Rope Flies

Who on here uses rope for Gar? Looking to make a few and looking for steps on a DIY. What lessons learned can you share.

Thanks

Please excuse the preachy tone of this post, this is just my two cents and you can take it or leave it for what it's worth. Personally, the lesson I learned is don't. Rope flies are really hard on gar, they're bad for their teeth, unraveling one once you've landed it is exponentially harder making it more dangerous for you and the fish. Even if you're catching to kill, if you hook one on a rope fly and it breaks off, you've dealt the fish a long and slow death sentence.

Getting a gar to bite isn't the hard part of the equation, if anything crosses their path, they will snap at it - it's a reaction that seems to be hardwired into their DNA. The trick is getting purchase in their bony jaw. If you know you are fishing for gar, I've found flies tied on ridiculously stout and sharp hooks, like gamakatsu octopus hook work well.

I've never used rope flies for them- I've done better on smaller sharp hooked jig flies which hook them in the lip.

Les

I get what you are saying. There is a closed systems that have Gar in it that need to be removed. I won't make a dent in the population with fly rod, there are just too many and need electro surveyed, but I do want to pull on them and haven't done well with regular flies. Mind posting up some pics of flies that have worked for you?

Completely understand, and if they fish are going to fish heaven eventually, I say go for it. There are tons of rope fly recipes out there.

Two conventional patterns I've had success on are Zimmerman's backstabber and Matt Bennett's lunch money. Most of the gar I've caught have been in the hill country while fishing for bass or carp. As I said earlier, it's sight fishing because if I can see them, I know I can get a fly in front of their face they will react. Both of these have stout and short Gamakatsu hooks so they're going to set in a bony jaw.

I also learned (mostly by accident) to set the hook a bit slower. It's tough to do because you'll often see the take, but instead of a quick strip like you would for a bass or redfish, a smoother (but not slow) allows the hook to find something to hold onto in the fish's jaw before simply sliding off.

Hope that helps a bit!

I’ve found the Gamakatsu B10S hooks are sharp enough to stick them and strong enough to keep them on.

I caught a nice gar on the Lower Colorado with a fire tiger lunch money I tied on a Gamakatsu B10s in size 2 I believe, hooked him right up through the tip of his nose perfectly.

I’ve been tying and using rope flies and even lures for a while for gar. I may just be lucky, but I never have had a problem with the rope getting too tangled in the gars mouth. If you decide to use a rope fly, make sure once you get the fish that you open and close the mouth with pliers or naturally let the fish do it itself to make sure all is well. PM me If you want more details about rope flies and tying.

A Gamakatsu or other high quality hook tied as a trailer aka stinger will usually get it done about 30-50% of the time. As others have said they are not picky so if you can find them, getting a lots of takes is as simple as it dragging it past either side of them ( not in font). I've messed with rope flies as well and while they do hook up with a little more regularity, I'm still convinced I will catch more fish with the stinger set up. With the stinger you simply can keep your fly in the water far more of the time instead fighting to get it out of a usually very uncooperative gar. Even with a combing them back out, the rope flies are usually a 2 or 3 shot deal before they are too tangled to use again. I have stinger flies I've caught dozens of small gar on. They are beat up, but again they don't seem picky.

Good luck!