!
I love that spot, that is where I caught a 1 m King fish and a number of 45-50cm snapps this year, the gurnards are running hot for me presently, but it's hard to catch a winter snapper there.
I enjoy watching you share the specific details of your fishing technique: how to put half a pilli on, what size hooks and sinkers, berley technique etc, it's great stuff, all those details that an experienced fisherman would teach his kids, lots of good karma for you:)
@@leanmchungry4735 thanks for the kind words
Yea it's pretty weird how the Snapper pretty much disappear from there now, we use to get snapper there all year round with the odd gurnard then the snapper slowly thinned out . Went from 5-6 snaps to one gurnnard for couple years then 50/50 then a good ratio of 2-3 gurnard to 1 snap then the gurnard slowly took over and now catch no snapper just gurnard. Not sure if the food has changed/water quality or maybe even a shift in temp - hard to say if the gurnard were there the whole time but never got a chance at the baits with so much snapper about? Also wondering with all the big snapper that use to frequent the area and in big numbers have all but gone now so the gurnard don't get chased off maybe?
It is awesome to be able to go out and target them and only catch them but it is very sad how the bigger fish have gone and pretty hard to catch a double fig fish now - still the odd one here or there but man the early to late 90's it was a pretty epic fishery along the bays.
The only fish that talk.!
Can't go past the carrots brother,seasoned flour cooked in real butter hot chip's and tartare sauce always awesome footage👍🤙
Cheers olfp
Can't beat fresh carrots and chips :-)
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Forgot trevally do as well.
Hey Jason nice catch mate awesome video
Ya should do a catch clean cook vid with pea with some nice snapper or carrots bro
Cheers SD
Gets a little tricky as most times we get back at dark and he lives in another suburb - I'm just a straight up flour and butter kind of guy but Pea does a few different things, he hates filming with the camera so don't know how well it would go down giving him the cam to film him cooking :-) prob get his feet anyways - when he does get the cam in his hand can only use 20% of what he films as it's normally just showing the top of my head or neck up :-)
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@@Reel-Kiwi-Fishing All good bro just throwing it out there haha
Nice vid
Cheers CW
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nothing better than a carrot on the end of your line
One of the better eating fish :-)
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The fish whisperer at work again!! Bro where would be the best place to launch for the bays that’s closest to Auckland ?
Always good vids, mate. Love the tips. I'm keen as to try this, would you mind sharing what sort of depth are you fishing in? Cheers.
Cheers TB
We find them anywhere from 12-16ntrs on the mud right along the bays - there will be other spots like Rangi channel I would think would hold them and have caught a couple up the Waitemata.
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@@Reel-Kiwi-Fishing Cheers Jason. Yeah man, might even give it a crack up Whangaparaoa ways. Legend!
Awesome videos bro how did he have the top micro jig tied on was it just on a dropper like a 2 hook flasher rig? Cheers 🤙
Cheers KP
There's two ways you can do this -
1 - You tie your first little jig to the end of the leader then using another short trace you can tie off your second jig to where you tied your first jig - so tie on the round eye of the first jig where you tied it to the leader.
2 - Sim to what you said put a dropper loop in half way up your leader put the first little jig on that then tie your second to the bottom of the leader.
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@@Reel-Kiwi-Fishing cheers mate clever idea