I fly-fished a lake near downtown Des Moines, Iowa, last night. Rumor had it that there’s some gar in there. The rumors were correct.
The gar that I saw were pretty small…12"-20" range. It was late evening, mostly after sunset, when I fished, and the light on the water made it impossible to spot the fish until they broke the surface. So, I couldn’t strategically place flies in front of their path. In short, I didn’t catch any.
The other thing is…I didn’t have any flies tied up for them. There’s supposed to be some kind of rope (?) that you can fray out, and it entangles their teeth, so you can reel them in.
Anybody familiar with this material, or have experience catching gar on fly gear? I sure could use any tips you might have!
Looks like this guy knows what he’s talkin’ about I’d say. Hope this works for you. One thing though…in my google search I learned that if you lose a big gar with a rope fly tangled up in it’s millions of teeth it will starve to death. The solution mentioned was to use a 50lb mono for a leader. I don’t know how much sense that makes but that’s what I noticed in one article about gar on the fly. Go get 'em !
Gar are fun on the fly!!! The hookset is definitely atypical… let it tangle in their teeth and you are golden!
My fly is a Craft Fur Minnow… super tangley for the tangle effect!!! The rope stuff is just cheap nylon rope at Wally World… get white for full minnow effect. I have some camo nylon rope and I can’t seem to find at my house:)
The BIG trick is to keep the fly moving!!! If it stops, they lose interest and turn away… keep it moving, ever so slow and they will swing at it biting it… let em have it for a second or 20 seconds till they are tangled/have a good hold… set the hook/rope material and hold on… Also, if they whip you, their scales are razor blade sharp. I got a good shave!
Also I have fished the Raccoon River Park lakes in SW Des Moines and there are 4-5 foot gar in there. They swim in packs and you can observe them with "polarized’ sunglasses.
Dale Sanders
Ankeny, Iowa
Central iowa Fly Fishers
The Hatches Practical & Artisitic Fly Tying magazine, Al and Gretchin Beatty, http://www.hatchesmagazine.com/ came in the mail today and it has a really good article in it on page 84.
I recently caught my first gar on a fly up in a lake north of Bangkok. I didn’t have a wire leader, though I did have a nice Rio 26 lbs leader tied on. Once I saw that it was a gar, I kinda horsed it in… worried about it cutting the line.
I didn’t weigh it, but it was fairly large, probably around 10 Lbs. I was using a buddy’s 12 wt outfit, so I was able to bring it in fairly quickly.
Now, the hardest fighting fish of the day was a little 4 1/2 Lbs Pacu. I swore I had a monster on the line. I was absolutely shocked when I got my first glimpse if the Pacu. The first run took me well into the backing. I caught a couple of bigger Pacu that day that didn’t fight nearly as hard.
Thanks Dale! Yes, I’ve caught gar there years ago (before I started fly-fishing), but I don’t get over that way enough these days. Now that I’ve got a fishing kayak, I really oughta hit Blue Heron again.
With all the flooding from the river, you never know when the fish will leave the lake, so its good to know they are still in there!
Dave from Thailand, I used to have a Pacu in the aquarium that was about 20" long. Powerful fish…like a giant bluegill on steroids!
I also have a couple of big ones in an aquarium. I feed them meal worms and even though they’re supposed to be seed-eaters, they seem to adapt to eating meat quite easily.
Back to the gar, it really didn’t fight all that hard. I was just pleased to have landed it. I’m originally from Virginia and I never caught an Alligator Gar there… where they’re supposed to be… instead I come all the way over here to catch one! It was pretty cool, but I was extremely cautious with those scary teeth.
A friend of mine and I were wondering where you got the craft fur long enough to make that fly? All we have been able to find is to short for flies like what you have. Also, do you have a recipe for that fly?
My local tying buddies always say, “What happens at the craft stores stays at the craft stores.” I get my craft fur from Hobby Lobby, Michael’s, etc… You get a REAL large square and the fur is long. Great for rabbit pelts too:)
:lol:
It was pretty cool, but I was extremely cautious with those scary teeth.
I get my craft fur from Hobby Lobby, Michael’s, etc… You get a REAL large square and the fur is long. Great for rabbit pelts too:)