Flies for gar

[michos 0]

Anyone have a favorite that's proven to catch gar? We sure do have a lot of them here on the lower Colorado...and while we are at it, we have TONS of carp as well. Ive heard of people fly fishing for carp and have seen some of the carp flies but have never actually seen anyone catch one. Does anyone here have experience actually catching carp on flies? The last time I was out fishing we had a huge school of them come hang out underneath our boat. We dangled a carp fly among the bunch but they paid no attention...though it was mid day and they seem to be far more active in the late evening/night.

[ChromeAddict 0]

Brown buggers work well for carp. Use a soft webby hackle and wrap it densely, make the tail a bit shorter and dub a body instead of using chenille. It makes a pretty good looking fly. I haven't fly fished for gar yet, but I really want to.

[michos 0]

A friend of mine who says he catches gar just directed me to this video -

 

looks convincing. Im going to give it a shot.

[Mike West 0]

Gar...anything white stripped fast. Down here lots of folks use the nylon from the center of clothes line...no hook the teeth get caught up in in it.

[Gene L 0]

Several years back, a lure was made from nylon rope un-twisted and trailing the head. Supposedly, the strands got caught in the gar's teeth. I have no idea if these worked or not...no hoook at all. I haven't seen these in years.

[mikechell 0]

Seconding and thirding Mike and Gene.

I used to fish for Gar in Indiana and North Carolina ... haven't done much here in Florida. I had a friend in both the aforementioned places that would run the meat through a grinder and make fish cakes from Gar. It was pretty good.

6 inches of good quality nylon rope. Using super glue and thread, tie and glue one end of the rope to a large jig head.

Then "unbraid" and comb out the strands. What you'll have is a very good looking lure. It undulates nicely through the water. You could probably comb out the rope and use half or a third for one fly, to make flies.

 

I strongly recommend using this type of lure only when sight casting to gar. The strands will snarl the gar snout/teeth and you don't need to set a hook. But if a bass inhales it, the strands can get snarled in the gills. You'll be keeping that bass, since you'll have to destroy the gills to get the bass off the lure.

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

We do well with gar way up inside backcountry creeks where there are also small tarpon.... We use the same flies that the baby tarpon eat - mostly small poppers and Crystal Schminnows on size #4 up to around #! (the larger hooks are on the poppers, the smaller ones are the Schminnows..). Here's a pic or two. The areas we're fishing are in freshwater up above where it's still brackish -this is a winter-time fishery and the gar are on the small side (nothing bigger than three feet- mostly in the 20 - 30" size range. Where we're fishing the water is almost black -but very clear (and comes with the occasional snook as well as tarpon....).

 

Here's the only difficult part... a gar's mouth is mostly bone and it's very difficult to hook one -until you learn to strip strike really quick and hard, then you'll hook your share (provided you've sharpened your hooks until theyr'e razor sharp). Hope this helps - here's those pics...

[islander727 0]

The gar in my area take almost anything stripped past their nose. I mostly fish #10 olive krystal buggers with a bead head. If you can see them, try a streamer and I bet a buck they'll take it!