north dublin garfish

Has anyone ever got any gars or scad in north dublin ?, ive been fishing skerries and balbriggan for about 15 years with floats feathers spinning ,but ive never seen either species being caught,just wondering if anyone has ever got any from the shore in the area?

I was shown a pic from a bike riding teenager last sunday asking what type of fish he had caught and low and behold it was a garfish, caught with a small cheap lure on the retrieve from a south wicklow pier

Cought a gar of the peir in clogerhead years again
strange lookin feckers

Best place i've found for them is the back of the East pier in Dun Laire , don't go futher than the first elbow as they are in the shelter of Scotmans bay.

Caught 2 with my hands a few weeks back on Sandymount strand

Caught 2 with my hands a few weeks back on Sandymount strand

Mackerel fingers

I got a garfish on the pier in Skerries a few years back on a float, took strip of squid and a couple of years back I got one on the beach at Greystones on a dexter wedge, good scrappers.

Got one in the cockle lake in sandymount on floatfished rag, About 2 foot long it was!

Thanks for the replies ,maybe I was fishing too deep all the time with the float,but writing the post got me thinking about the great evenings on skerries pier all them years ago when u could have 20-30 anglers float fishing off the end of the pier ,depending on the drift u cast out and let it swing around then rebait and try again every one followed the etiquit and there were never any tangles,and if a feather flinger came along he was banished to the lighthouse casting over the back wall ,( god help him if he crossed the floats),does anyone remember when a shoal passed through one float down then 5 then 20 absolute magic ,sometimes they would nearly go down together,pity float fishing went out of fashion great evenings loads of banter ,if I tried now id have some idiot cross me every 2 minutes with feathers and my head wud be wrecked

I was one of them float fishermen a long time ago, I went out to Skerries a few years back to try with the float for old time sake and the place was full of feather throwers with cheap beachcasters, huge fixed spool reels and 30lb line, I was the only one with a float. I was using sandeel as bait, and I got a good few Macks, great crack, although there were plenty of 'experts' telling me I would never catch anything , one fella even thought the sandeel I had on for bait was what I was catching all the time , anyway I outfished the feather throwers and decided that would be my last ever session out there, the days of float fishing from piers are over, anyway I've now moved on to the bigger silver fish.

Im the same happy times though

Thanks for the replies ,maybe I was fishing too deep all the time with the float,but writing the post got me thinking about the great evenings on skerries pier all them years ago when u could have 20-30 anglers float fishing off the end of the pier ,depending on the drift u cast out and let it swing around then rebait and try again every one followed the etiquit and there were never any tangles,and if a feather flinger came along he was banished to the lighthouse casting over the back wall ,( god help him if he crossed the floats),does anyone remember when a shoal passed through one float down then 5 then 20 absolute magic ,sometimes they would nearly go down together,pity float fishing went out of fashion great evenings loads of banter ,if I tried now id have some idiot cross me every 2 minutes with feathers and my head wud be wrecked

remeber it well howth was the same the summers seemed longer then and the mackrel never ending alass things dont seem to have changed for the better the love of mackrel fishing has never left me or the sight of shoals of sprat cornered at the boat house in dun liore and the insuing mallee as the macs turned the water into a boiling coldron

float fishing for macs still seems to be the done thing off the west peir in howth,even if they are mostly headers

Yep caught a Gar off howth last week

Took float fished Mackerel on a size 6 hook

Hadnt seen one in years

Excellent,ive been trying for the last few years only gettin macks,good to hear some are about in my neck of the woods,if i get one next species is mullet

Ah the memories!! I was one of those kids that grew up fishing in Skerries! Used to be so good, everyone fishing float. I tried it a year or two ago and it was just feather flingers... They were acting like I was in their way. They dont have any respect for others and god help you if you get behind you if they're casting!

As far as the Scad and Gars go I have caught scad in skerries but years ago, I've heard of a mate of mine had a Gar once but Ive never seen any caught.

While were on the subject, are there any Mackerel to be had down there at the moment?

Theres a few about and floats are making a come back