I'm creating this post to share my experience chasing winter garfish land based and to highlight that we can get some ripper fish without clustering together on piers.
Why garfish? They're a delicious eating fish when prepared right, fight incredible and are easily accessible.
About the species:
Hemiramphidae
Garfish are known for their elongated bodies and long red bottom jaw beak which contain nervous endings that they use to hunt. Their large caudal fish allows them to move quickly through the water and with the beak to become airborne.
They spawn at the beginning of summer and become more active during the winter. Garfish are omnivorous and feed on eelgrass, seaweed and smaller crustaceans like zooplankton. Their pigments will change in colour depending on their diet and they favour shallow coastal area with either scattered, or full weed beds.
Garfish can be found in a diverse range of spots, from local piers to casting from a rockwall or the beach.
Since their diet focuses heavily on eelgrass and the species that call it home, they are often shcool amongst full and scattered eelgrass beds. They favour shallow sheltered areas and can be caught in a range of water depths.
Three images attached, in order St Leonards Pier, Portarlington and my secret spot Clifton Springs.
Garfish being omnivorous schooling fish will take a range of baits with favorites being silverfish and maggots. These two baits have incredible natural presentation that the garfish find too tempting. They move quickly through the water and often approach the bait multiple times before deciding to take the bait. They will often make wakes in the water as they move and they often jump out of the water and become airborne. Despite spending most their time in the upper water column, they can sometimes be seen sitting at the bottom cruising around.
I have personally found that the denser the eelgrass is, the bigger and chunkier the garfish are. Over broken grass patches in St Leonards and Portarlington the fish have been smaller in size, but more plentiful. Clifton Springs over full weed has produced some monsters in size and I have attached a photo of four chunky gars I caught yesterday in 30cm of water. Image in order, St Leonards and Clifton Springs, Springs.
I use a two part clip-on rig which allows me to easily replace either the mono or fluro section.
Starting at the top I run a small swivel connected to 10lb mono which holds the the medium blackfish float and connects to a bottom swivel. This swivel connects to 6lb fluro and has two split shots evenly spaced before a size 10 long shank.
I use a loop to physically stop the float moving at the adjusted depth, longer or shorter mono depending on the location you're fishing.
Photo of the float, swivel and hooks and diagram of the setup.
- Screenshot_6.jpg (14.36 KiB) Viewed 1764 times
Happy to answer any questions people have!
Tight Lines!
