In May garfish come to our coasts. Then we fish intensively for about 3-4 weeks for the lightning-fast predators. During the oilseed rape bloom, garfish seek out shallow coastal regions to attach their spawn, which has adhesive threads, to aquatic plants, rocks, flotsam or even boats. Individual specimens can be caught until June. Dried garfish eggs are still stuck in one of my landing nets, no chance of getting them out of there.
The garfish has no requirements for a minimum size, a closed season or a bag limit. I'm still satisfied with 10 fish per fishing day and don't have to take 50 or more with me like other colleagues. Garfish can be found worldwide, in the Baltic Sea it grows up to 1m in length, while marine species in the Atlantic or the Mediterranean reach up to 2m in length. There are also these fish in freshwater, then with proud sizes of approx. 6-7cm. I mostly fish for garfish with my Mefo combo, i.e. approx. 3m long light rod, the same braided one on the same reel (4000) and always a 0.40 fluoro leader so that the sharp teeth don’t rub the line. As bait I use very light spoons around 10g-13g to stay on the surface. Another possibility are natural baits behind the floating Sbirolino. Garfish shreds, pieces of beef, dried ragworms have proven themselves very well here. But fly fishing is also a successful alternative to classic spin fishing. With the hooks you have to be prepared for the mouth of the garfish, otherwise there is a risk of many missed bites. My favorite here is clearly the stinger about 5cm behind the regular treble on the indicator. I choose the triplets as small as possible (size 4 to 6) so that they fit nicely in the mouth and can grip properly. Personally, I have not had such good experiences with silk or wool and have therefore moved away from them again. The drill is an experience with every garfish and I am always impressed by how fast and persistent they are. You can reach the best places with waders, especially when the hornies are a little further out. Popular spots for garfish fishing on our island are the Greifswalder Bodden, the Strelasund, Groß Stresow, the stretch between Juliusruh and Vitt, between Mukran and Sassnitz and the coast near Dranske. In the kitchen, I like it best fried in short pieces of about 10cm. (By the way, the tail gets really crispy in the pan). This year I tried it for the first time from the smoker, very tasty! In the smoke you just have to make sure that it is not smoked too long and too hot, otherwise it will dry out quickly. The green bones are a typical feature of the garfish and are caused by the breakdown of the red blood pigment hemoglobin into biliverdin.
