Tips on Feeding Gar?
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Hey guys –
Found some gar I want to catch. I have a few rope flies tied up per Kent Edmonds’ excellent instructions. My question now is, how to feed these guys. I know they kind of prefer a sneak attack. Any gar specialists here?
Zach
They can be finicky and hard to predict. My best success comes on a slow, stop-start retrieve with the fish often eating on the stop. I tie my flies with quite a bit of weight (lead tape wrapped around the “non-shank”). This actually makes them easier to cast, and lets the fly sink fairly quickly on a stop. The takes are very quick and hook-ups will be much more likely if you don’t have the line clamped down – I put little if any pressure on my line-holding finger of my rod hand and keep a very loose grip with my stripping hand (always ready to give line). If there is not some give when the gar swipes the fly, the fibers are apt not to sick enough to tangle.
When the fish are doing those air-gulping porpoise rises, I try to quickly throw leading them a little and just let the fly sink, then follow with very light, quick, short strips with a lot of stops in between. Takes can be on the strip or on the stop. The tough part is to make your strips with the lightest of grips – if you have a tight hold on the line with your stripping fingers and the gar eats on the strip, it can pull out of his mouth almost without you feeling anything.
Maybe the hardest situation is when the fish are in clear shallow water and you get follows which you can see. Standard advice with most species is don’t stop the retrieve, but it works both ways for me. Sometimes if you continue the steady retrieve, they’ll follow right to your feet and then turn away. Probably my best results in this scenario come with a quick short acceleration when the fish turns on the fly, followed by a stop, then slow bumpy strips. But sometimes they want it otherwise. Luckily they seldom actually spook (why would they be scared of us?), but rather just lose interest. I’d say you just kinda’ have to read their body language and adjust.
Also bear in mind that gar tend to strike from the side – they come up alongside the prey and side-swipe – their teeth function much better this way to capture and hold the prey. So sometimes with a following fish, right at the moment he comes directly behind the fly, I’ll stop my retrieve to let him get alongside.
If you get fish laid up near the surface, then I try an intersecting retrieve much like with tarpon. The difference is that the intersection point is very near the gar. Those laid-up fish are posing as logs I think, and waiting for bait to come in range.
I also like my flies tied very full – more fiber equals better “hook-ups”.
Kent - FlyFishGA
Great advice Kent!
I only sight fish for these in clear water. Definitely a fish you need to read the body language of and get the fly close. My preferred method is to find those laid up or gulping fish then cast such that you retrieve the fly perpendicular to the fish. I like to pause and let the fly drop right in their face and that’s when they take (I have no weight so the fly sinks slowly – about 1ips – and so I can cast a fly on a 5wt). The pause in their face is ot what you do for most fish, but as Kent said, these guys lay up waiting for the ambush.
I like the look of that fly you tied. I’d fray the rope a little more so you get a better tangle.
Also, be sure to take some needle nose pliers to get the rope out. It can get tangled and trap the fish’s mouth shut so you want to be sure to remove it (at the same time, watching the teach, which are sharp, but more needle than saw blade).
Best,
JasonWhere can I get a recipe for those flies? Gar is one thing we have so in bulk around here.
When the going gets tough, the tough go fishing.
Great thread! Scouted some carp flats this week on the Tennessee river and gar were everywhere. And I mean everywhere.
We wound up getting a little snakebit when we went after these on Saturday — first my motor had trouble (one of the spark plugs had died, an easy fix, but it took a lot of messing with it to diagnose the issue), and as a result of our motor troubles we got beat to the spot by a bow fishing boat! They were out there skewering fish left and right, no doubt to throw them out on the bank. That mentality seriously sucks.
So, apologies to Scott Kitchens for dragging him along on such a busted trip. I’m going to try to get back there this week now that I’ve repaired my motor and see if there are any fish left after the Battle of the Little Bighorn…
They are fairly easy to catch on the Potomac once the spawn is done and they have split up from their mating pairs. I target them on the Occoquan river from a boat. I use a Clouser made from Widow’s Web on a 1/0 Mustad hook. They bite the fly horizontally and when they try to move it to swallow it gets all tangled in their teeth. I use a fly with a hook as other fish will eat the fly. We were filming for Urban Lines a few years ago and had something eat the fly and start to drag the boat.
I use dumbell eyes in either lead for the deeper fish and #10 beadchain for those below the surface. They are really easy to catch, I compare them to bluegill. Just a 30′ cast and start stripping. We usually loose 1/4 of them.
Of course when I landed one the film crew wasn’t filming at the time and it didn’t’ make the movie.
There’s a lot of good information already written.
The only thing that I would maybe add is to maybe bulk up the ‘body’ portion of the fly.
I’ve had better luck using two different lengths of rope. I’d use a lot of shorter rope fibers closer to the head.
Then I’d tied on more fibers that cover the outside of the previous fibers and extend beyond them.
That gives it a bit more of a bait fish profile. I think it sometimes helps when the gar are being a little shy or picky.I hear gar actually taste pretty good, just boney.
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