nice catch with some great pics especially that last one

Good job Bobby - not easy to get one hooked up and landed - as you showed, there are sizable gar in that area - I usually get a hard hit and then complete slack and my lure is just gone (teeth cutting line). The backwater area of the docks behind the breakwater tires holds lots of gar. If you hooked him at the tires, it looks like the wind blew you almost across the cove before getting him landed....good job and congrats on one more species. That last pic is very cool.

With that thread title, I was expecting to see a monster smallie. There's always time.

Go figure!!! You fish for Gar, and it takes all day to land one, you fish for smallies and Blammm a Gar..and on a Crank bait at that..lol

Haha I know you can't tell from the pic, but it was by my feet the first time I tried to land it and then went NUTS. That photo is it in mid-air right before it plopped back into the water. I didn't mean to have him that close to the family jewels and didn't even know how close he got until I watched the video haha. Luckily the hook and line held and I got it back up into the boat.

I was heading in when that guy hit, but after he did, I was like screw that I'ma get another! So I trolled around those docks for another hour and a half. About 6 different times my rod bent over hard, but by the time I grabbed it there was nothing there. I think I just got lucky landing one on the crankbait... too hard to hook set in those toothy beaks. They were definitely feeding aggressively though, I think because it was pre-front.

And yeah, it took me a good while to land him, and by the time I did I had blown about 200 yards and was too close to the rocks for comfort (mirage drive).

SO. MUCH. FUN!!

Good job man! You will get your smallmouth next time

Nice job landing a gar that size while in the yak is a little hairy!

man, that could have ended very badly

nice fish, great pics too! and yeah, windfinder has been innacurate lately...don't know why but it isn't working like it did a few months ago for me anyway.

Great fish man! How do you have that camera rigged on your boat for that angle?

I used the Railblaza Camera Boom 600 for that one.

I've had a bunch of people asking me about my Railblaza stuff. I almost exclusively use Railblaza and Yak Gear except for one or two things. I think I'm going to do a short video that goes over my rig and where I have things and why.

Railblaza is sort of the "new kid on the block" but honestly I really love their stuff. Very high quality materials and easy to use. I MUCH prefer it to the Scotty stuff I had on my Pescador. The bases are much less bulky and I like the way it locks in place. The Scotty "lift and twist" method can be a pain on the water sometimes, at least for me.

Haha yeah man, until I watched the video I didn't realize how close he came. They're such strong fish man, he was UNDER my pedal and flopped his way all the way up and back onto my lap, then into the water. I wanted to get the trebles out of his mouth before I pulled him up but there's just no way to secure those fish. I was glad I left them in when he got back into the water, otherwise I would've lost him before the "hero" shot.

A walk-around video of your rig would be great! I am just beginning to explore video setups for my kayak and it can be overwhelming trying to figure out what you want and how to set it up. I definitely like that angle you had with the camera on those shots.

Good to know man, this has given me a good idea. I'll do a walkthrough video of my kayak, but with a focus on how I film while on the water. Seems appropriate since that's my focus.

I now have about 6 methods of mounting that results in shots from like 20 angles. Every single time I catch a fish, I move both of my cameras. It's all relatively easy/quick and that way my video stays fresh. This will be more apparent in my next video, which should air Monday.

I'll work on the "how-to" video next week. Thanks for the idea!

Lets go find some 150+ lbrs!!!!