Trash fish control

The issue of gars keeps popping up. These "teeth with a tail" predators no doubt scoop up staggering numbers of panfish. Other than "ugliest fish" contests, citation weigh-ins, and mounting (reserved only for the biggest of the big), I've never heard of any use for gars. Consequently, they're rarely landed & even more rarely kept. Since they travel in schools including 3 and 4-footers, small gars are shielded from other predators. Effectively, gars are subject to no natural predator and are fished very very lightly.

In my efforts to foster healthy environments for crappies, I am no longer gar-tolerant. When I hook one, I try to land it. All gars landed are subsequently removed from the body of water and placed where they will feed the buzzard population.

Yesterday, several gars hit my minnows and were hooked briefly before breaking off or straightening the hook. If (like yesterday) the speck fishing is off & I wanted to hook and land gars, 8# line and soft wire # 2 Aberdeen hooks need to be replaced--but what would work best? I'm thinking treble hooks of some type, anyone had experience with this? Will gars go after crank baits? Other suggestions?

Okay, I'm gonna ask the question.....has anyone on c.c ever tried GAR.

Heres my thoughts, they have teeth (many I might ad :D) therefore they eat meat, they are a predator.
I have always figured they look to prehistoric to eat....but i'm starting to feel daring, and may try the next one I land.... OK WHO'S WITH ME!!! :D :D

Come get them at Western Branch. Every speck you see is a gar.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-...S00521copy.gif

I would foul hook these things there are so many of them.

Tap- I told you what to do. It's simple--half a stick of dynamite & a brick--scoop them up with a (big) net. :D

Corker, use a whole bream fished on the bottom. with a 7/O hook with steel leader and an egg sinker. When they pick it up and start running let it go and go and go. Then set the hook with all you got(we usually stand up for this). even then we only caugth 25% on the fish that bit. I have seen them at the Pony pasture pick up bream off the bottom and hold them in their mouth sideways, then after swimming a ways flip it 90 degrees and swallow it head first.

I think a gar would make a pretty cool stuffed fish. I'd like one on my office wall. I think I've given up on a large crappie.

Here's a few posts that might help you out in your endeavor...

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/louis...u-08-05-a.html

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/170196-post2.html

And you can eat them, just check out the cooking forum for the gar thread...have fun with 'em

i may be able to make you a good deal on one.:D

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Originally Posted by wasabi

I think a gar would make a pretty cool stuffed fish. I'd like one on my office wall. I think I've given up on a large crappie.

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Corker,

You need to adapt. Diascund is a dead lake as far as crappie are concerned. Time to work on your master gar angler award.

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Originally Posted by wasabi

Time to work on your master gar angler award.

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Ooooooooooooh..................you've let the cat out of the bag! :mad::mad::mad: Now everyone will want to target New Kent billfish.

I have seen a fishing show on TV that they cut the meat off of a gar just like cutting the tenderloin off of a deer. A lot of people say that it is delicious. Stay away from the eggs because they are poisonous.
Blake

Rope lures WORKS! Take a 6" pc. of nylon rope. Frazzle one end about two-thirds way up the short rope and brush it out until it becomes really kinky. Use a small bullet weight in front of the rope tied to your fishing line and work it like a bass lure. Trick is....when the gar hits DO NOT set it like you would on a bass. Rather give it line and let the gar get a good mouth full of the frazzled rope and then he WONT come off. I've fished for 'em a few times during the summer months when everything else is dead and it's alot of fun on med. light action gear. Carry along a pair of leather gloves and you can untangle the rope lure fron the gar's teeth. Once you catch a couple fairly big gar you'll find out how hard they pull. If you can take the summer heat fishing for them you'll find it's pretty fun.;)

I would use a #4 wire leader hook they use for blue fish great holding hooks

AND, get a gaff, do not use your net less you need a new one. I am gaffing all predator fish, grinnel and gar! and then releasing.

Looks like pattern that is repeated in nature, lots of rabbits then lots of foxes then lots of rabbits. Seems like them same goes with little fishes.

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Originally Posted by gabowman

Rope lures WORKS! Take a 6" pc. of nylon rope. Frazzle one end about two-thirds way up the short rope and brush it out until it becomes really kinky. Use a small bullet weight in front of the rope tied to your fishing line and work it like a bass lure. Trick is....when the gar hits DO NOT set it like you would on a bass. Rather give it line and let the gar get a good mouth full of the frazzled rope and then he WONT come off. I've fished for 'em a few times during the summer months when everything else is dead and it's alot of fun on med. light action gear. Carry along a pair of leather gloves and you can untangle the rope lure fron the gar's teeth. Once you catch a couple fairly big gar you'll find out how hard they pull. If you can take the summer heat fishing for them you'll find it's pretty fun.;)

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Sounds like that would be an interesting technique to try!!! :D:D:D
Blake

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Originally Posted by gabowman

Rope lures WORKS! Take a 6" pc. of nylon rope. Frazzle one end about two-thirds way up the short rope and brush it out until it becomes really kinky. Use a small bullet weight in front of the rope tied to your fishing line and work it like a bass lure. Trick is....when the gar hits DO NOT set it like you would on a bass. Rather give it line and let the gar get a good mouth full of the frazzled rope and then he WONT come off. I've fished for 'em a few times during the summer months when everything else is dead and it's alot of fun on med. light action gear. Carry along a pair of leather gloves and you can untangle the rope lure fron the gar's teeth. Once you catch a couple fairly big gar you'll find out how hard they pull. If you can take the summer heat fishing for them you'll find it's pretty fun.;)

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Dagonnit Gabowman, that was gonna be my post. lol
They had an article in In-Fisherman a long time ago on gar fishing. They had a diagram of a hook with a noose like contraption. A snare I guess you'd say,
and also the nylon rope trick. They showed a spinnerbait, like one for bass, with the skirt replaced with a length of frazzled rope. We tried it, and it works, but like you said, then you have to untangle a toothy fish.

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Originally Posted by ShellQuacker

Dagonnit Gabowman, that was gonna be my post. lol
They had an article in In-Fisherman a long time ago on gar fishing. They had a diagram of a hook with a noose like contraption. A snare I guess you'd say,
and also the nylon rope trick. They showed a spinnerbait, like one for bass, with the skirt replaced with a length of frazzled rope. We tried it, and it works, but like you said, then you have to untangle a toothy fish.

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(Its called a mop rig) I catch them right at sun up on the mattoponi mid to late may after all night catfishing with bream,,,you can see them chattering their teeth at the surface ,,,kinda groosum looking ,,,what I do is remove the bream heads and fish with them and you can tell when it them cause they surface unlike a cat when near the boat I use a rag and grab their motor (tail) and wrap my line around their snoot using the rod of course go round and round then lif5t them to the live well and cut the line,,,,

It takes two to clean the shell like scales seem to wrap back around the fish so one hold the scales back and the other filet it free,,,when done there are two long tenderloins of meat, the scaled shell resemble catchers shin guards.
I keep everyone I catch and give them to this indian down the road and he swears by them tells me his ancestors considered them luck and used their beaks for combs...

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Originally Posted by slabenomics

(Its called a mop rig)what I do is remove the bream heads and fish with them and you can tell when it them cause they surface unlike a cat when near the boat I use a rag and grab their motor (tail) and wrap my line around their snoot using the rod of course go round and round then lif5t them to the live well and cut the line,,,,

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That is how I would do it... take a lot of rigs and just get them back once that toothy rascal quits snapping!!!:D:D:D
Blake

I fished for gar in Texas because the river had millions of them. The rope technic is by far the best. Their teeth get caught up in the nylon. I used an old top water bait and put the nylon rope on instead of the back hook. It worked great.

I have an idea we could have Gar Bash.

I have tried Gar and they are not bad, so people like them. I just like alot of other fish better. You have to fillet them a little different. The best way is similar to filleting them like a northern.

They make really good fertilizer.

I fish for anything once fished with the tidy bowl man in the plumbers international tourney of champs ...and with a tampon applicator caught a prize snapper:eek::eek::eek::eek:

Everything you wanted to ask, but afraid to..............

http://garfishing.com/

Mainly lurk here for the good info......but this post caught my attention!

Corker if you want to catch a big gar wait till they start breaking the surface...they will come up for air and will also feed. At that point put a small bream on a 36" steel leader with a bobber about 6' foot up from the bream and wait for the bobber to move. As said earlier let them take it...when you think that the gar doesn't have the bait anymore wait a couple more minutes, then set the hook and hold on! This method has worked for me when catching them...some of the biggest gar (40" plus) I have caught has come from the James river...from Browns island downtown to Maidens upriver. I have seen them down at Diascund but only caught smaller ones
(20'' or so). If you want to have some fun use the rope method on a 6 or 7 weight fly rod...definetly fun. One more tip is to carry a piece of broomstick about 18" or so...when you catch one stick it down thier snout....they will bite down on it and you can hold them by the end of the broomstick so you can take your hook or lure out without loosing a finger!!!

Any more questions just PM me!

i bowfish for them in the summer in the rivers. man o man that is sum fun thier. and take them to a friend and he cooks them up. and they are really good.

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Originally Posted by speck commander

I have seen them down at Diascund but only caught smaller ones (20'' or so).

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I've caught several 24 to 36-inchers out of there, but this one Doodlum caught in March is the biggest one I've landed (just short of 48".) We caught 4 that day and could have loaded the boat if we'd had the time & interest.

That's a nice citation gar! Let me know if you want to decimate the gar population down there.

Believe it or not, I actually have a small tackle box full of gar fishing rope lures, garlic scents, dyes, treble hooks, etc.:D My best luck has been on the rope lures which I spray painted about an inch of the 'head' of the lure bright red. Gar fishing with light/med. action gear is fun when nothing else is biting and youre see'n plenty of gar. I pretty much stopped bow fishing for 'em once I found out how much fight a gar has on the end of a fishing rod.;) I dont kill 'em anymore since I found out what they are good for........CATCHING!!:p:)

Gar, pickerel, bass, and catfish (at least a couple of species but not all four) are needed to control the population of the panfish. Otherwise, all we would catch is 100s of 8"ers.

It is up to the VDGIF to determine the correct bio-mass and control that bio-mass through stocking to keep a lake in good balance.

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Originally Posted by PanMan_VA

Otherwise, all we would catch is 100s of 8'ers.

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Heck yeah, I haven't caught an 8 footer yet!

I would probably not throw them up on the bank. It might be a waste of some pretty good meat. Take a look at this link. It seems fairly easy to prepare them for eating. I have never caught a gar but if I did I wouldn't be afraid to try it. I love catfish and gar couldn't have any worse eating habits than they do.
Gar Recipes

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Originally Posted by mttomb

I would probably not throw them up on the bank. It might be a waste of some pretty good meat. Take a look at this link. It seems fairly easy to prepare them for eating. I have never caught a gar but if I did I wouldn't be afraid to try it. I love catfish and gar couldn't have any worse eating habits than they do.
Gar Recipes

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Only problem is it'll take a chain saw to skin 'em....practically. Once you catch one and see....you'll about believe it too.;)

the creek by naylors beach on the rappahannock river has some serious gar in it ,,,met up with a guy there once that fishes them alot ,,,ol'e boy had all kinds of scars he showed us that day from them .........to each his own ...I know when they start surfacing in the mattaponi up near walkerton cats stop biting ..... just watching them chatter their teeth and thump their tales is pretty awsome site......I run the mattaponi over the years from walkerton to west point and found them to be bout 2 to 6 miles down from walkerton the thickest for some reason .....thats what I know on that ....keep us posted ....be careful and good luck to YA...