FS Digest

I know gar lures like to use frayed nylon, so I made some on my own and had 0 hits. I have a stretch of river literally choc full of these gar and they are huge. They only few I've brought in I used a 8/0 circle hook (was hoping for cats) and had to let them take enough line to have time enough to swallow the bait. The problem with that is I don't want to gut hook every single one. I tried some frayed nylon on a hook with bait, and no hits. I tried smaller circle hooks and I tried treble hooks, but still having a lousy hook rate. I can manage to get them right up to the dock, but they always manage to get off just at the last second.

So, what is a good hook type that would help bring up the consistency of catching these guys?

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by Skellephant

FS Digest

My only luck has been with big circle hooks as well, hope someone here has a better less gut hooky idea

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by big_red_13

FS Digest

Last one I caught was using a long shank light wire hook fishing for crappie... I was fishing catch and release so I went with the longer shank to make release safer and easier... I think the lighter wire hook just found purchase in the right spot. Definitely a net required approach though or the hook is likely to straighten.

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by aRushinTroll

FS Digest

The ones Ive been catching are all over 40", so my nets not big enough. I get em in to the wasit deep water and jump in and grab em. I havent a long shank, but its always worth an excuse to go fishing.

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by Skellephant

FS Digest

Have you tried feeding a leader through the rope then putting a hook with some bait on the end? They'd be a lot more likely to hit bait than a plain rope. The strands are just there to snare the teeth.

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by ambiguousexualcoment

FS Digest

Yeah, my usual set up is a sliding weight on the main line, a stopper, then a wire leader with a big circle hook. I tried the nylon frays on a hook with the bait and there was simply no bites. Likely it looked pretty unnatural.

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by Skellephant

Jim Kay Loc: Franklin, Virginia

It is not worth the aggravation o pursue them. If you want a real fight fish for bowfin.

NoNickname

Use a regular hook with a minnow hooked through the lips, and hook a piece of crew sock on after the minnow. Gar will take the minner and get his teeth hung in the rag.

Tsteamman

This goes back many years, but while in school in South Carolina, we used to wrap a piece of liver in aluminum screen and tie it on. Gar in rivers in that area were top-feeders, so it was rather simple to reel them in while their teeth were meshed in the screen---