Garfish
By Alex Clayton · Updated 23 October 2026
Fillet a garfish and you’ll find its bones are bright green. Hook one on light tackle and it leaps like a miniature marlin.
The garfish (Belone belone) is a long, beaked, open-water fish that migrates into UK waters for the summer, according to MarLIN. Garfish UK anglers catch it from piers, harbour walls, rock ledges and boats, mainly from late April to the end of September. Below: how to identify one, when and where to find it, tackle, bait and tactics, then the rules and whether to eat it.
How to Identify a Garfish (and Tell It From a Skipper)
Not every beaked fish that swings in over the pier rail is a garfish. Two look-alikes share the same summer water.
Check three features:
- Body: long and slender, with a blue-green back and bright silver flanks.
- Beak: both jaws stretch into a narrow beak lined with small, sharp teeth. In adults the lower jaw is slightly longer.
- Fins: a single dorsal fin and a single anal fin, both set far back near the forked tail.
Small fish can mislead you. Juveniles have much shorter jaws, and the lower jaw grows first, so a young garfish can look half-beaked (MarLIN).
| Fish | Key tell |
|---|---|
| Garfish (Belone belone) | No finlets; long beak in adults |
| Short-beaked garfish (Belone svetovidovi) | Smaller and rarer, usually a late-summer visitor |
| Skipper (Scomberesox saurus) | A row of small finlets behind the dorsal and anal fins; slimmer jaws |
If you can see finlets, it’s a skipper. For other tricky catches, see our UK fish identification guide.
When and Where to Catch Garfish in the UK
A March pier session for garfish is a wasted trip. Month, tide and weather decide whether these summer migrants are in front of you.
MarLIN records garfish around the British Isles in summer and offshore in winter, with winter records only from southern areas. They spawn in May and June, fixing their eggs by long filaments to seagrass or floating objects (MarLIN). UK angling guides put the first fish inshore around late April, with good numbers by late May.
Garfish fishing happens mostly in the top 40ft (12m) of water. They hunt around anything that breaks the tidal flow, such as piers, jetties, breakwaters, harbour walls and rock ledges, and run some way up estuaries after sprats, small herring, sandeels, small squid and crustaceans.
| Factor | What usually works |
|---|---|
| Months | Late April to end of September |
| Tide | In estuaries and harbours, from about 2 hours into the flood through high water and the early ebb; springs often beat neaps |
| Weather | Settled spells, a light offshore wind, clear water; a barometer rising after a fall is often a good sign |
| Time of day | Daylight feeders; dawn and dusk are good |
Garfish often shoal with mackerel, so a mackerel shoal is a good sign that garfish are close by. If you fish the same summer marks for bass, our UK sea fish species guides cover what else turns up, through to the cod that take over many of the same marks in winter.
How Big Do Garfish Get? Typical Sizes and Records
Look up the British garfish record on two well-known sea fishing sites and you’ll get two different answers, so we went to the committee’s own list.
The biology first. MarLIN gives a length of up to about 1m, and FishBase lists a maximum length of 104cm.
Rod-caught garfish run far smaller. UK angling guides rate a fish of about 1lb (0.45kg) as very good and anything over 2lb as a specimen.
The British Record (Rod Caught) Fish Committee list, updated June 2026, puts both British records at 3lb 9oz 8dr (1.630kg): the boat record from Mount’s Bay, Cornwall in 1994 and the shore record from Slapton Sands, Devon in 2017. The committee froze its weight-based boat list in June 2024 and now takes measured claims for boat-caught sea fish. Most of your fish will be under 1lb, so treat anything near 2lb as one to remember.
Best Tackle and Bait for Garfish
The best garfish bait is a sliver of mackerel belly about 1 to 1.5in (2.5 to 4cm) long, fished on light gear.
Rod and line. An 8 to 10ft spinning rod with 10 to 15lb mainline covers pier and harbour fishing. Finish with a short fluorocarbon trace: garfish tend to refuse baits on heavy mono, and very light mono can be bitten through.
Hooks. Use a sharp long-shank Aberdeen in size 4 to 8 (some guides narrow it to a 4 or 6). A small hook taken further into the mouth holds better than a big one sitting in the bony beak.
| Bait or lure | Size or cut | Hook | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mackerel belly strip | 1 to 1.5in long, about 1/4in (6mm) wide | Size 4 to 8 Aberdeen | First choice; keep it thin |
| Herring, squid or sandeel strip | Similar thin strip | Size 4 to 8 Aberdeen | Good alternatives |
| Slim silver spinner | Small and light | Keep hooks sharp | Most productive lure |
| Small feathers or daylights | Small sizes | As tied | Lure alternative |
| Small soft plastic sandeel | Slim profile | Small, sharp hook | Worked near the surface |
Best for: anyone with a light spinning rod and a pier or harbour wall. Skip it if all you own is beachcasting gear, because big hooks struggle to hold in that bony beak.
How to Catch Garfish: Float Fishing and Spinning
The float dips, you strike, and the fish leaps clear and throws the hook. A float-fished strip or a fast silver spinner, fished on sharp hooks, cuts those losses.
Float fishing
- Set a slim or cigar float so the bait sits 2 to 3ft below the surface.
- Bait a size 4 to 8 Aberdeen with a thin mackerel belly strip.
- Deepen by about a foot every few casts until you find bites.
- When the float goes, lift into the fish steadily rather than striking hard.
- Keep a short fluorocarbon trace between the float and the hook.
From rock ledges, a fixed bubble float adds range and keeps direct contact with the trace.
Spinning
Retrieve a slim silver spinner fast, close to the surface. If nothing follows, slow down and let it sink until you find the feeding depth. Most fish come within about 30 yards of structure, and blunt hooks cost fish, so check the points often.
Hooked garfish jump. Keep a steady bend in the rod and give no slack while the fish is in the air. From boats, small feathers worked for mackerel can pick them up too. For lure fishing over rough ground, see our pollack guide.
If bites stop, change depth before you change bait.
Handling, Rules and Eating Garfish
There is no national minimum size for garfish in UK waters, whatever you may have read elsewhere.
Handling. The beak has small, sharp teeth. Hold the fish gently behind the head, unhook it with forceps or a disgorger, and return released fish quickly.
Rules. Garfish does not appear on the GOV.UK Minimum Conservation Reference Sizes table for UK waters. Local byelaws can still cover your stretch of coast, so before you keep fish, check with your Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA) in England, or the relevant fisheries authority in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. FishBase lists the species as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.
Eating. Garfish are edible, with a flavour often compared to mackerel. The green bones come from biliverdin, a harmless pigment, though MarLIN notes the green skeleton puts some people off. Keep one or two for the table if you like, and return the rest.
Frequently asked questions
Are garfish good to eat?
Yes. Garfish are edible and taste similar to mackerel. Their bones are green because of biliverdin, a harmless natural pigment, so the colour is no reason to throw a fish back.
Is there a minimum size for garfish in the UK?
No national minimum size applies. Garfish is not listed on the GOV.UK Minimum Conservation Reference Sizes table for UK waters. Local byelaws may still apply, so check with your Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority in England, or the relevant fisheries authority elsewhere, before keeping fish.
What is the best bait for garfish?
A thin, silvery strip of mackerel belly, about 1 to 1.5in long, on a size 4 to 8 long-shank Aberdeen hook under a float. For garfish fishing with lures, a slim silver spinner retrieved fast near the surface is the best option.
How big do garfish get?
Most rod-caught garfish weigh under 1lb, and anything over 2lb is a specimen. The species can reach about 1m long. Both British records, boat and shore, stand at 3lb 9oz 8dr (1.630kg) on the British Record (Rod Caught) Fish Committee list.