If the crucian (see last week’s Fish we Like) maddens a freshwater angler with his shy-biting ways, a similar infuriation will be found on various piers and harbour walls this summer. Floats will dive and rod tips rattle but a strike will only connect with thin air. The culprits are garfish (Belone belone), and the ability to pinch a bait without getting hooked comes not from a finicky nature but an extraordinarily shape. They are silver spears, and dart through the sea like wingless pterodactyls, catching small prey fish in their long pointed mouths. Hooking one is akin to trying to hook a pair of chopsticks. You have to wait – and wait – and hope they manoeuvre the bait in order for you to gain a decent hook hold.