Have you seen a 5-foot gar tail walk across the water? Like something you’d see a Marlin do on a Sunday morning fishing show. I bet you haven’t. But you have seen gar while fly fishing.
Gar are in most US waterways. Finding gar is not hard, but finding large gar and getting them to take a fly is a different story.
I have a fail-proof strategy for finding large gar and enticing a bite. Keep reading if you’re interested in catching large gar on a fly.
Finding Large Gar
Your best chance of seeing, casting to, and hooking large gar is when they spawn. As water temperatures reach 68 degrees Fahrenheit, gar moves upstream in search of shallow waters to spawn. Sometimes you can find them in water with their backs exposed.
Shallow water makes spotting large gar easy and oftentimes from a distance. With this added visibility and an increase in the number of gar you’ll have several opportunities to plan out your approach.
Teasing the Bite
The only caveat is spawning gar have one thing in mind, spawning. Eating is not a priority at the moment. Yet, that does not mean they will refuse an opportunistic meal or cannot be teased into eating.
You’ll need to make them bite. Some suggest a frayed piece of rope. That is a poor choice as it tangles in the gar’s mouth and will kill the fish if you break off.
My favorite fly pattern is a seducer on a 1/0 saltwater hook. Red and white works well and so do chartreuse. Of course, other fly patterns will work. Use flies with lots of movement (i.e., long hackles, bunny strips) in bright colors.
You’ll also need to bring a hook sharpener as the gar’s nose is boney. The hook will need to be sharpened after a couple of successful or failed hookups.
This leads me to my next point. A raise of the rod tip like what you do when fly fishing for trout will not be enough to hook a gar. You’ll need to adopt a strip strike which is popular in saltwater fly fishing. A strong strip strike will sink the 1/0 saltwater hook into the gar’s bony mouth.
Fighting and Landing Gar
When gar takes to the air, it’s breathtaking. Most of the time they explode out of the water and tail walk away when hooked. It may be called a tail walk but it’s more like a run as they can take you into your backing within seconds. Especially if there is any current and they take off downstream which often they do.
Landing a large gar is difficult. They are built like a tank with seemingly impenetrable scales. Of course, you can not lip gar like you would a bass or grab their gill plate.
The gar we’re after is too big to fit in a normal fishing net (unless you have a pike/musky net).
The easiest way to land gar is to either grab their tail and lift it out of the water. Also, a lasso may come in handy if you’re unable to grab the gar by the tail. A simple lasso can be tied with one hand from a shoelace or small piece of rope while fighting the gar.
Good luck with your gar outing.
