Went out there today and got my first gar ever.3 and a half footer on a rooster tail. It was by accident!.Man those are scary looking fellas. I saw alot of fish jumping maybe carp ,not sure.Anybody ever fish this area? There is a doubletree and i2 business there also. This part of trinity is really wide.Couldnt stay long but will go back soon.
Chheers

You need to ask Rudy(lovefldex) about that area...he is the local expert.

Looks like a super place to fish

I have caught some massive gar out there, a nice flathead to

I heard and saw some loud splashes. One scared the heck out of some type of bird right next to the bank. The heron? was looking for a meal next to the water and splash. Right next to him. The bird started squaking for 5 minutes. I think it scared the pi$$ out of him.

I have seen several people fishing in the area as well.must be a really good place to fish.

did you drive or walk back in there?
I have been there once and walked fron luna rd.

i went there today after i dropped my GF off at teh airport.... i saw over 30 gar hitting stuff off the surface, and along the bank every 5 yards or so was a carp feeding... i was only there for about ten minutes and was just fishing the submerged timber areas with a Senko... no hits at all, i didnt see any bass, bluegill, or brim... just a lot of carps and gar

i parked in the Haggar Corporate offices parkinglot way on teh left side from Luna Rd. the lot i parked in was empty, then i walked down to the water

Wow. Sounds like an interesting place. So this is a river, part of the Trinity? Gar are fun to catch lol, but it's all the carp that have my attention. Don't suppose anyone knows if they have any size? 10-20 lbs or larger would be good, if there was a big population of them.

park at haggar like other guy said. Grass is cut and everything.Be sure and pick up all trash. It looks like great place.
http://dfwmaps.com/index.asp?extentleft=...03=&Request s=on&selectpt.x=&selectpt.y=&selectpt.stat=&idCmd=&identify=&mo=1&buffer=&msize=large&AF=&mapTheme=dfwmaps&mapOption=Regional_Features&ortho03=&contour01=&Zoomby=7

Starless, there was a carp or 3 every couple of yards along the shore, so there is a big population of them... im not sure what the size to weight comparison is, they looked to be like 5-10lbs, im sure there are much larger ones, they scared pretty easily though and they were eating algae off the rocks, the only cap i saw were a few big ones breaking the surface 20-30 ft out and smaller ones next to shore

all the gar i saw were not too large, probably 2-3 ft long, pretty cool looking up close, i have never fished for gar before so i'm gonna research good baits, etc and head back down there sometime

Bj - Cool, thanks for the update. I may have to try and meet you out there some time. Gar are really cool I think, I've only caught them incidentally, never gone out just for the sake of catching gar. 5-10 pound carp aren't something I'd go out of my way for, I get plenty of those at Grapevine lol. But that's still a great fight, and if there are that many in there I'd definitely be interested, especially if I might be able to round up some bigger fish. You oughta try and get some of those carp, great fun, even more so on light gear.

the east branch of park west pond comes down from Farmers branch and if you look east of the Dbl Tree 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile there are two more ponds to off road to from the large dirt piles off luna north of royal ln

I was there today throwing everything I had em with no luck, but saw probably 30 or so gar hitting the surface...if any of you guys have any experience there let me know what to use...

Icaught a 4ft gar with a chartruse sassy shad 2 1/2 inches long,,, a foot to 15 " below bobber thrown ahead of where I thought the fish would surface again ...they were swimming up river ,,on my bass rod ,hooked the alligator type gar in the corner of the mouth , and the fight was on!

Whoever posted this place to begin with thnkyou so much!! I spent all monday out there WOW what a nice place. I fished a Bluegill with a 1/0 treble below a huge float! Gar Gar Gar!! To thoes who may be interested in catching them they are so much fun. I've tryed many diffrent ways the catch them but the best is to let the fish take the bait as far as they want. Untill they stop (you need to alow them time to move the fish to the back of there mouth)Once the gar start moveing again set the hook (not to hard) using a long sweep. Happy Fishing This is by far the nicest spot i've found. Please pick up after your done. Good luck to all thoes Gar Fishermen!

Hey does anyone know if there are any BIG GAR in here?? Alligator? All I caught were short nose. When the sun started to set I thought to saw some BIG ones but i'm not shure?

Catching Gar is only half the battle.

I was out there last night after work and caught a nice 2.5 lb bass. it was to dark to see much but I think it was gar hitting the top. I will find out tonight after work. A buddy is coming along with his fly rod so we shall see what is hitting the top.


Jerome

I was out there all last weekend and monday night. I saw many gar hitting the surface all day and after dark. Also saw some carp hitting the top and jumping all the way out of the water. To james5404 I love gar fishing and would rater eat a bluegill filet or fried catfish.I think gar should be considered as a sport fish and treated like one to. They are by far the biggest and best fighting fish in Texas!

I am going to try this place out. Where is the best place to fish. From the map it looks plenty of bank but has anyone had any success in a particular spot they would like share.

I have never fished for gar, anything I should know and any tips are greatly appreciated (IE, Bait etc).

some people say use a rag or something and teeth get caught in rag. Maybe someone knows this method?

Ya, I had very good success right in front of Hager. As for gar look and watch on top. They follow the baitfish. If you want to catch a lot of small gar take anything like a crank bait or spoon remove the hooks and tie some nylon rope on the end. Their teeth get all caught up in the rope. I always use the method I talked about earlier because the nylon wont catch the really big alligator gar, their teeth are to big. If anyone wants someone to fish with, my girlfriend and I will be out there on the south side later tonight. Good luck!! Once you catch one youll be hooked for life. Gar fishing is so much fun its like no other fish!

While I'm not going to argue that Gar are fun to catch, They are not even in the same league as Carp when it comes to a fighting fish.

Up north Pike are considered sport fish. Gar are a subspecies of the Pike family. So there is actually something to your considering them Sport fish. But then most species of Catfish are sport fish, yet you have no qualms about eating them. To be honest Gar is some of the best tasting fresh water fish there is. I rate it even above Smallmouth Bass, which for years was my favorite fish.

But then I'm a different kind of fisherman, I love to fish. I also love to eat fish but the really big ones I will generally release. But a 14" to 16" Bass is "good eatin' size" to quote one of my uncles.

I see this location is getting alot of exposure from local "rough fish anglers". Glad to see it! And yes, eating Longnose Gar is no problem on the population since there are plenty of them in the Trinity. And yes they taste great if prepared correctly. Just don't eat any LNG over 20lbs, those are probably female and should be released to spawn.

There are some huge Carp and Buffalo in here as well. Not alot (Big Carp), but those fishing deep with a heavily baited area will eventually get em.

And yes, this is one of the few spots in the DFW area where bank anglers have a chance to tangle with Alligator Gar. Please catch and release all Alligator Gar, even the small ones.

"While I'm not going to argue that Gar are fun to catch, They are not even in the same league as Carp when it comes to a fighting fish."

I repectively disagree with that comment. The larger Carp don't fight at all, just swim on the bottom like a water logged pillow. Gar on the other hand will jump like Tarpon and make run after run. Smaller Carp on the other hand in the 5-20lb range will fight very strongly, especially the first few runs.

Hey Dmunsie! Glad to see you back and posting!

UH GUYS, WHEN I FIRST TOLD DMUNSIE ABOUT THIS PLACE SOME TIME BACK, HE IMMEDIATELY HIT IT, AND SOME OF THE STORIES HE WOULD TELL ME ABOUT IT, WELL, WERE NOT SURPRISING TO ME, BUT THERE WAS A LEVEL OF EXCITEMENT ON HIS END OF IT, NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!

I just hope some moron reading all this but not posting doesn't go down there and do a "Las Colinas" number on us and gets EVERYBODY banned from there!

Clean up after yourself EVERY time you go down there!! Those property management folks spend a LOT of money to keep that place looking the way it does, and all it would take is one or two morons to screw it up for the rest of us.

The last time i went down there i found a box of stink bait that had to have been there a couple of days, i could practically smell it from the parking lot! there were empty soda cans next to it, an empty weight bag, some sort of sandwich wrappings,and the bait box had been left open, and the bait was fermenting something fierce and was covered with fly eggs about to hatch!

I hate to say it but some of the biggest slobby pigs out there are fishermen! Can you imagine what their house must look like?!

GO FIND YOUR OWN, AND KEEP IT CLEAN!

RUDY

Lovfidx,

I agree completely that fisherman can be the biggest slob around. I have been fishing at Legacy and Preston pretty regularly after work and each time I am there I always take a bag of trash away. Alot of times its lure packages and other fishing related items.

We are fisherman as well as outdoorsman. When you go camping or in the outdoors a good rule of thumb is to leave it better than you found it. It doesnt hurt to pick up a couple pieces of trash. Alot of companies and people will be more prone to let you bank fish if you help them out a little bit.

Do your part and take your trash home, they let us fish so we can help them out as well.

I followed rawhide creek to this lake a couple of years ago I have fished it a couple of times, what size gator gar are you catching out there??

The gar I caught had a lot of teeth. He jumped about 2 feet from the bank and snapped my 8 pound line. If u catch one and he has a charteuse roostertail in mouth then that was the one that broke me off. Cheers

Whoa....this place has alligator gar? Are you sure they're not longnose gar? I would love to try and catch and allig. gar. I've heard they are the fightenest (is that a word? lol) fish that swims. Anyway, i'd love to come out and see whats goin on.

Any luck on the bass out there? I have a fly rod I'd like to try using.

What is difference between the two as far as looks. The alligator and long nose?

long nose


ALLIGATOR

The alligator literally looks like an alligator. It's snout is much flatter. The alligator gar are HUGE....they can be as big as 200-300 pounds. Longnose don't even come close to that.

well I think i caught the long nose then. It was long and lean and quite a jumper.

!@#$% Where are my manners???!! Lovfldx (Rudy) is THE man and he is the one who told me about this place. Thank you Rudy! (Rudy, shoot me an email and if possible update me on your catches the past year or so!)

If anyone knows anything about me, it's I research way more than I actually fish. I routinely drive around and "sight fish" for hour after hour, waiting to spot a surfacing giant.

This location is the real deal and is a hidden gem for us DFW anglers. If I recall correctly Rudy has perfected methods of taking Channels, Blues from this area on a regular basis. He has also had some run ins with some HUGE Catfish from this location.

After Rudy introduced me to this location in 2003, I started fishing it about 3-4 times a week for about a 3-4 month period. I can't tell you how many times I've had a fish of mega proportions on the other end. The flucating water level really has gotten the best of me and caused many a line lost on the "lip" about 30-70ft out, depending where the shore line was.

I've caught Carp in the 20's there, Buffalo in the 30's and several Longnose Gar in the 15-30lb range. I've caught numerious eating size Channels and a few small Blues.

But it's the non landed fish that keeps me coming back to this location.

After talking with several game wardens in the DFW area the past few years and doing tons of reasearch on Alligator Gar in Texas, there are a few places in the DFW area that potentially still hold Alligaotr Gar.

Grapevine Lake, Eagle Mountain Lake, Vances Camp, Lake Worth. All of these lakes have reported Alligator Gar catches within the past 10 years.

ANY section of the Trinity River in Texas can potentially still hold a few Alligator Gar. The vast majority of Agar will be further south. (The Trinity River South of Richland Chambers in an incredible rough fish fishery.)

Which brings me back to this location. Yes, there are indeed Alligator Gar in this location. Well there is at least 1, because I landed it. A small Alligator Gar, prolly around 40lbs, it was very skinny but the head was the big give away, short snout, upper lip/snout slightly hanging over the bottom lip. More than likely this was a male. One Game Warden I talked to even hinted at the possibility of it being a Hybrid Longnose/Alligator Gar but I seriously doubt it. But if Nature is taking it's course and that is the future of Gar so be it! LOL..

"I hate to say it but some of the biggest slobby pigs out there are fishermen! Can you imagine what their house must look like?! GO FIND YOUR OWN, AND KEEP IT CLEAN!"

I 100% agree with Rudy on this. The "other side" is getting a major development so it looks like fishing there is no longer possible, without taking the long walk. Before you could drive down by the river, ofcourse I had "someone" threaten me several times when I fished there but I told them to call the cops and we'll see if it's legal for me to be there, ofcourse the police never came. I think it was the lawn guy???

If we do not clean up after ourselves, it's only a matter of time before they put no tresspassing signs up behind the work buildings.

That’s great news!!! I’ve fished for Alligator gar for about 2 years every weekend with no success. I moved here form Nebraska half way to go to school and halfway to catch a big alligator gar. What do I need to do differently to catch one all I end up with in big short nose and cats. I fish a bluegill with a 3 foot seal leader under a big float with a 1/0 treble. Do I need to use cut bait? What can I do to shift my focus just to alligator gar? Is their any place to go out there to find deeper water? If anyone has any help that would be great. I fished the trinity south of Dallas but the river is so nasty and full of garbage. Its sick how people treat the places they fish. I don’t understand how people fish someplace and leave all there @#$t behind. ERRRRRRRRRRR. I could just go off. The trinity down around Beltline, hy20 and Seagoville I think has some big alligator gar but there is no place to fish without a boat. I anyone can help please let me know?

JLEE,
Nice to meet another fellow midwesterner....a Nebraskan at that!!!!!!! I'm a die hard Huskers fan and was born and raised in NE Iowa. Moved down 3 years ago. I too would love to find some alligator gar...and have been to Seagoville but like you said...not much area unless you have a boat. Shoot me an email!

jensenmd@hotmail.com

Mitch

"Up north Pike are considered sport fish. Gar are a subspecies of the Pike family. So there is actually something to your considering them Sport fish. But then most species of Catfish are sport fish, yet you have no qualms about eating them. To be honest Gar is some of the best tasting fresh water fish there is. I rate it even above Smallmouth Bass, which for years was my favorite fish."

Good point..... I have no problem with eating some gar I've never tried it and maybe its good? But what I have a problem with are people who just kill them because they have teeth or are big and ugly. I’m sure you all have encountered these people. Bow Fisherman shooting lots of big alligator gar just to get pictures of themselves in the paper and on the wall of the local bait shop. All the pressure on the already scarce fish has to take a toll on the population. But there is nothing wrong with eating some small short nose or spotted gar. I think in some cases selective harvest can be very good thing on a population. As for harvest of alligator gar that’s another story. There are not many of these great fish to begin with. It’s scary to think a fish that has been unchanged for millions of years might soon meet their fate due to some red necks with an urge to kill something big.

ok, guys, i've been fishing there as well, and I've only caught Black bass... somedays are better than others. The biggest ones were on topwater lures, and i caught a decent one on Night crawlers. My question is,,,, what should i use to catch some large Flatheads, or even channels? oh, and if you want gar, and you're near Denton, GO TO HICKORY CREEK, it is Crawling with them... the water is low, and it smells terrible. but, they are everywhere.

"I fished the trinity south of Dallas but the river is so nasty and full of garbage."

That's an excellent spot to go rough fishing!! (seriously)

Keep this in mind, in the DFW area when I say there are Alligator Gar, I mean 99.99999% of the time you won't have a run in with a Alligator Gar. The odds are very slim you will hook up with one in the DFW Trinity, but they are there, in very small numbers.

I won't preach too much, gut perhaps in our life time we will see the demise of Alligator Gar in local DFW lakes. They will still be around for years to come in southern lakes, resoviors, but I seriously doubt there is any large Agar spawning success stories in the DFW area. Longnose Gar on the other hand, are doing quite well in the DFW area.

Imho, serious Gar anglers will at least fish 2 rods, 1 with a bleeding whole fish, fished about 1-3ft below the surface on a bobber, the other with a BIG chunk of cut bait fished on the bottom.

The bobber rig will prolly attract more strikes from Longnose, mainly due to the larger numbers of Longnose.

I've ALWAYS caught larger Gar on the bottom, let the fish run for about 30 seconds, slowly set the hook while reeling them in.

This location holds Flatheads, but Flatheads are one of the hardest fish to catch. They stay fairly close to thier home, love snaggy, rocky, areas where they can ambush their prey. They mainly feed at night, and primarily prefer live bait. Flatheads love Green Sunfish.

When I target Flatheads, I'm fishing a live bait on the bottom close to snaggy areas. It's a long waiting game. Change your bait as needed to keep a live bait on the hook. Use 2 rods, when the first bait dies, cut it so it's bleeding, throw it next to the live bait. The blood will attract the fish and they will more than likely strike the live bait.

Flathead strikes are usually a very quick powerful jerk, followed by a short fast run, set the hook hard during this period and do whatever it takes to keep it's head up, so they can't swim back to the snags because that's where they will try to go right away. The first 10 seconds of a Flathead battle is VERY important.

Went out there for a little while in afternoon. Caught a 21 inch drum and a decent sandbass on lures. I saw a guy have a big gar about 30 yards off the bank. I think it broke him off when it jumped. Also saw 2 guys out in johnboat. Dont know if they did any good.
Cheers

Oh, and a security guard came down for a few minutes. I was thinking oh no. But he thought I was someone he knew. I wasnt. It was all good tho. I said are there any fish in there and he says oh yea. He said alligator gar first thing. Then he says bass catfish and many others. I thing this hole has just about everything. Keep it clean. Very nice place. Cheers

Hey does anyone know where the best place to fish off the shore for big gar. How is the (other side) across from Haggar? Did any of you ever check to see if there are any holes or if the channel comes close to the shore? Any info would be great. NO BOW FISHING I could just see someone go down there with their bow. No fishing signs would be up the next day. Good luck to U all let me know if anyone can help with the depth? o ya Happy 4th to all!

that other side by the point might be good. Havnt been over there yet

I was out there this afternoon...hoping the clouds would hang around and keep it cool....but no such luck. It was HOT. Fishing was VERY slow. Then again I was just looking for largemouths. I talked to a guy named Mike, who had caught a few small stripers.

I fished the side over by Haggar. Can cats be caught anywhere out there? I have honestly never fished catfish in Texas...what are the preferred baits? We mostly use chicken liver or nightcrawlers up north. Any help?

I got a tip to use chicken livers . But I only got a couple bites in 2 hours. Maybe I was throwing to far or not far enough dunno.

bump

Anyone look at this topic anymore?? Any new news? I was out there the other day did not get much a few Longnose.

couple weeks ago a dude had a huge gar on . I saw it jump out from a distance. Made a huge splash. Then I heard cussin. He lost it. Snap

Ya I can second that huge splash thing! I was out there yesterday for a few. I always enjoy watching the HUGE GAR surface out in the middle. Yesterday one made a splash that looked like the spray from a jetski. The fish that made this splash must have been HUGE! I know there are big gar in here I just cant cast out far enough to get to them. Any suggestions?

saw a guy in a boat trolling around. security told me there are a few places to put in.

BUMP

anyone out there?

Went Monday afternoon, caught 10 channel cats, biggest 4 - 5 lb range! Fat thick bodied cat. The other 9 were right at 12 inches!

Also caught 3 softshell turtles, one of them huge!

Ch