Gar baits?

[geffski]

had a nice sesh the other day and it brought back a few memorys!
float fishing for gar off shorham harbour arm! great fun on light tackle
and pike float! and felt good to put a bend in my rod arfter a long winter!
the only thing i dont like is fannying around with mackrel thats slowly turning to mush through the day no matter wot i do bar a cool box!
i know alot of lads yous squid strip, very durable arfter repeated casts (unlike mack) and easy to cut with scissors into little whitbaitesc triangles!
my question. is it on a par with mackrel strip as it laks the silvery shine???
oh and ar ther anyways i can help prevent deep hooking? im using fine wire
6 (crushed barbs) but got some 4s about will this help?

cheers in advance for any suggestions!
(p,s i know gar bashing is a bit of a kiddy thing but like i say good to get a bend)

[FlyingFox]

sounds good mate!!!

I normally opt for long shanked size 4's and hit em quite early......that may help your deep hooking but unfortunately gars are one of the fish i also struggle a bit with deep hooking!!! so my help might not be that helpfull after all!!

Don't really think you can beat mackerel strip for bait really.....only thing that i think comes close is gar strip, I tend to cut a fillet off the mack before i start and pre cut the strips with scisors......saves a lot of mess then when you make when cutting with a knife all day!!

anyway glad you had a good days fishing mate and nout wrong with garring.......cant beat gars for a nice bit of light fishing!! well done mate.

Ollie.

[big guy]

i love fishing for gars with a quiver tip, excellent sport especially when they jump clear of the water.

where there are gar fish there are usually macky. when my macky is going mushy i either feather out a fresh one or use one of the fresh gars.

yes they do deephook, hitting them early will help but if they are deep hooked then kill them and freeze, eat or use as bait. it's bad enough that they die when deep hooked, so at least take something from the bad situation.

[gullyworm]

Garfish=mini marlin.
Like you say cracking sport on light gear and they make excellent Bass bait.

[baitmaster]

now theirs a species i would love to say i,ve caught must be real fun on the light tackle

will read with great interest


tightlines
the sea fledgling

[Drew]

Hi all,

I've never fished for Gars myself, sounds good fun.

To avoid deep hooking, would it help by using circle hooks? this stops deep hooking in other species.

Your views would be appreciated as I have never tried it, although I use them for Bass and Bream and they definately work.

Cheers

Drew

[geffski]

Originally Posted by gullyworm

Garfish=mini marlin.
Like you say cracking sport on light gear and they make excellent Bass bait.

exelent bass bait??? didnt know that! keep talking mate

as for curcle hooks drew, they may be worth a try!
i think the gar hunts by slashing with its bill thats loaded with 100s of
pin like teeth then whoosh straight down the throat!
so dont know if circles would make any diffrence!

[fishypaul]

i had great fun last summer in cornwall on holiday,the other anglers were using bloody great bung type floats that would be too big for piking let alone the humble gar.
i used a small pencil type self -cocking float with just a swan shot to sink the bait and had a whale of a time.
caught loads of gars,scad,mackies and even a couple of bream

[John Marshall]

Gars make excllent bait from the boat, so should work from the beach.

[codhead]

Gars also make excellent eating, providing the bright green bones don't put you off. There's still something of a thrill when they tailwalk too. I guess I never really grew up