Garfish

Garfish is sourced locally from North Queensland to South West Rocks, Vacuum packed and Snap frozen available in Small & Value pack range.

Techniques

Garfish are a very versatile bait that can be used in just about every fishing technique. whether you’re trolling offshore or gas ballooning from land these are the number one bait used by elite anglers to target trophy-sized fish such as marlin mackerel and tuna.

Another very popular bait for targeting large greenback Tailor from the beach.

Mark catching a feed of Tailor

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Bait rigging

When rigging a garfish on a set of gang hooks you want to lay your set of gang hooks on the gar to gauge where the bottom hook should start so the top hook finishes in the eye of the garfish, once you have done so you can begin to penetrate your hooks through the garfish from bottom to the top. Another style of rigging these on a single hook is either straight through the bottom jaw and top of the head or you can feed the whole hook through the gill of the fish pulling some of your leader through also to allow you to then bring your hook up just behind the head of the fish and penetrate it through ensuring good hook exposure of the barb.

River and estuaries

A small sliding ball sinker with a set of gangs or single hook is the desired rig for chasing large flathead in the sandy shallows, when fishing those deeper holes and rocky bottoms for other species such as snapper and mulloway in the rivers a paternoster rig can be the more desired rig to keep your bait on the bottom and can and bait presenting nicely in the current this rig is also very popular rig to use in snaggy areas. In these well-known snag zones once your sinker/bait has hit the bottom ensure to wind up one metre or two of line so as to keep your bait and tackle out of the snags.

Beach fishing

The most common rig for beach fishing would have to be a four-ganged rig either 6/0 or 7/0 which has been used for years by beach anglers accounting for some of the largest Greenback Tailor recorded from the beach of the East Coast and West Coast of Australia.

Pete from One More Apparel with a couple of Spotted Mackerel (Gold Coast QLD)

Offshore fishing

Chin-weighted garfish are great bait for slow trolling behind the back of the boat a bait skirt can be added to the rig this will attract the predator fish in and provide some cover for the bait whilst trolling prolonging the bait’s trolling life. An unweighted garfish is a very popular skip bait and is often used in the spread when trolling. The optimal position for this skip bait is 80-100m behind the boat this will provide a last-chance offering for those extra cautious fish that have come up into the spread smacking baits or lures and not fully committing.