Flyfishing for Gar

[Mergie Master]

Anyone done this, just for the excitement of the fight and the practice of course.

I haven't tried it on the flyrod but have been told it's fun. But I have used spinning tackle to catch gar in the Saluda between Lake Greenwood and Ware Shoals with this technique.

Unless you bust a rod the tackle is very inexpensive. Just cut 3-4" strips (tubes) from a pair of panty hose and lightly spray paint them silver. Just enough paint to make them shine but not make them stiff.

Cast in front of the gar (sight fishing) and strip the line real fast. The gar will give chase and strike the "fly" (panty hose) which will tangle up in it's teeth and the fight is on!

Carry a sharp knife or scissors to cut the panty hose out of it's teeth. No need to let it die from the tangle.

Using spinning tackle we put a piece of egg lead in the strip of panty hose and tied it off with the line. Creating a sort of "head" to the lure and giving it enough weight to cast.

Again this is not meat fishing, it's just to practice casting and fighting the fish. it's all for fun, sort of like fly fishing for carp, for which I was at first admonished here until someone else tried it!

[JBH III]

I haven't done it, but I was doing some research on it last summer. I found some website with some pretty nice gar caught on the fly. They were using a ball of red yarn on the leader. I bet it would be a pretty good fight on a fly rod.

[Countrygirl]

Will you release them? Or is your skin darker than mine?

[deep]

I used to do this in the savannah river waiting until dark to start bowfishing, I would comb out white nylon anchor rope into a fine bushy strand, and tie it to a 1/0 hook, then finish the head heavily in epoxy, the gar were not often hooked but teeth would tangle in the rope, I also caught quite a few bass and even a striper doing this..

[turk]

Yall may laugh, but if you can get the skin off the damn things a gar is actually a good eating fish. The first time I tried it my buddy cooked it on the grill i was very surprised at how good it was.

[Mergie Master]

Poor man's salmon fishing!! [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

I used to snatch below Buzzard's Roost and I'd give the gar to the [img]graemlins/afro.gif[/img] bream fishermen there. They'd hang'em up in a tree and take sticks and beat the hell out of them. Said they did that to break the skin loose from the meat so they could skin'em.

[Swamp Rat]

I probably shouldn't admit this, but why not...

When I killed gar with my bow, I'd sometimes take them and poke some holes in the lower body.

Then hang it in a tree over a couple of feet of water.

The flies would lay eggs in the holes, maggots would commence, and, as they fell in the water, attract bream....

Just don't do this by someone's dock.

As for catching them on a rod, I had good success with Rapala's, but they were hard to hook. I had heard of the rope trick, but never tried it. Most I caught on small bream. You had to let them run with it a while.

I have heard the meat is actually VERY good. White and firm. The roe, however, is poisonous.

[Mergie Master]

That'll work with the maggots!

I've seen people put old bicycle baskets, the kind that go on the handlebars, on posts in their ponds and throw their bream head, catfish head & guts, etc in the baskets. The maggots will build up and fall through the basket into the water for the bream. Makes a good bream honeyhole!!!

As for killing gar, I've never agreed with this, but I've seen people put a stick upright in their bill. They can't breath and will swim around with their head out of the water until they finally expire. Another technique I've seen that was even worse was to break the top bill off. They starve to death because they can't catch prey.

That's just wrong! If you are gonna kill'em, just kill'em and be done with it, don't torture them.

[murraywader]

I totally agreed with killing gar until I caught my first one on a fly, there is no such thing as a trash fish-there all fun

[deep]

This is the site where I found out about the gar fly.

Gar Fly

[Mergie Master]

Cool site!! Thanks!

[BOGSTER]

Gar??
thats a freshwater billfish boys!
i haven't much use for them but it seems the fly world doesn't discriminate against much.
I hear you on the carp though Merg.
i have just recenlty started and have only hooked 5 fish, but man those things are bulls!
they are freshwater redfish.

[Swamp Rat]

I used to make carp dough balls out of flour (or Bisquik) and cheese. Work it into a cotton ball and fish it on the bottom of deep holes in a creek near Forest Acres. If I didn't have cheese, I'd steal my dad's Cheezits and grind them up.

They fight like bulls, sure 'nuff.

[murraywader]

any fly with a beaded head will work, let it sink, short strips to sling some dirt up, and they'll charge it