Went out to granger lake yesterday in search of carp and gar. I walked down to the water and right away I saw a monster carp pushing 20 pounds easy, cruising in about 4 inches of water, most of his body was exposed. I snuck up to about 30 feet and layed the fly 2-3 foot in front of him, one little twitch and he bull rushed it like a redfish, ate the fly and hauled a$$. It was an awesome fight, I chased him all over, between tree stumps and through grass matts for about 10 minutes. I finally wore him out and got him up to my feet, I grabbed his tail and the hook flew out of his mouth, one little kick and he took off, so close to landing him. Even for my 8wt it was an awesome fight. It was My first time after carp and it definitely won't be my last. I threw at about a dozen more fish but none showed really any interest in my fly. The fly I hooked the carp on was stolen by a dang gar about 5 minutes later, seems like the magic fly is always the one that you only have one of.

I also landed my first spotte gar too, that was pretty cool untill I had to take out the hook with no pliers.

What fly did you catch the gar on? I would love to catch one on a fly rod!

I caught the gar on a shrimpy looking fly I tied for bonefish, not sure the name of it, if it even has a name. I'll post a picture when I get home. Honestly the gar were hitting every fly i threw at them just about, they were just super hard to get a hook set in.

Awesome! It's rush we you see your fly disappear! I'm heading out to Ray Rob now.

Try a light weight gar fly made from small diameter white nylon rope. Fray out a piece about 2-3" long. Leave enough at one end to whip tie your leader to. Their teeth get tangled in it as long as you keep steady pressure on them.

Dave

I've thought about using rope flies, but wasn't sure how hard they were to get out of the gar's teeth. One guy I asked about rope flies said he just threw the gar up on the bank and didn't worry about getting the flies out. I would want to release the gar, so any tips on getting the rope fly out would be appreciated.

Rope flys are a pain in the arse to get out of the gars teeth

This works! I've used nail polish to put a red or yellow "head" where the knot is. Then if you want, glue on some eyes. Make sure to have some gloves and needle nose pliers or hemostats to untangle them. Those teeth are super sharp, especially the little fish