Garfish

[The Great Wallsendo]

Thinking of trying to notch up a few species this year...

Always liked the look of Garfish - has anyone caught them from the boats before?

What kind of tactics do you think would work best?

[Norman]

lol ask bert

[northeast1]

It is also a fish i have always wanted to catch but never seen on ein the flesh never mind catch one. I have a video of John Wilson fishing for them on the float with a bit of mackerel and a fish oil bag pipped in the water to attract them, looks good fun.

[sless]

richy
you have got to be a good angler to catch garfish
dont you bert
ive had them on the boat and the shore

[northeast1]

I must have caught 1 then lol.

Heard of maybe 2 a year from our area so not a great deal of them, go down south and lots more so i am told. At this time of year anything with the word fish in is good to catch, slim pickings.

[sless]

very slim

[boblydon]

I caught one whilst spinning for mackerel about 15 years ago from blyth pier, seem to remember there were a few caught that day, i think it was when we had a very long hot summer,

[Charlie_Thompson]

My dad caught one off the boat - it took off and leapt right over the middle of the front end (to use the technical term) Mental! float fishing for maccky he were. ages ago, flat calm, proper 70's summer. Off Marsden


*or maybe it was the west coast*

Beautiful fish - very pointy

[sless]

i got mine on a fly rod
that was fun

[The Great Wallsendo]

apparently they swim in the top 10 metres of the water table feeding on small fry relatively close in

mebbes you could float fish a sandeel at the Yellow Can...?

Don't know if I'd want to waste too drifts trying for one - but I'd maybe give it a go...prob get sick after catching a dozen mackerel LOL

[RobAdair]

Tried for them with the fly rod at a mark in North Yorkshire that was full of them, literally swimming between us chasing fry in 2ft of water. Had a few takes but never a hook up, they have very boney snouts which are hard to hook into, someone recommended using a piece of wool which apparently works better as their tiny teeth get snagged up on it.

[Kentish Bassman]

I had some cracking garfish in Corfu last year on holiday. They were all caught on tiny pieces of of silver foil with a tail made from white wool wrapped around a size 1 silver Aberdeen hook. The largest was about 4lbs.
I used to catch loads of them from Newhaven and Eastbourne piers during the summer months. Best bait there was mackerel strip fished about 2 feet below a clear bubble float. The fight is excellent especially when they tail-walk across the surface.
I don`t know if they are caught very often up here but I am going to have a go for them in the summer.

[mick dunn]

The missus is back from work so i,ve uploaded the pic of the Garfish.

I was told by a lad off Nesa from South Yorks to use a set of tiny fry things. there was six on a trace (similar to feathers but much smaller). In fact the hooks were like trout hooks. I then put tiny strips of mackeral belly on the three hooks and put it 4-5 feet below the float.
Although we were on a boat we were only about 30 feet away from the coastline off the cliffs at Weymouth.

[mick dunn]

Oh and the badge looks nice does,nt it.

[davem2005]

I have done some pretty strange boat fishing here over the last two years and one of them is targetting sharks on nearly every trip out.

To do this we hang chopped mackrel in onion sacks off the back end at anchor...the result of this is masses of seagulls...and garfish...you can see them attacking the slivers drifting out of the bag.

I have never hooked one because a whole mackrel on a 12/0 to 3mm ( 1200lb bs) wire is not generally considered to be the right gear. Having said that if I was going to target them from a pier I would use a rubby dubby sack with macky smashed up with a 3x4 timber. Tie the sack to a 5 ltr carton to make it float half in and half out of the water.

Change the sack regularly to keep the slick going and if you fish right you may well get a pleasent suprise They are there in suprisingly large numbers at times.

Cheers
Dave