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- Jan 31, 2009
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Here in Europe its season for Garfish (also know as Sea Needle). 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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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