Gary, the gurnard in the aquarium would have been fed from the surface, and like any aquarium fish, it would be waiting for its food to arrive. I have kept tropical, marine tropical and cold water fish, all changed their natural feeding habits to suit their new method of waiter service. Carp naturally grub around on the bottom for their tucker, but feed them a slice of bread, a totally unnatural food served in an unnatural way, and they will happily feed off the surface. When fishing from a boat with a paternoster rig (one up and one down) nine times out of ten it was the bottom hook that caught gurnard.

I did say gurnard can be taken of floating traces, I have done so myself. However, my catch rate is far better when the bait is on the bottom. I would also question why float your baits anyway when crabs aren't active, unless targeting pelagic fish such as kahawhai, Kingfish or Trevs.

The question asked by Rex was about gurnard, I have done my best to answer. I knew there would be differing opinions, good, as that gets readers thinking. The topic of missing gurnard has arisen before, I disagreed then as I was catching them frequently, as I am now. Sorry, I can only report on what I have found and perhaps the reasons why.