What flies are good for Gar

[firetool 0]

I have gar where I fish at and was woundering what patterns work best. Will they take top water flies or should it be streamers? I saw the great post about gars in the carp fly post. Its a pretty sure thing that the fly is a one fish fly, I have handled gar and there teeth will shred a fly!

[heavynets 0]

Here is a bunch of them.

 

http://www.google.com/search?q=rope+gar+fly&hl=en&client=safari&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=f-knUfLuGciFrgHKiIHQDA&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=644

[mikechell 0]

Just as shown on Heavynets' link ... a 6 inch piece of good, soft nylon rope. Tie one end to a large hook, then comb out the rest of it. Gar "slap" at their food. As they do this to the nylon fibers, they'll wrap up the gar's snout.

 

Two things about using this lure ...

(2) Plan on killing and keeping everything that takes it ... it's almost impossible to get the nylon fibers untangled without doing major damage.

(3) Nylon undulates very well ... this is a good looking lure in the water. Any large predator near will hit this. You don't need a hook on this lure to catch gar, but it will hook the bass, pickerel or pike that hits it. Once in a while, you'll get lucky and only have the fish by the hook. More often, the nylon will be all through the gills of the fish, and there's no way to save it ... you are keeping and eating that one !!!

 

If you are sight fishing gar, and are intending to kill numbers of them, this lure will give you a lot of success. I've done this to places where the gar have seriously over populated a pond or lake.

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

remember when fishing gar you probably wont hook many as their jaws have nothing but bone in them you are better off with the mop head fly without a hook as the hook usually ends up burried in your hand

[troutguy 0]

I always thought that rope trick was like snipe hunting. I never met anyone who really caught one with it, but heard the story a lot. I use circle hooks, saltwater circle heavy duty hooks. An alewife or herring pattern works great.

[mikechell 0]

The rope trick works great. But like I said, only use it if you're planning on killing what you catch.

 

Riffle, the hook is for keeping the bass you kill. I had a 3 or 4 pound bass nail an earlier version I was fishing, one without a hook. All I pulled in was the gills. The rope wrapped up in them and when I tried to pull the fish in, it ran. Ripped the gills right out of it's mouth.

 

I wasn't able to reach it, when it finally surfaced and off it went, floating down the river to some waiting turtle, I suppose.

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

everytime I use one with a hook I end up bleeding and in pain but I can see the advantage on the bass point heck might as well keep dinner

[mikechell 0]

everytime I use one with a hook I end up bleeding and in pain but I can see the advantage on the bass point heck might as well keep dinner

I used to know a guy like that ... but then, he was old and decrepit and ... Oh, wait ...

[firetool 0]

Is it possable to cut the Nylon lose from there mouthes? I dont mind the time it would take. I just hate the idea that what ever I chatch will have to die. I dont mind eating a few but would like the choice. Thanks for the link there Heavynets lots of good pictures there.

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

I know an old guy on pickeral lake near pinkney that uses a leather glove and can remove the mophead fly from the mouth quite fast and releases many gar each time he is out on the water

[mikechell 0]

Anything is possible, and gar can live out of the water for an amazing amount of time. I use leather gloves to handle the occasional gar and bowfin caught on regular gear ... so I am sure that would work. The nylon strands flow in the water, and mat down out of the water, so "untangling" would probably be better if you could hang onto the fish in the water while working on it.

 

With bass, this is not possible. In the water, they are constantly pulling water, and fibers, into their gills. Out of the water, you can't get in there to clear the gills ... so you will be keeping anything that might hit, other than a gar.

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

We catch and release small gar while fishing for baby tarpon way back up inside the brackish to freshwater portions of the Everglades. We use the same small poppers, Crystal Schminnows, and other patterns on #4 or #2 hooks that the baby tarpon are taking. For years and years I thought that these fish weren't catchable on ordinary flies (we're up inside small creeks, less than 30 feet wide with lots and lots of both salt and freshwater fish that are feeding on glass minnows) since the gar (18 to 26") would bite our flies readily but we just weren't hooking them... I finally realized we'd be successful with a very hard short strip strike and now those gar come to the boat, are easily released and back in the water. Here's a pic or two of the baby tarps (to this day I haven't taken the first pic of a gar...).

 

Tight Lines

Bob LeMay

(954) 435-5666

[Guest]

If you want to focus on Gar, go with the rope streamer. At times, we get huge schools of Gar around here and I get to experiement with all kinds of approaches, and the rope streamer actually outfishes live bait in regards to landing numbers of Gar. By the by, although it takes more work than skinning cats, Gar are edible, and not bad tasting!

[firetool 0]

So the safest way to catch gar would be to sight cast to them only to reduce the risk of no targeted species! Are the gar very spooky? Will I need to cast ahead of them and wait?

[Guest]

I'd say that's the most effective way of fishing for them. They can be spooky, but in my experience that is the minority as long as you aren't dropping the fly direct on their head, lol! It could be different in different places, but with the major local species (Longnose Gar-although I am convinced from my catch rate and the sad sight of fish thrown into the weeds that there is a high number of Spotted gar despite their endangered status), putting the fly within 5 feet of them in any direction and then working it "injured minnow" style is good to get their attention.

 

Casting ahead and working is always the default approach for predators (again, in my opinion), so if you're sight fishing a particular fish, go with that until it proves faulty.