An evening surfcasting session in South Canterbury, fishing under a full moon, with an interesting catch on the last cast.

🎣 A Last Minute Decision

This fishing trip was a very last minute decision on Friday night after checking the weather forecast, which showed rain for the next few days.

I arrived at the beach around 5pm and was pleased to see calm, clean sea conditions. I thought that perhaps both gurnard and rig were possibilities, so started with prawn and oily fish baits. An elephant fish was also an outside chance.

Late afternoon sea conditions

It wasn't too long until I had my first fish on, and I was very curious to find out what it was. Although I was hopeful for gurnard, it was quite late in the season and on a beach where they have only shown up recently.

I wasn't unhappy to see a school shark of a good size for the table appear out of the surf. It was quickly trunked and on ice packs in the catch bag.

A school shark kept for the table

🌄 Fishing the Sunset

Daylight quickly started to fade, so I sent the drone up to capture the scenery before dark.

For the next couple of hours, more fish kept coming, but they were either really small school shark or dogfish. I was hoping for a late season rig, so kept persevering.

🌕 Surprise Catch Under a Full Moon

Soon after the full moon appeared on the horizon, I was into a bigger fish. It wasn't putting up much of a fight, but was clearly bigger than anything I had hooked that evening.

Hooked up as the full moon appeared

I was hopeful for a rig — sometimes you get a lazy one that doesn’t put up much of a fight. But it wasn't to be, and I eventually pulled a rather large carpet shark out of the surf.

Final catch of the evening - a large carpet shark

Carpet sharks are not regarded as a table fish, so I was happy to return this one to the ocean. They also have a rather off-putting smell, which is certainly enough to put me off eating one.

As I was packing up, I was treated to a spectacular full moon rising over the ocean. I also managed to capture a timelapse of it on one of my cameras.

Full moon over the ocean

This turned out to be a worthwhile session. Not the best fishing action, but I did return home with a school shark which provided a meal for a couple of people. Otherwise, it was just a really nice evening and good to soak up the atmosphere under the full moon.

📓 Field Notes

• Location: South Canterbury
• Target species: Rig, elephant fish, gurnard
• Landed: School shark, spiny dogfish, carpet shark
• Conditions: Light winds, clear skies, 0.4 m swell, clean water, full moon
• Tide: Outgoing (arrived on high tide)
• Best bait: Salted yellow-eyed mullet and salted pilchard for school shark
• My gear: Shimano Xitus Pro 13'6" rods (x2), Shimano Ultegra CI4+ 14000 XTC reel, Shimano Ultegra XSD 14000 reel

🎥 Watch the Full Video

The full mission is available on my YouTube channel.

👉 Watch it on YouTube

Got any feedback or questions? Feel free to drop a comment on any of my social media channels — I read them all.

— Dan