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Bite Compass
Jetty / Shore

Tropical Garfish

Hemiramphus, Hyporhamphus & Arrhamphus spp. (mainly H. robustus, H. far, H. quoyi)

Tropical garfish are the gar of WA's north — three-by-two, barred and longtail garfish that school over the weed and sand in the Ningaloo lagoon, Exmouth Gulf and the Pilbara and Kimberley bays, where southern garfish don't reach. Caught on a float and berley trail in calm daylight, they're mostly kept as fresh bait for mackerel and queenfish, and they eat as well as any southern gardie.

Size
Up to about 45cm, commonly 25–35cm
Peak season
Year-round
Minimum size (WA)
No minimum size
Bag limit (WA)
30

Overview

North of Shark Bay the garfish change. The southern gardie of Perth's bays thins out around Denham, and in the Ningaloo lagoon, Exmouth Gulf, the Pilbara bays and the Kimberley the gar under your float are a mix of tropical species — three-by-two (robust) garfish, barred garfish, longtail garfish and, in the estuaries, snubnose garfish. Few anglers up north bother sorting them, and the rules don't need you to: they're all garfish, fished the same way. Most go straight into the esky as fresh bait for Spanish mackerel, queenfish and trevally, but they're a pleasant light-tackle session in their own right and good eating.

Identification

Also known as Gar, gardies, three-by-two garfish (robust garfish), barred garfish, longtail garfish, snubnose garfish

All garfish share the long, needle-like lower jaw and short triangular upper jaw — if both jaws are drawn out into a toothy beak, it's a longtom, and the northern longtoms are big enough to hurt. Within the tropical gar: three-by-two (robust) garfish is deep and flat-sided with one dark spot on the flank below the dorsal fin and a yellowish tinge on the dorsal fin and upper tail lobe; barred garfish carries three to nine (usually four to six) dark vertical bars down the side; longtail garfish is plain silver with a scaly upper jaw and a shorter beak; snubnose garfish has a stubby lower jaw that looks broken off and lives in estuaries and creek mouths. Southern garfish (plain silver stripe, orange beak tip) runs out at about Shark Bay — at Denham you can meet both.

How to Catch

Best Baits

Small pieces of prawn (north-west bait shops push coral prawn), maggots, bread or flour dough, dough with tuna oil

Lures

N/A — a bait fish. Tiny flies or a cut-down bait jig will take the odd one, but a float and bait is the method.

Rigs

Quill or small stick float, a tiny split shot and a size 10–12 long-shank hook, set 30–60cm deep, on 2–4kg line and a light spin rod. A cut-down bait-jig of two or three small hooks under a float works when the school is thick.

Technique

Berley first — bread, pollard or a little tuna oil trickled over weed or sand edges — then drift a float rig down the trail and wait for the float to slide under. Garfish feed at the surface in daylight, so set the float shallow and lift gently rather than strike. Keep the berley going and the school stays; stop and it wanders off. Kept for bait, they're best rigged fresh the same day.

Best Time

Year-round in the north. Daylight is the window — the published work on tropical gar shows them feeding mainly by day, with gut fullness dropping after dusk. Calm mornings before the afternoon breeze are easiest for float fishing, and in the gulf and lagoon a flooding tide puts water back over the weed where the schools graze.

Size & Growth

Most are 25–35cm, and 40cm-plus is a good fish; barred garfish reach about 45cm and three-by-twos a little more. They're fast-growing and short-lived — barred garfish are reported to four years — so a school tends to be one size. If the fish under your float are all small, move rather than change bait.

Diet & Habitat

Adult garfish are grazers — seagrass and green algae, with small crustaceans in the mix — which is why a bread-and-prawn berley trail over weed beds works so well. Young gar eat small animals and switch to plants as they grow. They school near the surface over seagrass, sand flats and reef lagoons, around marinas and jetties, and in bays and estuary mouths, usually in a few metres of water. Barred garfish favour clearer oceanic water; three-by-twos the more turbid bays and estuaries; snubnose garfish push up into creeks and brackish water. In WA the group runs from Shark Bay north through Carnarvon, Ningaloo, Exmouth Gulf, the Pilbara and the Kimberley.

WA Size & Bag Limits

Minimum size No minimum size
Bag limit 30
Counts toward Statewide, with no Gascoyne or North Coast variation: the 30 sits inside the 'all other species of finfish' TOTAL mixed daily bag of 30, shared with Australian herring, blue mackerel, mullet and the whitings other than King George. Garfish are exempt from the finfish possession limit as a baitfish.

No minimum size. Individual bag limit: 30 per garfish species, statewide — the Gascoyne and North Coast bioregions have no separate garfish rule. Garfish sit in DPIRD's 'all other species of finfish' category, whose TOTAL mixed daily bag is 30 per fisher, shared with Australian herring, blue mackerel, mullet and the whitings other than King George. Garfish are listed as a baitfish and don't count toward the finfish possession limit. Ningaloo Marine Park sanctuary zones are no-take for everything, garfish included — check the zoning before you set up a berley trail.

Last checked . Limits change — confirm with DPIRD before you fish.

Eating Quality

Yes — tropical gar eat as well as southern ones: sweet, delicate white flesh and big scales that come off easily. Butterfly them down the back and lift the backbone out, then crumb and shallow-fry, or pan-fry whole in butter for a minute or two a side. They go soft quickly in northern heat, so ice them straight away. Freeze the extras for bait rather than the table.

Where to Catch Tropical Garfish

Broome (Town Beach / Gantheaume Point / Roebuck Bay) Bundegi (Boat Ramp / Beach / Bundegi Reef) Carnarvon (Town Beach / Babbage Island / Quobba) Denham (Shark Bay) Exmouth (North Ningaloo / North West Cape) Lighthouse Bay (Vlamingh Head Lighthouse / Surfers Beach / Limestone Platforms) Onslow (Town Beach / Beadon Creek / Mackerel Islands) Yardie Creek (Cape Range NP / Southern Ningaloo)
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