fishing for the big gar
- Thread starter dtw2
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If you see them surfacing they are getting air. Also they are spawing this time of year so if you see a really big one followed by 4-5 small ones don't bother trying to catch them as they will ignor everything. Back on Watts Bar I would use a floting Rapala and when I saw a gar crusing I would throw the Rapala just in front of the gar and just twitch it on top. They would destroy it. This only issue is you will only hook about 1 in 10. I never bothered with tyring to hook more as I just had fun watching them blow up on it. I assume you could change hooks or drop a piece of nylon off the Rapala and improve hook ups.
Lucky Dog
Well-known member
The rope will work. You can also drift a rope behide your boat and they will hit it.
Roccus
Active member
When they're in schools and coming up for air I've caught more by fishing deep than by fishing shallow. You see fish at the surface, but don't realize that the majority of the fish are actually lying on the bottom. All you're seeing is the ones who need a little supplemental Oxygen filling their lung. When I was young I did a mount of one and remember the time I had cutting the scales to cut evenly down the back of the fish. Those ganoid scales are like armor plating.
p.s. --My mother really loved the 5 foot gar hanging in her house when I was a teenager. But, your teenager could have worse hobbies.
p.s. --My mother really loved the 5 foot gar hanging in her house when I was a teenager. But, your teenager could have worse hobbies.
Bprice
Well-known member
When I was in Louisana after Katrina working, I talked a lot of fishing with the locals. They loved eating gar. They said the backstrap was delicious, and a lot of time they'd poach the meat and make "Gar Balls." I barfed.
minner
Well-known member
Yeah but I'll bet you a bill they were probably cutting backstraps out of GATOR gar. Theses little pansy gar we have up here don't hold a candle to the gators.
Hey BP wanna go gar fishing, seriously? I saw a 4.5'+ footer yesterday..............I think we should take your boat.
slo-ride
Well-known member
minner - 5/10/2007 6:10 AM
Yeah but I'll bet you a bill they were probably cutting backstraps out of GATOR gar. Theses little pansy gar we have up here don't hold a candle to the gators.
Hey BP wanna go gar fishing, seriously? I saw a 4.5'+ footer yesterday..............I think we should take your boat.
I tried some gar backstraps years ago when I was big into bowfishing...it was pretty darn good, too.(boiled them in some crab boil)
The only problem is that gar are a pain in the hind-end to clean.
G
Guest
Guest
The guys down at Big Daddy's in Bridgeport have a bunch of photos of huge gar that they have shot with bowfishing rigs. They also have some pics of some giant carp too. They told me not to try it unless I was ready to get addicted!emoLaugh
Cheez
Cheez
Bprice
Well-known member
We can get back into the creeks and they are piling up there.
I'm game, but moving this weekend then out of town for business all next week
I'm game, but moving this weekend then out of town for business all next week
Troutbum
Well-known member
foulhooked,
My understanding about these rope lures is that you don't "set" them like you would set a hook. I have read that you should let the gar take the rope and chomp on it a few times so that the fibers get thoroughly tangled in all those teeth. Then apply steady pressure until the line is taut and hang on. I actually have some of these lures/flies at home and would be glad to give a couple to you. I fly fish frequently below the dam and could meet you down there some evening to give them to you. I plan on going after gar with the fly rod myself this year.
My understanding about these rope lures is that you don't "set" them like you would set a hook. I have read that you should let the gar take the rope and chomp on it a few times so that the fibers get thoroughly tangled in all those teeth. Then apply steady pressure until the line is taut and hang on. I actually have some of these lures/flies at home and would be glad to give a couple to you. I fly fish frequently below the dam and could meet you down there some evening to give them to you. I plan on going after gar with the fly rod myself this year.
Troutbum
Well-known member
Hey ca,
Haven't tried those spots yet but I'm keeping fly rods in the car and hope to get out there soon. I'll let you know how the gar fishing goes. May have some striper info for you too before too long. Hope all is well out west.
Haven't tried those spots yet but I'm keeping fly rods in the car and hope to get out there soon. I'll let you know how the gar fishing goes. May have some striper info for you too before too long. Hope all is well out west.
Chasin'bait
Well-known member
Back where I'm from, they say you can't cook the blood out of a gar. I ain't never even thought about eatin' one of them nasty stinkin' suckers. We used to cut the heads off the bigger ones we caught and stick 'em on poles up at the dumpsters, just to scare the locals. There was a rumor goin' around town that some witch doctors lived in that area and they were tryin' to ward off evil spirits.
G
Guest
Guest
emoUpsmile emoUpsmile
Sounds like the time I put the head from a big catfish in a guys mailbox (many years ago)
Chasin'bait
Well-known member
That's a good one cheez! LOL! I did the same thing once.
One year maybe 10 or so ago, me and a buddy laid a 16' hoop net in the Black Creek to see what we could catch. Early March brought only channel cats. Late March, early April it was all big blues. For the next two months, that sucker was packed out with nothin' but river cooters. No lie, we could smell that thing 5 miles literally before we got to it. You know, 'cuz they die 'cause they can't come up for air. We did real good for the months of July and August with exclusively giant flatheads up to 71 lbs. We used to do some messed up stuff with them cats' heads to people we didn't like.
Anyhow, believe me when I tell you this, those turtles are a real mess when you got 2000lbs of them stinky nasty dead ones in your hoop net. Last time we checked it, the smell was atrocious. Both of us were throwin' up and for two hours we couldn't budge it off the bottom. We didn't want to leave it for fear that it would stay down there and catch and kill catfish. Even hookin' the rope to front of the boat and trying to drag it up on the sandbar wouldn't do nothin'. Finally we broke it loose from the bottom and when it rolled up to the surface, this big bubble of stink must've come with it. Man, we cut that rope and hauled @$$ for the high heavens, hurlin' the whole way. I ain't never ever smelled nothin' to this day like them nasty dead turtles, and that includes the time we had to manhandle a big deep freezer full of rotten beef and fish we had in our burned down house in the middle of SC's, July heat.
Needless to say, we never laid another hoop net anywhere and I don't think I ever will again. We never felt bad about leavin' it, 'cause we figured it was mostly dry rotted anyways, and by the time them turtles disintegrated, the net wouln't be any more good, and the fish would just be able to bust it apart.
One year maybe 10 or so ago, me and a buddy laid a 16' hoop net in the Black Creek to see what we could catch. Early March brought only channel cats. Late March, early April it was all big blues. For the next two months, that sucker was packed out with nothin' but river cooters. No lie, we could smell that thing 5 miles literally before we got to it. You know, 'cuz they die 'cause they can't come up for air. We did real good for the months of July and August with exclusively giant flatheads up to 71 lbs. We used to do some messed up stuff with them cats' heads to people we didn't like.
Anyhow, believe me when I tell you this, those turtles are a real mess when you got 2000lbs of them stinky nasty dead ones in your hoop net. Last time we checked it, the smell was atrocious. Both of us were throwin' up and for two hours we couldn't budge it off the bottom. We didn't want to leave it for fear that it would stay down there and catch and kill catfish. Even hookin' the rope to front of the boat and trying to drag it up on the sandbar wouldn't do nothin'. Finally we broke it loose from the bottom and when it rolled up to the surface, this big bubble of stink must've come with it. Man, we cut that rope and hauled @$$ for the high heavens, hurlin' the whole way. I ain't never ever smelled nothin' to this day like them nasty dead turtles, and that includes the time we had to manhandle a big deep freezer full of rotten beef and fish we had in our burned down house in the middle of SC's, July heat.
Needless to say, we never laid another hoop net anywhere and I don't think I ever will again. We never felt bad about leavin' it, 'cause we figured it was mostly dry rotted anyways, and by the time them turtles disintegrated, the net wouln't be any more good, and the fish would just be able to bust it apart.
B-Pro
Well-known member
Use some kind of red nylon rope, it works. I've caught a ton of gar on it, this time of year.
Dropshot
Well-known member
The only two gar I have ever caught have been on a White Senko and a Pop-R. Of course the Gar mauled the Pop-R...
