b"SpearfishingBecoming a Gurnard GuruOften thought of as barren wastelands, those in the know won't ever turn their noses up at a session on the sand. Hours of fun can be had targeting gurnard, trevally, snapper, and kahawai out of a boat, with a kontiki or by casting baits off sandy beaches.S pearfishing inBY DAN WESTERKAMPFound living on most of our local this environment,sandy beaches, gurnard are no however, canmeans a sport fish. Being scavengers, be much morethey spend their days swimming of a challengearound sandy and muddy bottoms and is not reallysearching for crabs, molluscs, and well known inany other nutritious morsels.Their spearing circles.clean white flesh makes them a Large waves,favourite on the kiwi dinner table currents, lack of hiding placesand the fish and chip shop.and a stirred-up seafloor make itAfter walking the beach talking to a exceedingly difficult to hunt any sortfew local surfcasting guns, I hatched of fish. a location and a plan to hunt the Looking for a different type ofelusive gurnard. Despite calls that spearfishing challenge last winterthe west coast would be the way to and I decided to target the beachgo, the dirty sharky grounds of the fishermans favourite, the gurnard.Kaipara and the Manukau mixed with With spring being the best time totonnes of berley did not really appeal hunt them I decided to task myselfso I headed east during the coldest with getting a spear into one of thesemonth of the year to the slightly less tasty morsels. sharky white sand coast. /FISHINGINGODZONE39"