Yowie Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Fished the deep water up from Lilli Pilli at first light, and not much about. Tailor were not there as per the last few outings. Hooked a couple of yakkas, so set one out as a livie. That produced a salmon in the 50 to 55cm range, very little fight and it was released. The second livie was grabbed after a while but no hook up, probably another salmon. Pumped some nippers and drifted a few places for the flattie, bream and whiting, very few bites beside those 3 fish. I anchored over the weed beds behind the Ballast Heap to try there out of the wind, and saw a garfish hopping along the surface. Threw out a bread crust and the gars attacked it. I like a feed of garfish, so gave them a go, plus there were plenty of mullet mixed in, most released. Those sand mullet were the biggest out of the school, caught about as many mullet as garfish. The gars are River Garfish, the biggest at 36cm, which equals Allfisher's garfish record. The gars and mullet were caught on bread, soaked in a little bit of water, then squeezed out almost straight away to make it fairly firm. 6 pound handline with a size 10 longshank hook, no sinker or float. A piece of bread about half a cm across and squeezed onto the hook and thrown out by hand. Takes a bit of effort (and practice) to cast a small bait by hand. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welster Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Nice report Yowie and good info provided. I've never caught garfish but would like to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooker435 Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 good stuff yowie, a nice feed there as always. Regards, Nathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amkr Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Those are some big gars, wonder if they will still be around on the weekend.Great info, really helpful for people like me, gives us a bit more of an idea on what to do. Not a bad flathead to go with it too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p-ziller Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Awesome job Yowie! Good variety. Glad you bagged a feed. Cheers, Paul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scratchie Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Garies ay yowie? You should have titled "yowie gets a billfish" lol. They are great fun to catch and pretty good on the plate too! No fish oil tablets for you this week mate! Well done Cheers scratchie!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tide'n'knots Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 thats a really nice feed there mate, garfish are really nice eating pete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 Thank you all. A feed of gars for me, and some for mum. She likes gar and mullet fillets. The gars usually swim over the shallow weedbeds, can be hard to find but better fishing on the high tides. As Scratchie said, they are like mini billfish at times, leaping and tail walking over the surface. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krispy ! Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 good stuff there yowie, a great feed of gars but ill be trying to see whats eating them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fragmeister Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Hi Yowie, Nice report. With the dark colour of the flattie plus the mullet and gars I thought you must have been in the upper reaches. Great mix of species there and some good skills shown on the gars. Cheers Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 Are garfish a very good bait? Thanks Yes. As live bait, whole on ganged hooks and the fillets for many fish, some times big bream will swim a mile to eat them. Many years ago, when many of you Fishraiders were still in nappies , whole gars were the bait being used on ganged hooks for tailor, kings, reddies, etc, before pillies became the next big bait. I used them off the beaches for tailor, and have seen the bigger bream grab a gar on 5/0 ganged hooks, no finesse by the bream, just a big hit on the gar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 (edited) good stuff there yowie, a great feed of gars but ill be trying to see whats eating them Something big swam into the shallow water and rounded up the gars or other bait fish, just too far to cast a live gar, but was gone in 10 or so seconds, and did not return. Possibly salmon, have seen and caught them over the sand banks in water less than a metre deep. Edited November 11, 2015 by yowie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 Hi Yowie, Nice report. With the dark colour of the flattie plus the mullet and gars I thought you must have been in the upper reaches. Great mix of species there and some good skills shown on the gars. Cheers Jim The flattie is very dark, was caught over the sand bank, but in a small hole of slightly deeper water. Must have spent some time in that hole, just picking off a good supply of little fish. The gars are there most years, but sometimes the bloody seagulls spot the burley, fly down to eat it and the gars just disappear for good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scratchie Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Yes. As live bait, whole on ganged hooks and the fillets for many fish, some times big bream will swim a mile to eat them. Many years ago, when many of you Fishraiders were still in nappies , whole gars were the bait being used on ganged hooks for tailor, kings, reddies, etc, before pillies became the next big bait. I used them off the beaches for tailor, and have seen the bigger bream grab a gar on 5/0 ganged hooks, no finesse by the bream, just a big hit on the gar. Lol. I occasionally still wear nappies but I do still use gars for livies chasing long tail and rig them chasing marlin too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NaClH2OK9 Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 (edited) Nice report Yowie. Got to be happy with a bag of gars. Thanks for sharing the details on technique. I've found gar fish very finicky eaters when I've tried for them. You should submit the big one for a record badge Edited November 11, 2015 by NaClH2OK9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnDory Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Jeff if it helps i have contacts at Kimberly-Clark JD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busy-livin Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 What would be the best way to cook a gar? I've never caught one/ never attempted ! I've always let them skim alone the surface , cool little fish to watch in a pack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike89 Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Looks like a top day out on the water. Great bag of gars you have there, cheers for the tips. I've only ever caught one but would love to get into them. How can I find them land-based? Do I just have to wait for them to be around? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 (edited) Looks like a top day out on the water. Great bag of gars you have there, cheers for the tips. I've only ever caught one but would love to get into them. How can I find them land-based? Do I just have to wait for them to be around? Still possible to catch them land based, but they usually hang about over shallow water with weed beds, as they are primarily weed eaters. Have caught a few of them on small pieces of prawn, fish, squirt worms, and a few larger ones have taken nippers when fishing for whiting in shallow water. They can be caught by using a small bubble float about 30cms above a small hook. Add a bit of water to the bubble float (the ones that separate and click together) and it will increase the casting distance. No sinker needed. Edited November 11, 2015 by yowie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 What would be the best way to cook a gar? I've never caught one/ never attempted ! I've always let them skim alone the surface , cool little fish to watch in a pack My grandfather used to roll them with a milk bottle to crush the bones, then pan fry until a bit crispy (no, not that Krispy) I fillet them. yes it is a fiddly job, then with a long knife remove the rib bones (the rib bones can be left in). There will still be a few tiny bones left along the side rib section, then crumb and pan fry until slightly crispy. Does not take very long to cook. This lot I have filleted and will thread onto skewers and BBQ for a short time. Only small fillets but rather tasty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fisholb Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Yes. As live bait, whole on ganged hooks and the fillets for many fish, some times big bream will swim a mile to eat them. Many years ago, when many of you Fishraiders were still in nappies , whole gars were the bait being used on ganged hooks for tailor, kings, reddies, etc, before pillies became the next big bait. I used them off the beaches for tailor, and have seen the bigger bream grab a gar on 5/0 ganged hooks, no finesse by the bream, just a big hit on the gar. We still use garfish when chasing kingys these days...my mate caught a 20kg bluefin off sydney rocks last year while targeting kingys...Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macman Posted November 11, 2015 Share Posted November 11, 2015 Gars are also used extensively around Yamba for Mackeral. I've found a stick float works well, gives you something to cast. Don't weigt it down like a blackfish float though, just let the stick float side on. When the gars bit, the float will either stand up slightly or rotate in the direction of the bit. Works very well, especially with small pieces of prawn for bait. Also berlying with bran and a bit of tuna oil works well, give nothing for the seagulls to swoop at, but produces a bit of a slick that the gars will swim into. Maggots are the prime bait for gars, but likely to get you divorced Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted November 12, 2015 Author Share Posted November 12, 2015 Gars are also used extensively around Yamba for Mackeral. I've found a stick float works well, gives you something to cast. Don't weigt it down like a blackfish float though, just let the stick float side on. When the gars bit, the float will either stand up slightly or rotate in the direction of the bit. Works very well, especially with small pieces of prawn for bait. Also berlying with bran and a bit of tuna oil works well, give nothing for the seagulls to swoop at, but produces a bit of a slick that the gars will swim into. Maggots are the prime bait for gars, but likely to get you divorced Have heard of the stick float method, but never tried it. I usually don't fish specifically for gars, but if they turn up near the boat, then I will give them a go. Bought some maggots (called gents) in W.A. when I was there earlier this year, to try for tommy ruff. The missus was not happy when I put them into the fridge to keep cool. I told her they were bred in bran, not meat, so they were clean, but she was not impressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fragmeister Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 Have heard of the stick float method, but never tried it. I usually don't fish specifically for gars, but if they turn up near the boat, then I will give them a go. Bought some maggots (called gents) in W.A. when I was there earlier this year, to try for tommy ruff. The missus was not happy when I put them into the fridge to keep cool. I told her they were bred in bran, not meat, so they were clean, but she was not impressed. Tried the same caper on my wife Yowie many years ago. Seems "maggots" cancels out any other word added to the description... clean maggots, maggots in bran, maggots in spring water, maggots in vanilla essence... It wouldn't matter I'm afraid, there is no escaping it for her. Like you say, that why they are called Gents. Even that doesnt work for her, now when she hears "Ladies and Gents" she hears "Ladies and Maggots"! Thats about right, she says LOL! Cheers Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busy-livin Posted November 12, 2015 Share Posted November 12, 2015 My grandfather used to roll them with a milk bottle to crush the bones, then pan fry until a bit crispy (no, not that Krispy) I fillet them. yes it is a fiddly job, then with a long knife remove the rib bones (the rib bones can be left in). There will still be a few tiny bones left along the side rib section, then crumb and pan fry until slightly crispy. Does not take very long to cook. This lot I have filleted and will thread onto skewers and BBQ for a short time. Only small fillets but rather tasty. My mouth is watering! Yummm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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