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Southern Garfish - Best Baits. Can You Match the Hatch?


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A common principle of fishing is to try and match the hatch, or in other words, use bait that is the same or similar to the target fish diet; but considering the primary dietary components of southern garfish are seagrasses of the family Zosteraceae and planktonic amphipods, it's not really possible.

Instead, generations of fishos have used substitute baits for southern garfish including;

  • maggots
  • bread
  • chicken
  • slivers of garfish

Which bait to use seems to be a personal preference (I stick with maggots and chicken).

Maggots

Maggots are probably the most common bait used for southern garfish. Apart from the "yuk" factor at the thought of maggots, they are a great bait to have on hand, they don't, smell, they last for months in the fridge and you get a tub of approx 350 maggots for $6-$8. When fishing maggots, they also stay on the hook well and it takes quite a few bites before you need to re-bait.

Bread

Cheap! Readily available. Can be used both as bait and soaked in water for burley. If you have non-fishing partner, they will not complain about bread in the house (as opposed to a tub of maggots). Downside to bread is you need to re-bait more regularly.

Chicken

It was an old timer on Largs Pier that taught me about chicken for garfish (he also fished off the bottom, not under a float). He used chicken breast, so I have always used chicken breast. Once you have bought the chicken, put into the freezer. When you want to go fishing take it out before, let it partially defrost, so it makes easier to cut even thin slices. I like to take these slices and pat dry with paper towel, to remove as much moisture as possible (the more moisture you remove, the firm it will be and it will stay on the hook better). Next, take the slices and cut them into small slithers ready for your hooks, then put in a container with some breadcrumbs (the breadcrumbs absorb more water and add to the burley trail when fishing). Sometimes I will put some tuna oil on the slithers before adding to breadcrumbs. This is a great bait to have on hand, it's cheap, readily available, you can keep it in the freezer and not yuk out anyone else in the house.

Slivers of Garfish

I've never tried this, but I've heard good reports of taking a few slivers off the first garfish you catch and using this as bait. This is suggested as a way to mix up your bait if the garfish are being timid.

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Add in tiny bits of prawn, over the last year or so and after a reasonable amount of side by side comparison I've come to the conclusion that our gar in both gulfs probably prefer the prawn more than anything else, barely touch squid, okish on cockle flesh, certainly like gents but if I had to catch one to save my life 2 years ago I'd have said "I'll use gents thanks" but now it's prawn, which kind of makes sense given the previous post on diet since prawns are kind of giant versions of their natural, non salad based, diet.

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"Slivers of Garfish

I've never tried this, but I've heard good reports of taking a few slivers off the first garfish you catch and using this as bait. This is suggested as a way to mix up your bait if the garfish are being timid".

Yep this works. Also dip into their green poop - with all baits. Slivers off pilchard woks great as well. The rubber gents also work. Also slivers off cockles & cheese. A touch of aniseed can stir them up. 

Also when timid, no float. Just hook & bait at the back of boat drifting naturally with the current.

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About 3 decades ago when i used bait to catch a few fish for a meal or 2 in my boat i would look out local for snapper, salmon, drummer or some fish with a drag pulling capacity. Once i had caught a couple of these species I would move on to the appetisers like gar, tommies, or even a couple of good sized leatheries.

Now for the garfish as i always had some pilchards left i would carefully fillet a couple of half frozen pillies & cut them in long slivers appox 40mm & about 5mm wide these would be carefully put on a size 8 longshank gamakatsu or diiachi hook with a half hitch holding the top of the bait & with a nice slow action 2kg rod & small spinning reel with 2kg line i would cast this unweighted morsel into the berley stream i had running out of the muncher on the back of the boat made of bread & a few pillies. If the garfish were a bit shy i would  stoop to dipping the end of the bait in a tiny bit of tuna oil & would slowly very slowly retrieve the bait back this generally got them biting & the larger gar were bloody good fun on this gear. Flyfishing for the gar on trout 4 weight gear with a maggot fly of my own design worked a real treat retrieved in the same fashion as above but thats another story for later.

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I enjoy fishing for gar. It is often a challenge of balancing a finesse presentation with just the right amount of burley and right size bait and hook and size of float. Landbased its even more tricky as you need to factor in casting weight to get your rig out a good distance while still showing bites and not tangling.

Often I go down to 4lb line and a tiny short shank hook to get the bite.

I also like using alternative baits and have had some great success on stuff no one else uses.

Silver fish is very popular as a gar bait in Vic and occasionally sold here in tackle stores. Most fish flesh works well and I like using tuna offcuts, pilchards and carp.

Tiny livebaits are deadly and almost always work even if the gar won't touch live maggots. Single small seaweed worm and tiny shrimp are my favourite.

 

 

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Great advice / info MAH.

And yes, slithers of Gar flesh do work - just need to catch one Gar to get those slithers though lol

Red meat slithers, like chicken slithers, are also another alternative that I have had success with.  

(Now some may say 'can't use meat/chicken' - well as slithers it is all ok and given the ok by Fishery guys/girls walking the planks)

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