Two days surfcasting the South Canterbury coast, with solid rig action early and my first-ever gurnard from this beach.

I was pretty excited about this fishing trip, as it was at a beach I hadn’t fished in about a year. It also holds fond memories going back many years to my early surfcasting days as a teenager.

It’s a particularly good elephant fish spot and also produces good catches of rig. Over the warmer months, kahawai are a common catch too, along with decent-sized school sharks and the occasional skate.

More than 15 years ago, it also produced good catches of red cod as the water cooled heading into winter. Catches of 10–20 red cod in an evening were not uncommon. Those days are well gone now — I can only assume warmer sea temperatures, along with commercial pressure, have affected the red cod fishery.

🦈 Non-Stop Rig Action

I arrived at the beach a bit later than planned, and my mate Dave was already there getting set up when I parked up on the stones. Soon after, the rest of my friends arrived.

My main target species for the morning was elephant fish, so I started with cooked prawn for bait — one of my favourites for eles. Raw prawn and salted tuatua (surf clam) were my second choices, with frozen paddle crabs as a backup option.

Dave landed the first fish of the morning, a rig around 80cm that had somehow been foul-hooked in the body on a circle hook.

Soon after, Zav hooked up too and landed another nice rig around the same size.

Zav with a nice rig

In no time at all, Dave was into another rig, and it gave him a decent fight — not helped by a lump of seaweed getting tangled in the line. Eventually, he pulled a nice rig over 1m out of the surf.

As I was filming the action, I noticed that both of my rods had hooked up, so I ran towards the one with the biggest bend. There was a fair amount of weight on the line, and I was a bit disappointed to see both a small dogfish and a very small rig appear out of the surf.

Releasing a juvenile rig back into the surf

The bites kept coming, and it wasn’t long before Dave hooked up again. After a short battle, he landed his third rig — another one over 1m. All of his rig went for a cooked prawn and crab Fishbites combo. My rig went for cooked prawn, and Zav’s went for blue swimmer crab.

Dave hooked up to a decent rig

🚁 A Quiet Spell, Bycatch and Drone Flights

Still determined to catch an elephant fish, I rigged up with both tuatua (surf clam) and cooked prawn.

Dave finally had a chance to send his Aeroo Pro drone out, and I sent my DJI Air 3S up for some scenic flights to capture footage of the beach. It was a stunning day — bright and sunny, with the water flat and blue.

Drone shot of the beach

After sifting through the bycatch, I finally had a bigger fish on, but my excitement was soon dashed as it had the typical dead-weight characteristics of a carpet shark. My suspicions were soon confirmed when I pulled in a rather large carpet shark.

Carpet shark

After the carpet shark, there was another quiet spell, and I spent some time beachcombing. I found a few skate and elephant fish egg cases — a good indication that these species are still frequenting the region.

🥕 More Drone Flights and a Surprise Catch

With the fishing still quiet, I sent my drone up for another flight to capture some footage of the stunning day.

Around this time, I also switched over to salted yellow-eyed mullet for bait, hoping for something different (such as a kahawai). It didn’t take long for the change to pay off. One of my rods bent over, and I immediately knew I had a better fish on.

At first, I thought it might be an elephant fish — they’ll take almost any bait — but I soon changed my suspicions to a kahawai. I then got quite a shock when I saw a flash of orange in the surf, as I really didn’t expect a gurnard on this beach. But that’s exactly what I’d caught, and I was pretty excited, as it was my first carrot off this beach after fishing it for many years.

My first-ever South Canterbury gurnard

It was a decent size too at 51cm. Like all of the gurnard I’ve been catching closer to Christchurch, it was a female full of roe.

Four years ago, I had never caught a gurnard surfcasting south of Banks Peninsula, and now I would easily have caught over 100 in the region. Something in the environment must have changed, and my strongest suspicion is warmer sea temperatures.

The rest of the day produced only spiny dogfish and small school shark bycatch, so we called it not long after.

🌅 An Early Morning Trip to the Waitaki River Mouth

The next morning, I was up early and headed to the Waitaki River mouth for kahawai fishing. I should have checked the river flow, as I arrived to find it very high and discoloured — less than ideal conditions for kahawai spinning at the river mouth.

Waitaki river mouth

Nobody was catching anything, so I sent the drone up to see if I could spot any fish. The kahawai were there, but only in small pockets, well out of casting range at around 200m.

Kahawai spotted from the drone about 200m out

I did have a few casts but soon decided my time was better spent surfcasting the same beach as the day before.

🦈 More Surfcasting Action and a Decent Rig

I arrived back at my surfcasting spot to find my friends already set up and fishing. They had landed a few small rig before I arrived.

It wasn’t long before I was into the action, starting with a small school shark. Not what I was after, but it was a fish at least.

After another 10–15 minutes, my rod bent over with something much bigger, and I landed a much better rig than the day before.

Zav helped to unhook the fish, and Pascoe was keen to return it to the ocean.

Pascoe returning the rig to the ocean

All the rest of the session produced was more bycatch (spiny dogfish and small school sharks). Around midday, the wind swung around to a brisk southerly and a thunderstorm started to roll in. That was my signal to wrap the session up.

The next day, I headed back to Christchurch but was already thinking about my next trip down to South Canterbury. I had unfinished business with elephant fish and river mouth kahawai fishing.

📓 Field Notes

• Location: South Canterbury
• Target species: Elephant fish, rig shark, kahawai
• Landed: Rig shark, gurnard, spiny dogfish, school sharks, carpet shark
• Conditions: Light winds, 0.2–0.3m swell, slightly discoloured to clean water
• Best bait: Cooked prawn and crab Fishbites combo for rig, salted yellow-eyed mullet for gurnard
• 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 the YouTube video — I read them all.

— Dan