Went Garfish fishing today!

  • Hey Guest, Early bird pricing on the Summer Moot (29th July - 10th August) available until April 6th, we'd love you to come. PLEASE CLICK HERE to early bird price and get more information.

PropThePolecat

Tenderfoot
Mar 29, 2009
94
0
Mainland Europe
Its Garfish season! The season starts in late april, where hordes of Garfish migrate to the coastal waters to spawn. Thats European Garfish (Belone Belone) and not the freshwater Gar that my american friends think of.

They're great game fish! They strike with aggression, leap out of the water when hooked and put up a decent fight considering their size, almost like a mini-Marlin! Theyre delicious too with a very mild fish-taste.

The ones caught earliest in the season are the biggest, a bit under a metre in length and about as thick as a mans wrist. After the first ones, the mass invasion commences with smaller sized fish. When the season is over, they migrate back to the Atlantic and North Sea.

Here is the Garfish's range:

370px-Belone_belone_mapa.svg.png


They can be caught with lure and float.

The view from my fishing spot overlooking the strait. It was a very windy day and the current was very strong.

7177637776_c777555b0c_c.jpg


They are notoriously difficult to hook. The Garfish hunt for prey by striking them with the needle beak. The strike renders the prey unconscious and the Garfish then makes a sharp u-turn and swims back to eat the prey.

I tried with a lure with a treble hook. I could feel them striking at the lure several times, but i couldnt hook them. I could also see them in the water, following the lure all the way back.

I then swapped the hook for a silk-thread. The silk-thread works in such a way, that when the Garfish strikes with its beak, the fine silk-thread gets entangled in their mini teeth.

Another trick is to attach a a line about 2 inches long between the lure and hook. This will cause the fish to hook itself when striking the lure itself.

Either way you have to reel in fast and stay in high waters.

10 mins after i got my first one! In this picture you can see how hard they are to hook with a regular hook setup.

7177641106_48e27b9203_c.jpg


There were 3 young kids standing about 30 meters away from me about 10-14 years old and they caught one too. I remember thinking, how good it was to see them outside, instead of wasting their youth in front of a computer playing World of Warcraft or whatever the kids are playing nowadays.

Here is a closeup of how the silk-thread gets entangled. Its hopeless to try to untangle the thread, so i just cut if off and mount a new one on the lure everytime i catch a fish.

7177642740_af4fba4a90_c.jpg


Within 30 mins i had caught 2 nice fish, lost another 3 who'd managed to get themselves untangled, and had too many strikes to count.

A couple of hours fishing resulted in 3 fish. Not bad if i may say so myself.

7177633426_ef0567d580_c.jpg


I will be eating them tomorrow, as my better half had already made dinner. I´ll be pan-frying them, probably with small potatoes and a sauce of some sorts.

For those interested i was using a Abu Garcia Toby 16 gram lure, Shimano reel with 0,17 Fireline and a ca. 8 foot rod.

Thanks for reading.
 

milius2

Maker
Jun 8, 2009
989
7
Lithuania
That is one of my favorite local fish out there! What a great fishing trip. We have a pike season now and I don't know why people in UK seem to avoid this fish as there are so plenty of it...
 

Adze

Native
Oct 9, 2009
1,874
0
Cumbria
www.adamhughes.net
They're great fun on a fly rod - mini Marlin, as you said ;)

They taste fantastic too - some people aren't keen on the green bones, but they're about the only fish that will rival fresh caught mackerel for flavour.
 

Bushwhacker

Banned
Jun 26, 2008
3,882
8
Dorset
Excellent! I've never tried the silk method for them but have done something similar for eels. Thank you for posting something interesting.
 

PropThePolecat

Tenderfoot
Mar 29, 2009
94
0
Mainland Europe
They're great fun on a fly rod - mini Marlin, as you said ;)

They taste fantastic too - some people aren't keen on the green bones, but they're about the only fish that will rival fresh caught mackerel for flavour.

I definitely agree. Theyre amazingly delicious. The green bones dosent bother me one bit.

Excellent! I've never tried the silk method for them but have done something similar for eels. Thank you for posting something interesting.

The silk is great. So simple, yet so effective. And it never snags on seaweed like a hook does. Theyre sold in packets of 10.

7178482274_ecf63313ed_z.jpg




Never been out intending to catch them, but have caught quite a few whilst after seatrout.
How do you like to cook them?

Do you use reel/rod or fly for seatrout? Ive gone after them a couple of times with a lure, but unfortunately never caught one. Next time i want to try a float/fly combo spun in slowly.

I usually pan-fry the Garfish and serve with potatoes, salad and a sauce of some sorts. Ill try to take a picture of the plate tomorrow.
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
...Do you use reel/rod or fly for seatrout? Ive gone after them a couple of times with a lure, but unfortunately never caught one. Next time i want to try a float/fly combo spun in slowly...

Don't know about the UK but Speckled Sea Trout (and to a lesser degree, White Sea trout) are fished for here with both fly rod and rod/spimming reels. With a spinning real they can be caught with various artificial lures including spinners but I've had the best luck with live bait (shrimp or sometimes sand fleas)
 

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE