b'FeatureLarge waves and swell will stir the bottom up, so you need very calm conditions for spearfishing off beaches.The day started like any good winter spearing mission should, up early with frost on the grass, a light drizzle and breathless sky. Suiting up in the dark with frozen toes there were a few grumbles from the team but the allure of what we might find was enough to get everyone suited up in quick succession. I had convinced a couple of hardy souls that it would be easy and fresh gurnard fillets in the pan at the end of the day would be well worthwhile.Gurnard will sit on the bottom using CALM CONDTIONS their camouflage to blend in.The key to gurnarding is the conditions. Surf beaches are rough at the best of times so for us toand, on this day, we were greetedbetween 10 and 30m of water. In the be able to safely dive and see fish,with cold clear green water. depths of winter 30m was far too there would need to be no swellSuited up and ready for action wedeep and cold to be bothered with for at least a week, there was alsowalked into the shore break withso we focused our attention on the the problem of runoff so the lessjust ankle high waves lapping on the10-20m range.rain leading up to our dive theshoreline on what was otherwise aThe beach anglers suggested that better. With the 2023 year we hadcrisp, still morning. Thanks to oura bit of current and vast amounts so far this was a pretty big ask butintel from the fishos we know theof berley would give us the best thankfully the weather gods providedgurnard could be sitting anywhereopportunity at finding gurnard.40FISHING IN GODZONE MAGAZINE'