GARFISH
One of my favourite ways of catching garfish is on float tackle fished close to the surface. I use the lightest float that I can, matching it to a tiny drilled bullet, but I also use a little dodge with a cork to stop the garfish deep-hooking itself. This is because deep-hooking can be a problem, since garfish have a tendency to trap and then ambush their prey between themselves and the surface. The result of this little tactic is that an ordinary float seems to waggle a little in the water, then abruptly leaps to the side. However in reality there is a very good chance that by the time this happens the fish will actually have travelled from one to three feet towards the surface, often swallowing the hook on the way. You can strike, but there is no guarantee that it is not already too late.
This particular problem increases in line with the size of the float, but can be countered quite easily. First of all you take a cork, such as you might use in a pop gun, then drill it carefully through the middle lengthways. Make a recess at the bottom of the cork and then glue in a piece of tubing to reduce the friction on the line. Next you take a small bead, making sure that the hole in the bead is in line with the tubing, then glue it into the recess at the bottom of the cork so that half of it sticks out. You are then going to have to make a corresponding hollow in the top of your float for the bottom of the bead.
Visibility can be improved by adding a plastic vane to the cork. It doesn't have to be made of expensive materials, or even brightly painted. Margarine tubs are, for example, quite brightly coloured already...
Visibility can be improved by adding a plastic vane to the cork. It doesn't have to be made of expensive materials, or even brightly painted. Margarine tubs are, for example, quite brightly coloured already...
(Shore, Page 3)
Neatly hooked but often this is far from the case with deep hooking a problem for many anglers.