Fishing for Gar, some people ask how do you catch a
Gar? Well it’s rather simple if you have the right equipment and can time
the hook set right. Below I will tell you one way on how it’s done.
My current
setup:
Reel:
Shimano Sahara
Rod:
Shimano Compre
Line:
Berkley Trilene 12lb Test
Bait:
Bluegill
Location:
Anywhere you see Gar. My experiences come from 12 Mile Creek which flows
into the Ohio River.
Precautions:
Gar are wild and muscular fish. Be very careful when handling Gar. Ever held
a larger snake, you know how it can wiggle its way out of anything, well a
Gar can muscle its way from your grip and turn its head around and plant
some of its teeth in you and mind you, their teeth are like needles. I
remember one time after my picture was taken, I tossed the Gar back in the
creek, well as I was letting him go and came back around so fast the his
teeth grazed the palm of my hand and you could see little teeth marks going
across my hand. There was no blood but imagine taking a dull butter knife,
you know it only brings up the first layer of skin, etc, well that’s what
this looked like. Just imagine how close I was to havingsome of his teeth in my hand.
Bait Setup: We will be using just a single hook,
no weight, with a small chunk of Bluegill covering the entire hook. With the
size variety in this creek being wide open, it’s important to use smaller
pieces if you want to catch a lot of Gar.
Presentation:
This is about the easiest part of fishing for Gar. These fish come up
every so often because they need air, especially when the water is low in
oxygen. I’ve timed Gar anywhere from 1 minute to 7 minutes before seeing one
again. With your bait ready, as soon as you see one, pitch it to him. Most
of the time he will smash it. What can really help you right now are some
fishing glasses. You can see right thru the water and see what’s going on
down there. If you are not seeing any Gar but know for a fact they are
there, cast upstream if the creek is moving and let the bait drift down. A
Gar or Cat should pick it up at some point.
Hook Set:
We go from easiest to the hardest in one jump here. A Gar’s mouth is nothing
but bone and teeth, except for the snout and the beginning of their gullet.
This is important, make sure your shades are on if you have them that is. If
I know it’s a small Gar I usually give it about 30 seconds or so for it to
work the bait down its jaws to his mouth. If you can’t see the fish and
where the bait is at in its mouth then it’s hard to determine when you
should set the hook. This is why I time it, usually
it works, I give it about a 70/30
ratio with 70% of the time I actually get the fish in. But if you have them
shades on, you can get a hook set faster. I learned how Gar eat by having
one in my aquarium. I’d feed him Goldfish and watched how he worked it down,
it was pretty neat. Larger gar are
easier to hook as they tend to inhale the bait much sooner than the smaller
ones.
The Fight:
This is the exciting part. Gar are like Smallies with teeth, very acrobatic,
jumping all over the place, making bulldog runs and then shooting up out of
the water, then back down, and then sometimes you will have one that “Walks”
the water, much like how a Marlin fights. A lot of Gar will hand you your
hooks back as well during this time so make sure that you have a tight line
at all times. Remember, you may not always be in their mouth, you might
actually penetrate the boney mouth only to have the tip of your hook inside.
Don’t be surprised if your line is cut in half by their teeth as well, it
will happen at one time or another. Gar tend to “Roll” in the water as well,
wrapping the line around the snout which will either tangle them up worse or
break the line. Usually I just pull them up on the back but if it’s over
8lbs I use a net.
Weighing:
If you need to weigh your Gar, weigh it in the net. This is by far the
safest and easiest way to do so unless you kill it. Measuring can be tough
too. Make sure you keep your hand away from the business part of the Gar, I
don’t need to tell you what happens do I?
Well this is how it’s done
and if anyone has any questions you can contact me via the Contact Page
