2018

I'm ready for the 2018 gar season.
Just need spring to show up

Looking forward to seeing some nice catches!

Nice Gar leaders! I'm new to making gar leaders, so can I ask what style and size hook and lb.test wire you are using? I will be mainly targeting spotted gar with an occasional alligator gar mixed in. Thanks

The hooks are 12/0 gamakatsu big river bait hooks, leader material is malin 131lb hard wire and barrel swivels are 3/0 eagleclaws. With That being said no steel leader is needed to catch spotted gar.

I DO NOT LET ALLIGATOR GAR SWALLOW THE BAIT BEFORE SETTING THE HOOK

Oh okay then, I thought since the spotted gar have teeth that a wire leader was needed as well. Wow thats big size hook u r using.
Thank you for the info.

Heavy mono as a leader works for spotted gar

Looks like my saltwater set up, but I use a little longer wire. I'm ready to fish!!

First gar of the year
Caught on Friday night second and third were caught on Saturday night

All were caught useing talapia for bait. All were released to fight another day

How big is that last one? Looks like a good time

Last one was 5'4" and really fat. We camped for 2 days had beautiful weather. It was a great time

It just don't get any better!

I like it, really nice looking set up.

Nice fish and layout

Thanx for the replies chuck,dawson,and laker one. This is a weird bite at this spot. Gar only bite after 10pm and will continue untill the sun starts to rise then just stop. We casted all 8 rods at 5pm and they soaked for 5 and a half hours with the first bite coming at 1030pm. it's the only place that I've fished that the gar do this

What a great time, thanks for sharing

Thanx for the reply fitz!

Continuing on with this post. We spent Easter weekend camping and fishing and most importantly celibrating the rising of our lord Jesus christ. We had a great time and Caught lots of crappie for a fish fry on sunday.

At 12:01 sunday morning my wife caught this alligator gar
it was 69 inches long and 29 inches in girth
The 12/0 gamakatsu worked perfectly hooking the gar in the roof of the mouth. Allowing me to remove it very easily without hurting the gar. It was released to fight another day.

gar1970,
Awesome Gar ! Well that big hook worked well for you. I bought a 25pk of the 5/0 gama river hook, those should work I hope. Envious of the crappie as well...

Awesome weekend Leo and Yesenia. Living the dream!




Side Note: Nice A. Gar!

Woohoo

Thanks guys for the replies

How good is your hook up ratio with that hook?

Good enough for me lol. I do miss some but thats why its called fishing and not catching

Great Pic!! Love it

Thanx fitz!

Great thread gar1970!

Thank you gitter done

Great thread! Love those BIG "A" gar!

So do you just yakk back on em as soon as the baitclicker starts running

Yes

Most let them chew the bait before they strike. Any opinions on which method is better? I'm going to try and get a few of these beauties as well pretty soon.

I see I see I have always used treble hooks so I would letem run.. going to try your method see what I can't catch

most use trebbles and let them chew so that they can swallow the bait and trebble therfore hooking them in the throat. After landing they cut the leader and leaving the hook and piece of cut leader in the gars throat. I watched a gar surface and thrash for 2 hours trying to dislodge the trebble and piece of leader i had left in it. I made my decision right then never to use trebbles again. So i started experimenting with different hooks and the gama works best for me.

think bassfishing you gotta give em the bassmaster powerhookset lol or cobra kai moto strike fast strike hard no mercy sir!

Good info right there,have to change my set up some. Thank you for sharing.

Lol yeah I got a hook set style I call the big hybusa it'll rip the lips off most of em thanks for the info

Nice looking gar pictures.

Yw sae. Thank you marc-62

At it again. My nephew graduated from the 6th grade to the 7th so as a reward for doing well in school we took him on an overnight fishing trip for crappie and gar.this was to be his first time fishing for either species. We started off dropping jigs into logjams. Davian was the first to hookup. His first ever crappie was 13 .5 inches and was the biggest of the trip
As it got dark we tied off and turned on the lights. As i rigged up the gar rods they began jigging for crappie. Before i casted the last talapia baited rod another crappie was in the boat. Davian was up first with a 5ft gar
He did a great job fighting that gar made it easy for me to lasso. Next was yesenia
With a nice gar and a photo bomber moth lol then it was my turn
We ended up with 18 crappie kept and 3 gar released to fight another day

WOW...what a fishing trip. Your nephew will have memories to last a life time. Congratulations.

Thanx for the reply rick! We had a great time for sure

like your rig and not letting the fish swallow the hook is a good plan i wonder if garzila does the same i saw where he had a big box of treble hooks i bet he lets em swallow it and kills tons of fish i no they say it don't hurt em to swallow the hook but i disagree i bet a lot die from infection