My son wants to go out and try to hook up with spotted gar. We have a few places in mind, but I was looking for tactics on landing some of these fish without using the rope technique.

1) What size hook works best? Small hook like a carp hook or larger? Treble hook?
2) Cork with a wire leader below? or fish bottom with a carolina rig set up?

Anything else I should keep in mind?
Any tips or tricks?

I don't target spotted gar, but I do target a lot of alligator gar. Spotted gar only grow to about 3' and around 10-15lbs. If you are using 20-30lb line you should be able to just pull them out of the water and on to the bank without a net or rope. You can use a steel leader or just some strong mono, 50-80lb, as a leader. Those pre-made coated wire leaders cost about $1 at any sporting good store and should work just fine. I've puled in 5' gator gar with them.

For alligator gar we simply float the bait out, no floats or weights, as long as there is not strong currents. Just the leader to the main line. I would image the same technique would apply. if there is current I would use a Carolina rig like you do for catfishing.

Gar fishing and hooks is the most debated topic I've ever found but I would use either an octopus hook or a circle hook. For spotted gar they don't need to be that big, their mouths are pretty narrow. I probably wouldn't go past a 6/0. I've found treble hooks to not be as effective because the size of the hook gap is smaller and doesn't allow for as much penetration. The barb won't always come out the top of the gars snout.

Good luck! let us know how it goes