Home | Blogs and Opinion | Mike's Diary Archive 2004 | Practice fishing and pier and breakwater garfish tactics

email Email to a friend
print Print version

Practice fishing and pier and breakwater garfish tactics

Mike Thrussell 08 June, 2004 04:00:00

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT...OR DOES IT?
In most sports practice makes perfect, that's for sure. It may not be that simple when it comes to match fishing though. I was talking to a young lad from Leeds at a recent fishing show and he mentioned that he was keen to start fishing matches. He mentioned his first match was only a couple of weeks away and that he'd been practicing on the venue as much as possible.

I can see his point to some extent, but is this as valuable as it at first appears? You see, fishing a match venue two weeks or more before the actual match does not simulate actual match conditions. He might have been fishing calm seas during practice sessions, but on the match day it could blowing a force 6 with big surf full of weed and you get a peg next to a river outflow that is pouring flood water out. The opposite can also apply. Rougher seas during practice, and then all is flat calm come the day.

perfect.jpg
Practice to maximise catches
The other thing is that he'd been fishing mostly at night after work, yet the match he was due to fish was daylight in to darkness. It also dawned on him during our conversation that he hadn't given much thought to the size of tide on match day either. He'd been fishing big tides, but the match is scheduled on a rising tide just before the highest tide of the cycle. Some of the tides he'd fished were dropping after the highest tides.

Practice by all means, but logic suggests that getting to know the venues geography a little, especially if it is local to you and popular with match organisers, makes more sense. First off, it would be worth walking the venue on a big spring tide low water and making notes and a mental map of what ground feature is obvious. When it comes to drawing your peg, you'll then have a fair clue what features are in front of you.

Effective research helps too. If the match is an annual one and held around the same time, check out the results from previous years. Where were the best pegs, what type of fish were weighed in, note any mention of baits, plus look for little things like, Joe Blogs took most of his winning bag in the last hour, which, if you back check the tides that year, can tell you an awful lot. Old copies of local papers are good for this.

Also research what the freelance anglers have been catching. Match anglers often ignore the achievements of their freelance colleagues, but keeping track of what is coming ashore during the week prior to the match gives you masses of information and you can form a fairly comprehensive match plan from this by gleaning potential species resident, best baits, casting range and even the best rigs. This basic research is nothing different from what a really keen freelance angler would do anyway.

As for any practice fishing, this is likely to be most useful a couple of days before the actual match. Use two rods, one cast close the other far, and fish two or three different marks to cover as much ground as possible. Keep careful notes on what you catch and at what stage of tide. Put all this together and you start to break the element of luck down in your favour. The weakest link in all this is the weather, and that you cannot control.

TIPS AND TRICKS
Carrying a couple of leads that have been sprayed with bright silver paint and using these when feathering mackerel for bait can dramatically increase the catch. The silver paint flashes and reflects light in the water and will attract mackerel much quicker than just relying on the feathers.

PIER AND BREAKWATER GARFISH TACTICS

garfish.jpg
Catching garfish from structures
Garfish only grow to about 3lbs and average between 1 and 2lbs, but are excellent light tackle adversaries. They are true predators and take small sprat, smelt, sandeels and anything else of small size that doesn't pay attention. They appear in April in the south, but as late as the end of June further north. Most are gone in all but the south by mid September.

They love to hang around piers and the ends of breakwaters inside harbours and estuaries. You often see their long cylindrical bodies catch the light as they swim just sub surface close to the structure.

Gars take best in the early mornings and late evenings in calm conditions. They go deeper if conditions are rough and windy.

Float fishing with 6lb line and light Avon type rod is successful. It pays to mix up a bag of rubby dubby, usually fishmeal or stale bread with mashed mackerel worked in to it. Put this in a couple of onion bags and suspend it in the water while you tackle up. This will bring the gars to you and initiate a feeding spree.

A chub type float is a good choice when the gars are working deep and you can add shot to within a foot of the hook to get the bait down quick. Keep adjusting the float for depth until the fish are found. If the gars are close to the surface, switch to a small bubble float with a little water added and let the bait free fall down to them. Hook sizes need to about size 4 or 6 and carp patterns baited with small strips of mackerel.

As the float drifts away, retard it occasionally to allow the bait to lift a little in the water. This can induce a take from otherwise shy fish. Another trick is to retrieve your bait slowly prior to a recast as garfish will often chase bait and take on the retrieve.

Gars hit the bait hard and the float just disappears. Strike quickly to make contact. They will run and leap, often combining the two, and don't tire easily. Anglers say if mackerel grew to 20lbs we'd fish for nothing else, but the gar is equally as agile.

Spinners work best if the gars are harrying shoals of fry. Stick to the smaller Mepps revolving spoons, or chrome Abu Tobies or Dexter Wedge lures also work well.

Garfish are nicknamed "greenbones" as the bones are green. This puts most people off eating them but they are excellent fried or grilled with a little butter.