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Print versionGurnard Profile
LOCAL NAMES
Fishing for gurnards Sometimes referred to as "Sea Robin", "Yellow Gurnard" and "Feeler Fish" because of the long scent feelers under the chin. Also "Croaker" because of their habit of making a grunting or croaking noise emanating from the muscles around the swim bladder when caught.
SCIENTIFIC NAMES
Tub Gurnard - Trigla lucerna
Red Gurnard - Aspitrigla cuculus
Grey Gurnard - Eutrigla gurnardus
IDENTIFICATION
Tub gurnards have the more rounded or blunt dorsal fin of the three main species. The scales are small and the pectoral fins extend past the vent.
 Tub gurnard |
Grey gurnards have a slimmer body shape than the red and tub. The lateral line has small boney scutes running along it's length and the pectoral fins are short not reaching the vent.
COLOURATION
Tubs are one of the most colorful fish anglers catch. The back ranges from a pink to full red shading down to a white belly occasionally carrying a pinky orange tint, and rarer brown or black blotches like ink stains. The large pectoral fins are a bright iridescent blue with red/orange around the outer edge and speckled in green or black dots.
Small reds are confused with tubs because of the body colouring which is red, but the belly is more of a metallic white with gentler shadings of light pink. The pectoral fins lack the bright colours of the tub.
Grey gurnards use little in the way of makeup with a dull grey body speckled in light grey or white flecks. The belly is dull white, but the dorsal fin carries a dull darkish finger print on the rearward edge. This is not always easily evident on some fish.
DISTRIBUTION
Tubs are found throughout the UK and Ireland, also along the coast of Europe as far as Russia and southward to the Mediterranean.
Reds are less inclined to travel northwards into the North Sea further than the Norfolk coast. They are common however, throughout the English Channel, the Irish Sea and along Scotland's west coast and the Irish west coast. Southwards they also reside inside the Mediterranean.
Grey gurnards have the greatest tolerance of colder seas and are found off the southern tip of Iceland, form the Barents Sea down the coast of Europe to the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
BREEDING SEASON
An extended one from February right through to August, though most spawning is completed by June out in deep water.
HABITAT
Often categorized as a sand or mud bottom living fish. This is true most of the time, but all the gurnards are happy to move on to clean patches amongst rocks and reefs, and will even feed over rock itself occasionally. Also favours the inclines of sandbanks and gravel banks. Fairly tolerant of water depth being found as shallow as 20 feet, but mostly in depths of 50 feet or more.
DIET
Far more predatory than many anglers realise. Eats worms, shrimps and small crabs, but also sandeels, gobies, dragonets, small flatfish and even small whiting and other gurnards.
SEASON
Shows along western shores during late April or early May. Peaks during August and September, but stays late, odd fish being caught right through to Christmas
Most eastern marks rarely see gurnards before June and they'll be gone by early October. The overall numbers along the eastern marks are also lower than in the west.
SHORE FISHING
MARKS AND FEATURES
Some steep to beaches such as Chesil in Dorset produce gurnards, not in numbers, but certainly enough for them not to be classed as a rarity. Even the shallower surf beaches along the west coast can also turn up smaller tub and grey gurnards to the better casters fishing at low water. But the beaches have little obvious feature that you can target as gurnard holding ground other than obvious sandbanks. Your fishing is too much chuck and chance it!
It's the rock ledges off the Devon and Cornish coast, west and north Wales, and the rocky headlands and also the deep sea lochs of Scotland that produce best.
The criteria is simple. Find a rock platform that gives access to a depth of 30feet plus over a clean sandy bottom in an area where the tide run is low or deflected away from the mark you are fishing.
TIDES
Neap tides still fish well, mainly due to the more constant depth of water, but you'll find that the first two hours of a flooding spring tide will push the gurnards closer in to the rocks for protection and this is the prime time when shore fishing. Once the tide picks up, use shorter casts to try to keep contact with the fish, though this depends on where the sand ends and the rocks start.
WEATHER
Calm, settled seas with clear water always give the best prospects for shore gurnards. Coloured seas after storms, a rising sea after settled weather, and steady onshore winds all prove poor for gurnards.
Bright sunshine is not the disadvantage that is with many other species, though if the water is shallow it can keep the fish out at distance. Once dusk approaches catches fall away.
TECHNIQUE
Try to use the same ploy of keeping the bait moving if possible. This may mean casting out to range, then retrieving the bait a few inches every few seconds. If there is some tide run, then again use a lighter lead that will roll with the tide.
Static ledgering against a grip wire can work on marks where the seabed has depressions where the fish can sit and wait out the tide. This depends though, on your casting accuracy at finding those depressions and putting the baits in to them.
Adding small silver spoons, or just wrapping silver paper above the hooks can help the catch rate.
TACKLE
Because of the casting involved you'll need to use normal beachcasters, 15lb line and a casting leader. It's heavy tackle for relatively small fish, but then consider that any shore gurnard is a coveted catch to help put things in perspective.
Some deeper marks with little tide run can be fished with a 2-4oz bass rod and 12lb line.
RIGS
The best rig for both presentation and casting distance is the two hook rig clipped up.
The rig body needs to be 48" long and from 50-60lb line. Tie in a 2/0 oval split ring at the base. Position the first hook length just above the split ring using crimps and beads to trap a rotating swivel. Follow this with a bait clip positioned upside down about 20" up from the swivel.
The next bead trapped swivel is placed at the top of the rig using another 20" hook length with a bait clip mounted normally just above the first clip. This puts the two baits in the middle of the rig for casting. Not always ideal, but this rig design spreads the baits correctly putting the lower one tight to the seabed, but the top one is semi suspended just above the seabed and moving with the tide because of the line angle in relation to the waters depth. Finish the rig with a size 4 Mustad rolling swivel.
It's worth mounting some small silver sequins on the hook length just above the hook to add extra visual appeal.
BAITS
Fresh mackerel, sandeel and herring are main baits. Lug can fish okay from the shore, but tipping it off with fish strip helps. It's mainly the smaller fish that go for worm based baits, with the bigger fish opting for the mackerel, etc.
MARKS AND FEATURES
Fishing for gurnard To deliberately target gurnards pick out clean sand or mud seabeds. They're happy if the actual sea floor is even, but these fish tend to be the smaller juveniles.
Bigger fish favour areas of uplifting sandbanks where they work the inclines picking off small fish. The same applies to gravel and shingle banks, especially the junction line between sand and gravel.
Look for small patches of sand amongst rocky ground and inside the confines of reefs. These patches often hold a single large gurnard, usually a tub. Big tub gurnards are also found very close to steeply rising cliffs that give onto clean sand seabeds. Working a dinghy or bigger boat in close can produce fish over 5lbs.
Gurnards like to sit in shallow depressions, or maybe shallow gullies that run along the sea floor. They use their long feelers to sit upright and scan the surroundings for moving food items.
TIDES
Gurnards are not lovers of fast tides. It suits them to seek out areas where tide run is lessened. Neap tides to middle sized tides produce the most fish. Fast running spring tides tend to only produce around the slack water periods with the main run pushing fish to ground.
WEATHER
Settled conditions do give the numbers of fish, but in water over 30 feet deep there is less seabed disturbance, so feeding activity is fairly constant, though gurnards do not like coloured seas feeding best in clearer water.
Bright days are better than overcast and rainy days. Gurnards do not appear to feed at night.
TECHNIQUE
TROTTING
Because of their predatory instincts gurnards take a moving bait more eagerly than a static one. Normal downtide, or uptide fishing against an anchored grip lead takes few gurnards.
To target gurnards we need to make the bait work in a wide arc using the tide run. Gauge how little lead you'll need to keep the bait on the seabed so that it's light enough to be slowly swept around by the tidal pressure on the line. In light tide areas and relatively shallow water just 1oz of lead may be enough, but in deeper water, then as much as 4ozs might have to be added. On some English Channel marks, you'll need as much as 10ozs and occasionally more.
To get the maximum arc for the bait to travel, you need to cast uptide and away from the boat along a line drawn midway between the bow and the cabin. When the lead hits the water allow line to keep spilling from the reel until you feel the lead hit the bottom. Now put the reel into gear and let the line draw tight as it's pulled by the tide.
Hold the rod tip down towards the sea. You'll not really notice bites, but you will see that the line stops moving and the rod tip slowly takes a heavier set. This is the only real indication of a bite you'll get. It's the fishes weight stoping the lead moving that applies extra pressure to the line which pulls the tip over.
BAITED SPOONS
If you have no choice but to downtide fish off the stern of the boat, then work to the gurnards predatory instincts and use a small flashing spoon.
The best ones are the silver mackerel spinners, or the smaller trout spoons. These need to have the treble hook removed adding a short 8" length of 18lb mono ending in a small size 2 Aberdeen hook to take the bait. Fish this on a 4 feet trace tied in close behind the weight to keep the bait and spoon close to the seabed.
Again choose a lead light enough to bounce downtide with the tide. Let line peel off with the current, but keep the line tight at all times so that the spoon flutters in the tide. Bites are simple multiple rattle affairs and the gurnards hook themselves.
FEATHERING
Not the most sporting method, granted, but very effective for overall numbers.
The feathers should be the silver shrimp type or the Hokkai's baited with small strips of mackerel. Bounce these right on the bottom with the lead touching the seabed. The lifting movement does not need to be as excessive as that used when mackerel fishing, just a steady lift of a few inches is enough to interest the gurnards. Incidentally, they always fall to the bottom two hooks.
TACKLE
Fishing for gurnard Gurnards are actually quite good fighters, it's just that most anglers catch them on 20lb plus rods.
When possible, choose a spinning rod casting 2-3ozs matched to a small fixed spool reel and 6-8lb line. This is ideal when using the arc method, or for downtide fishing and will easily land tubs well over 5lbs.
Feathering is best done with a 2-5oz uptider, simply because you're likely to hook a string of mackerel which will overload lighter rods.
RIGS
One rig design covers both arc and downtide methods.
Take a 36" length of 20lb line tying a Mustad oval split ring size 2/0 to the base. Now slide on a small bead, then an Avis boom and a second bead. At the top tie on a Mustad rolling swivel size 8 to connect the rig to the main line. To lock the boom into place, use either telephone wire, or small stop knots tied from either Powergum or Amnesia line.
Using the wire or stop knots lets you move the boom up the trace slightly to give the bait added movement during the slack water periods.
For casting across the arc use a 2-3 feet hook length from 12lb line ending in an Aberdeen size 4 or 2. lengthen the hook length a little as the tide run eases.
BAITS
Gurnards are fish eaters, so use mackerel, herring, whiting etc, cut into strips about 1.5ins to 3ins long, depending on the size of fish you expect. The white belly strips are better than the darker ones cut from the back of the bait fish.
Sandeels, both fresh and frozen, are excellent. Try to use the smaller sandeels about 5" long, if possible. Larger sandeels need to be cut either in half, or used as single fillets left attached to the head.
Other standby baits are lug and ragworm, cockles and chunks of peeler crab, but the fish baits are by far the best.
MARKS AND FEATURES
Some steep to beaches such as Chesil in Dorset produce gurnards, not in numbers, but certainly enough for them not to be classed as a rarity. Even the shallower surf beaches along the west coast can also turn up smaller tub and grey gurnards to the better casters fishing at low water. But the beaches have little obvious feature that you can target as gurnard holding ground other than obvious sandbanks. Your fishing is too much chuck and chance it!
It's the rock ledges off the Devon and Cornish coast, west and north Wales, and the rocky headlands and also the deep sea lochs of Scotland that produce best.
The criteria is simple. Find a rock platform that gives access to a depth of 30 feet plus over a clean sandy bottom in an area where the tide run is low or deflected away from the mark you are fishing.
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