Gurnard Fishing Charters

Lift a gurnard into the boat and it will often grunt at you, a sound it makes by drumming muscles against its swim bladder. Three kinds are common around Britain: the red, the grey, which is the most numerous, and the tub, the biggest of them, with pectoral fins edged in bright blue. All three have an armoured, spiny head and three finger-like rays under each pectoral fin that they walk on and use to feel through sand and gravel for shrimps, crabs and small fish. They take baits and small lures readily. Once dismissed as bait, gurnard are now a fish chefs ask for, with firm white flesh that holds together in a stew.

Fishing with Andy in Plymouth is the boat on Reelzy that lists gurnard. It runs full days of about ten hours, leaving around 07:15, for up to 8 people on shared seats or as a private boat, and fishes inshore as well as offshore over wrecks, banks and rough ground. Gurnard are not what the day is built around. They come up on the bottom fishing and the drifts between bigger targets, often to a beginner with a bait on the seabed, and a tub gurnard in full colour is one of the better photos of the day.

Further east, the Hussler in Ramsgate reported in early October 2026 that a few gurnard were starting to show among the bass and smoothhounds. Hold every gurnard around the body with a wet hand, never by the head: the gill covers and the first dorsal spines are sharp. They are small enough that light tackle gets the most out of them.