Fly for Garfish

[James9118]

On every Bahamas trip I take with Tracy there's always been a time when we've been targeting big garfish (hound fish?). These are easy to get takes from but hooking them is another matter. As such, I'm after suggestions more for how to ties flies with better chances of a hook up - I've considered patterns with no hooks at all - just a material that will tangle in their teeth, or is there a better option?

Thanks, James

[Mangrove Cuckoo]

James,

Houndfish were once quite numerous close off the beach of South Florida. We will not discuss how long ago this was. As a teenager with a small boat that could not (should not) go off shore I targeted them and pretty much had them all to myself. They are a total blast on light tackle or fly! They are essentially a sailfish without the sail.

The problem of hooking them is they tend to hold and chew on their prey until they are sure the bait is dead, and usually they run off to separate themselves from others in the school that will try to steal the bait from them.

The only fly i knew back then was a bucktail "Blonde" that they completely destroyed, and hookups had a very low percentage. Setting the hook on the eat is ineffective as they are just holding it. My best percentage was when I did not see the eat and they hooked themselves as they ran.

Are you familiar with the "Gummy Minnow" fly? They might hold onto it long enough to get it into their mouth?

[Graeme H]

I read somewhere long ago that people use wool (sans hook) as a fly for garfish, relying on the fibres to tangle in the fish's teeth.

However, there are so many species called "garfish" that I don't know if it's applicable to your situation. It's certainly not applicable to the garfish we have here in Australia. (They don't have teeth.)

Cheers,
Graeme

[Paul Arden]

Interesting. I’ve always tried not hooking garfish, which seems to have to opposite effect. I really don’t like their snappy snappy snappy, not to mention what they do to my carefully tied flies. I’ll try hooking them from now on to see if I can hook less. Thanks!

Cheers, Paul

[Bendix]

Hi James

Here in Denmark we have lots of Garfish (Belone belone) visiting our coastlines every summer. And one of the most popular ways of catching them, is to use a lure attached with something called a “Silkekrog” instead of a hook. This is essentially just some strands of a silk like material that tangles with the teeth of the Garfish (you mentioned this possibility yourself). The downside to this is of course, that should a Seatrout (or any other species of fish) take the lure, then they won’t get hooked…

These “Silk hooks” are available in most Danish tackle shops, however I don’t know if you can easily get them in the UK.

If you can get hold of some, it should be rather easy to tie them in as a “tail” on any saltwater streamer, so you can keep the hook, just in case any other species of fish should take the fly. And the “Silk hooks” are available in a wide range of colors, so you can experiment with different fly patterns.

Anyway, just a suggestion.

Cheers, Bendix

[James9118]

Hi Bendix,

I found this - http://www.silkhook.co.uk/ a UK site but sold with the name 'Silkekrogen'. Many thanks for that - I'll give it a go.

Cheers, James

James, I find the silk “hooks” to be a nightmare. They are very difficult to untangle from the beak and teeth of the fish.
I enjoy catching garfish and I’ve always had good luck using a simple chartreuse fly, dubbing and rabbit in a loop for a hackle.
A slow retrieve might not be the best to entice a strike, but it greatly increases the number of proper hook ups.

[FishNoGeek]

In some circles in the US it's been "popular" (admittedly, among a tiny, tiny minority) to target several of the freshwater gar species (particularly longnose gar) with "rope flies" similar to what's being described here. While it works quite well if you're harvesting fish, this technique almost certainly kills most fish that are released since it's difficult or impossible to (safely) remove all the strands tangled in their teeth. Leftover strands are likely to constrict their jaw movement or obstruct their ability to eat.

A few of us have started a (tiny, tiny) movement to discourage use of rope flies for gar unless you're planning to keep them, and the same logic surely applies to houndfish. More here: https://fall2022.ontheflymag.com/index.html?page=56

As explained in that article, there are other productive ways to target these fish with flies that don't run such a high risk of entanglement and fish mortality.

[Mangrove Cuckoo]

Timely video?

https://youtu.be/cwP5qJSU3v4