Manukau Harbour guru John Moran shares some of his hottest spots on his favourite piece of water.

After a memorable summer when the Manukau produced the best fishing in recent memory expectations were high for the coming winter. After a slow start the winter fishing has kicked in, but the gurnard have proved contrary in their taste for baits.

Having dedicated more than 65 years of my fishing life to targeting gurnard, I am the first to admit that my knowledge on this topic is far from complete, mainly because they keep shifting the goalposts all the time.

They go by various names, but the humble gurnard rate highly in some fishermen’s eyes. They can be suicidal, and they can be maddeningly fickle. But when winter arrives on the Manukau Harbour the gurnard fishermen get out the light rods and the flasher rigs and prepare for one of the greatest little fishing contests in the country.