so I think I'm in the right section.


Anyway, I'd like to target some gar from the bank in SEtexas.....someone have a recomendation for a tie and some tips on how to get them in/what to look for(honestly this isn't one I'm familiar with....)

never fished se tx

Take a look here: http://www.garfishing.com

You are in the right section. I am not a gar angler, but I am sure the guys who know about it while chime in soon.

I've never fished for gar in the winter

^^ don't know if it will work either


So the GASS article recommends free lining large cutbaits....

Do I need to be looking for a slow moving channel then?

Are you going for gator gar? If so, yes, I would fish large cutbaits in places like rivers.

For longnose or spotted gar, I know a lot of the guys on the forum catch them on the fly and with road runners.

Yeah alligator is my intention.

Like I said, am I looking for low current, or fairly brisk current?

the best way to locate gar is to watch for them surfacing in the heat of summer.im not positive but i'd bet they arent as active this time of the year and will be a little harder to catch. fish a big hunk of cut bait and let the fish take the bait until you are sure they have swallowed it. their mouths are very bony and easy to miss the hook up. i would fish the slower water unless you find a place with alot of bait.

Txaggie,

If you look in the background of my picture you can see that the water is dead calm. The next day the wind was up yet the school had not moved and my friend caught one twice that size.

Where you find the schools is where you should fish. It could be dead calm shallow water where they are trying to stay warm or it could be in the river under current. The whole trick to alligator gar fishing is tracking the migration of the schools.

Parker does bring up a good point. The gator gar at work are sitting on the bottom all day, and most of them haven't eaten in the past month. I'd wait for a little warm stretch and find a school of them.

hey fishlady how are you liking athens?

Hmmm...well, the town is a little slow, but I love the job, so it works out.

hahah. slow to say the least. Its a nice place to take a nap. Or go fishing.

Sounds like my kind of place.

it aint that bad really. i was born and raised here. i lived in the big city for awhile. i'd rather be here.

No, I'm serious. I'd much rather live in a smaller town. I hate traffic and other problems that are inherent to large cities.

I grew up in a small town, and Athens is bigger than that. I definitely don't miss the metromess and all its traffic, but it's tough for me to meet people here. I know the people I work with, and that's about it. So, I've become sort of a homebody, which isn't that bad. All in all, I don't mind Athens, but it's definitely a change from the fast paced life I was living in Ft. Worth.

im a homebody too. all my friends are usually older. we have kids too which keeps me at home. when i fish i usually fish alone. most all of my friends moved away after a couple years at the community college. in the big city you cant have a 3.5 acre yard with chickens

Actually, before I moved out here, I was temporarily staying with my parents on a 40 acre horse ranch. My small apartment is quite the change from that.

what are you doing at the hatchery?

Actually, I take care of all the exhibits.

ALL of them?

If it is in the visitor's center and has fish in it, I take care of it. I don't really have anything to do with the hatchery, unless they need an extra set of hands.

That's alot of stuff. We got lucky and went there when it first opened. My wife and i got to go in the back with the brood tanks and the long troughs. Soon after they blocked it off from the public.