Help Wanted: Reliable Garfish Spot In Middle Harbour

[PPSGT]

Hi Fishraiders..

Does anyone have a reliable spot somewhere between Tunks Parks ramp and North Head that

produces garfish consistently?

What time of the year are they in the harbour?

I have seen a school swim past the boat at Seaforth, but I havent seen them come up

in a berley trail, which leads me to think I'm trying in the wrong spots

Any help or pointers would be appreciated

Thanks

PPSGT

[Guest Big-Banana]

Anywhere we you can find squid. Use a small bubble float with a tiny long shank. Bread Burley. Its a bit hit and miss. Id love to find a good spot though.

[Guest rzep]

I have found them consistently at Quarantine Beach.

[duke]

I have found them consistently at Quarantine Beach.

Hi,

They can be found on dusk just under the lights of Balmoral pool, bread crumbs for berley and you will have a bucket full in no time

Cheers

Duke

[Brian]

Hi Fishraiders..

Does anyone have a reliable spot somewhere between Tunks Parks ramp and North Head that

produces garfish consistently?

What time of the year are they in the harbour?

I have seen a school swim past the boat at Seaforth, but I havent seen them come up

in a berley trail, which leads me to think I'm trying in the wrong spots

Any help or pointers would be appreciated

Thanks

PPSGT

I've always had some luck with them at Sow & Pigs, fishing the run in tide anchored on the north side of the reef. Seem to be a bye catch of yakkas but once they turn up you can see them skim the surface every now and then. Fish as light as possible, no sinker and the smallest hook with a dash of peeled prawn. drop one over the side as a livie and i can gurantee a big hit.

Cheers,

Brian P.

[choad]

do any turn up around clifton gardens?

[big_steve]

Definately a possibility, anywhere with weed beds will at some stage have garfish patrolling. High tide early in the morning there would be some cruising.

any idea what garies diet is mainly?

steve

[PPSGT]

any idea what garies diet is mainly?

steve

Garfish are generally bottom feeders that eat weed/algae plus zoo plankton & aquatic insects. If you catch them after they have been eating weed and are full, when you grab hold of them, the waste coming out their gut looks like minced up weed. If you have been using lots of brand and pollard or bread for burley they quickly fill up on this and wont take your bait, and if you do catch one that is full from feeding in burley trails their waste pretty much looks like your burley. Squeezing this stuff into the water

seems to really get them going as well.

While they are eating weed, Garfish really only come to the surface/mid water when travelling (to avoid ambushing squid who live in the same weed and like most predators including humans seem to find garfish quite tasty) or when you bring them up off the bottom with a burley trail.

At night they are attracted to bright lights shone on the water.

They are also caught on the incoming tide in shallow water & calm beaches often in knee deep water,

where they would be feeding on aquatic insects

There are two main types of Garfish Eastern & Southern Garfish Hyporhamphus Australis/Melanochir, which

have a red beak and a very silver body and are a sea going/but not a true oceanic species - big ones are

nick named "havannas" ( big sea-gars ) these two sub species are almost identical.

The theory is that thosands of years ago the land bridge that formed between Vic & Tas seperated the breeding patterns of many fish and forming new sub species seperated into eastern ( qld to eastern vic) & southern (western vic , sa & wa) for temperate water species such as garfish,salmon & snapper.

This theory also explains why Tommy Ruffs and King George Whiting are rarely caught on the East coast (NSW) and why Yakkas are a rarity in SA.

This also gives a change in feeding patterns especially southern salmon

which grow up feeding on worms & bait fish near the SA/WA border. A surface feeding school of southern salmon will ALWAYS strike a metal baitfish slug where as the eastern sub species which grow up on a diet rich in plankton thanks to the warm rich eastern currents. When this food is in abundance they are happy to eat plankton all day long , much less energy expended then chasing frightened baitfish - especially those ones off North Head on Saturday mornings (maybe they eat baitfish Mon-Fri when I cant go fishing??? ) when they are in this mode they wont eat anything else.

The eastern/southern sub species is one of the factors that explains why there are so many 20lb, 30lb and even 40lb+ ( very rare - I have seen one this size ) snapper caught in South Australia as they are a different sub species. Incedently the big snapper are only caught in the gulfs in shallow water less than 100 feet, and when schooling are as easy to catch as hungry yakkas - the 30-40lbs are usually a resident loner that has probally lived around the spot it was caught for many years and being slower and older turn into scavengers. Whereas deep water snapper south of Kangaroo Island in SA are generally the same size as NSW snapper.

Back to Garfish - the other species caught in the harbour are river gars - Hyporhamphus Regularis they have a much greener tinge and no red beak and have a higher tolerance for brackish water.

Both taste the same - Sea Gar fish are generally bigger though up to 50-60cm, with river gars generally 30-35cm although they can get bigger.

Why are they so attracted to bread when its not a natural food for them? Some may have eaten swollen wheat/barley grains that have fallen from a ship loading or unloading but maybe its like humans and McDonalds - nothing from nature in there but gee it tastes good!

PPSGT

[namesay]

A surface feeding school of southern salmon will ALWAYS strike a metal baitfish slug where as the eastern sub species which grow up on a diet rich in plankton thanks to the warm rich eastern currents. When this food is in abundance they are happy to eat plankton all day long , much less energy expended then chasing frightened baitfish - especially those ones off North Head on Saturday mornings (maybe they eat baitfish Mon-Fri when I cant go fishing??? ) when they are in this mode they wont eat anything else.

I can tell you that even mon-fri those salmon can be tough to fool !! Cheers Kelvin

[Deep Blue]

heya guys...i know its not exactly between tunks and nth head but if u wander over to the bantry bay ammo wharves on the western side u'll find its about as good for garfish as anywhere i've found. Deep water and u'll often pick up a bream on a set rig whilst u are after gary the garfish.

Dont throw out too much burley. Pencil float and a #12 hook and a tiny pinch of dough. Sweetening the dough with some fine green weed (chopped vv fine) seems to help and keeps them biting.

Problem with garies is they can take awhile to work up the courage to have a nibble....throw only dried bread "dust" onto the surface after they arrive.

If there's lots of choppers around the harbour you'll find them impossible to find except right up the end of each bay on the flats. Everything likes to eat a garfish including the squid (and me)

Edited December 17, 2006 by Deep Blue