Gar in neighborhood lake

Does anyone know if the companies that manage neighborhood lakes ever stock gar? I’ve never seen a gar in the local lake I fish, and for the past 2 days they’re everywhere. The swim and feed like a pack of wolves through the shallow plants. I watched a guy use a net and he caught 3 decent sized ones in one try (released).

I’m wondering if they were added to the lake for some sort of benefit, or if they’ve always been there but all of a sudden have become active. I don’t know what else in these lakes are so over abundant that they would need to be controlled, except maybe the turtles.

they bunch up in shallows during the spring to spawn.. they are usually deeper so you don't really see them except when they are feeding in the shallows.

Good to know...thanks for the education. They seem ravenous at the moment, unaware of what’s going on around them. I tapped one on the back w my rod this afternoon and it didn’t even flinch. The other end of the lake is deeper. I guess they’ve been hanging out over there until recently.

It would surprise me if gar would be stocked in a neighborhood lake. Eggs had to transferred there by other means via birds etc. Some could have been released there after being caught at a different water body. Also if the lake is fed by a creek they could have entered in through the creek. Anyway enjoy them. They are very good fighters.

Haven’t gotten them to hit my spoon yet...maybe a cut bait would work better. They almost look like eels the way they bunch up and slide through the shallows. I was more afraid that they would gobble up all the bait fish and make life harder on the LMB and crappie. If they’ve been there all this time anyway, I guess Mother Nature has worked out the balance. Thanks for the input.

I've had good luck catching them with small light colored moving baits, like white grubs.

I recommend removing them. They eat bass and crappie.

Use cut bait! Works every time.

Got one to hit my lure today but didn’t hook up. They seem to be feeding non-stop.

Most likely transferred in by birds.

This is the excuse bow "fishing" psychopaths use for going out and killing them en masse. They actually have very low metabolisms and spend most months of the year dormant and suspended on the bottom.

^^^^ You're an idiot.

Go on youtube and look up how to make a rope lure. Gar cant resist them, best way to catch gar in my opinion.

TPW did a big article on gar (specifically alligator gar) in one of their magazine issues a few years ago. There's a lot of misinformation out there and TPW spends a good amount of money for research and awareness towards ending the senseless slaughter of the species. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the biologists who actually study those fish are better experts than Joe Schmo with a Bow.

https://tpwmagazine.com/archive/2015/mar/ed_3_gar/







I have nothing against folks who legally harvest the fish by following the size and possession limits. It's the poachers who go out and fill trashcans and dump them in a field somewhere for a picture to post to an archery fishing forum on Facebook that are the problem and also the first ones to perpetuate the myth that they're doing it for the bass.

Yet again your an idiot. The "poachers" that have following the law until it recently changed about alligator gar. Can still fill buckets of carp and Buffalo and other species of gar. All perfectly legal. BUT to dump them in a field to rot is illegal. I've gone with a whole lot of people and nobody I know does this. Personally 99% of our fish gets ground up and used in gardens and feeding a family friends pigs. They love that stuff.

Hello from a bow fishing psycho!

Wack em and stack em.

Go look at the studies PAWS did at Falcon for a couple of years on alligator gar. The experts came to the conclusion that they were a detriment to to the fishery since all they do is eat, reproduce and have no predators. They decided to change the bag limit from 1 to 5 at Falcon. FIVE A DAY,

We all know those little needle nosed gar pictured will try to eat the baby’s of the bass,crappie, bluegill. In a lake no biggie but you don’t want those suckers in a neighborhood pond!

This subject has been beaten to death. Bottom line, TPWD deems this huge harvests as beneficial or at the very least not detrimental to the state’s fisheries or they’d shut it down. Simple as that. I promise my bow fishing boat doesn’t blend into the surroundings at night......

This neighborhood lake isn't super small, but it's shallow except for the far end. Since I started this post, the gar are now everywhere. They just cruise by the shoreline barely noticing me (or my jig).