Gar Fishing...

[Master Carper]

I have tried the tail, mouth and eyes but, I have best luck hooking just behind the dorsel fin....

I have found that a real lively minnow or shiner will get bit a lot faster than a slow or dead one will...

The gar in the picture above was FULL of eggs and I guess they are getting ready to start spawning. I know we counted over 60 carp in our gar hole and they had just started their spawn. I'll give them a couple of weeks and then make up some dough bait and see if we can catch some of them....

DAVID

 

[makeithappen]

Going to give the gar, crappie, sand bass, catfish, whatever is biting, a shot this evening...

 

[Master Carper]

Going to give the gar, crappie, sand bass, catfish, whatever is biting, a shot this evening...

Good luck....... We await your fishing report....

 

[makeithappen]

Good luck....... We await your fishing report....

All of 2 catfish. Had 6 poles out and the fish refused to bite. Set out 6 jugs and checked them twice, every 3 hours. Someone made off with 3 of them. Pretty aggravating night, but we'll give it another shot.

 

[Master Carper]

Dang, that many hooks in the water and only "2" catfish, that stinks...

Hopefully the fish will be more cooperative next time....

DAVID

 

[Pulp]

WARNING! If you are a lover of caviar, DO NOT eat the eggs of gar, unless you are suicidal to begin with. The eggs are poisonous.

 

[Master Carper]

WARNING! If you are a lover of caviar, DO NOT eat the eggs of gar, unless you are suicidal to begin with. The eggs are poisonous.

Would not touch gar eggs with a 10 ft. fork....

You can take those gar egg and put them in "panty hose sacks" about the size of a quarter and use them for catfish bait with a circle hook ran through the middle of them...

I hope to go gar fishing with the wife again after eye surgery. Maybe a couple more gar pictures then....

DAVID

 

[ultimatesooner]

I made up a few of the nylon rope gar jigs last night while I was watching the game. Now I just need some time and a place to go do some testing

 

[Master Carper]

I've had several guys e-mail me about making "gar lures" so I decided to post a couple of pictures on my rigging process...

Start with a couple pieces of nylon rope. I cut these to about 6" in length...

Start unraveling the rope till you have about 2" left. This will be part of the "head...

Other equipment needed is a heavy braided line to make a leader out of and to wrap the head. A heavy duty needle comes in handy to thread the line through the middle of the rope. I also use a bell sinker for weight and to anchor the other end of the leader too. this is also the only time I use a barrel swivel...

Thread the line through the needle and push the needle up through the center of the rope. Once done, tie on your bell sinker and pull it up snug in the unwoven part of the rope...

Make half a dozen or so wraps at the bottom of the rope, below the sinker, to keep the rope from becoming further unraveled. Now, finish wrapping the head of the lure (good and tight), then tie it off. I also added a drop of super glue to the knot to make extra sure it is not gonna come unwrapped...

After the lure is complete, take a brush and brush through the strands of rope to "fluff" it out and when your are finished, your new gar lure should look like this...

When a gar strikes this lure, it's teeth will become entangled in the rope and if it has a half way good bite on it, it won't be able to get off until you take it off...

I have been making gar lures this way since the late 70's and make about 10 lures a year. This will last me for a whole fishing season and you know someone will always be curious enough that you have to give one or two away...

Also, I sometimes die the head red and I even go so far as to add a glittery chennile in the middle of all that fuzz to add a bit more attractant to the lure...

I have found one of the best places to fish these gar lures is down below dams that have a good polulation of gar. If you see a gar slowly working his way upstream towards the dam, work your lure in front of it's face and nine times out of ten, it will strike and once it does, hold on! The fun is just beginning....

DAVID

 

[dennishoddy]

Cool! Great job on the gar lures. They look better than the commercial ones I've seen at Grand lake. You should make up a bunch and sell them on consignment at local tackle shops.

Wish I would have had mine at the lake Tuesday. A big school was in a cove chasing shad. Not real big, three or four pounds at the most, but those can be real fun too.