garfish by handpole

Probably you are fishing in surf with a hand pole .... grounbaiting that little bit of surface groundbait you'll notice them coming just at the end of the surf line ..... yes they are home ... garfish


They can easily be noticed either by their length or else with their unique surface movement activity showing off their beaks while feeding on surface groundbait

It's again the test for your eyes ...... it's just sea knowledge for a keen angler to notice surface action in vicinity for catching garfish on handpole .........

Simply amazing ..... the surface activity movement of garfish near the shores ......


Keep your tackle at a simple minimum for fishing garfish with the handpole. You will actually need a pole that ensure reaching the garfish feeding place ranging from a 9mtr to 5mtr


Now that is a hint ..... if you can manage with less than 7mtr it will be great .... speed fishing session you'll be running into


So ..... it is jut your handpole with a mainline slightly longer than the pole (30cms more). Choose thinner lines in the range of 0.12mm - 0.16mm max for this method.


Tie your hook at the end of the line and insert a surface float in the form of a round cork (white ones make the perfect rig)

just a hook with float set about 3/4 of a metre away

........... no weights .... you're fishing surface mate so no wieghts at all

have a look .... it's the place where the garfish hang out ... they will be there just in the edge of the surf line

Enjoying handfuls of catches in 2011

High Seas and big surf is on the day 

forget fishing hand pole in such conditions .... change to bubble float fishing for far out casts that can reach the surf line

fishing garfish

My favourite rig for garfish as indicated below is the floating bait rig (as i call it myself)

A rig which enables long casts ... as far as 50mtr away with weighted floats ... mainly bubble floats half filled with water

and below is the typical set up for the floating bombarda

 It's the perfect rig for when garfish are staying far away from shores

best timing of the year for fishing garfish is from late August till mid December

Quite fun fishing this type of fish around in Maltese waters .......

This garfish fishing method is at it's best during early morning hours lowers by time and gets best again at around noon ...... stays good until sunset hours but is not productive as soon as the sun sarts setting away .... it's time to say good bye to the lovely surroundings and get back home to prepare your meal ......

How to cook garfish ..... 

My best and so this is the one and only garfish preparation that is good on the face of the planet is GARFixxx deep fried

remove head from fish ...... remove internal parts and off you go .... wrap the freshly caught garfish in flour and off to the low cholesterol frying pan which has boiling oil ready to go

Back to the fishing method:

mela ......... cast as far out as possible and start retreiving as soon as float touches water ...... start retreiving at a very low speed and this is the best part ......... the secret to garfish fishing

Watch out for garfish movement behind your float ... this is the test ... an eye test actually

so garfish fishing gives you a real eye test ... that is why i do not check my lenses at the optician. I just prefer to wait till October each year and test my vision on my friend the Garfish

ooppsss what about bait ....

start on Koreano worms or fine slices of bacon strips then move on to garfish slices freshly caught fro live stock as your target start being suspicious