First Time Fly Fishing For Gar
By Roderick Petersen
Growing up in the Deep South, Gar were considered nothing more than a trash fish and a nuisance to the Bass and Crappie populations. I remember watching The Old Timers fishing and anytime they caught a gar they would just throw them high up on the bank and continue on their way fishing. For us in the South, that was the extent of our knowledge of gar. It wasn’t until bow fishing started getting popular in the 2010s that gar started getting a reputation, but again, they were still getting tossed onto the banks after the fight.
It wasn’t until I was 3,000 miles away in a fly shop in Cody, WY that I found out that you can catch dinosaurs on a fly rod. Two fly guides in the shop started asking me if I had ever fly-fished for gar after they found out I was from Alabama. I told them my very brief understanding of gar and they were quite bummed at the notion of people tossing these prehistoric fish up onto banks. As the conversation continued, I found out that there is a very niche group of fly fishermen who specifically target gar. They fish for them in a very similar manner to Pike and Muskie.
Fast forward a year, and I am back in Alabama where I have been preoccupied with chasing the Red Eye Bass slam throughout the state of Alabama with my dad. We got information that led us to a section of a river nearby that supposedly had Red Eye Bass in it. So, we loaded up the truck and headed out to wade the river. The river had a rocky bottom which was a good sign for Red Eye, as well as deep pockets that looked like good holds for fish. Within the first five minutes I caught a Hybrid Bass, and not long after an Alabama Spotted Bass, but still no Red Eye. My dad and brother had about the same luck. We decided to all split off to cover more water and each went our own way through the river. As I went further West up the river I came to a shallow shelf in the middle of the river. Just ahead of the shelf was a deep pool located. In this pool, I could see gar rising on the surface. Since I was not catching Red Eye, I figured why not try and catch a gar. I tied on the biggest white streamer I had in my fly box and sailed it out into the middle of this pool. On the first drop I felt a subtle take, and the fight was on. I tried getting the gar close to the shelf I was on, but right as the fish came to the ledge it made a frantic roll and spit the fly. From that moment on I began plotting and planning on how to land a gar on a fly.
The next morning, I was reading every article and watching every video that covered fly fishing for gar. The common theme I found throughout my research was that gar flies are made of rope, usually nylon. This is so that the teeth of the fish get caught in the rope, as it is actually difficult to get a traditional hookset into a gar because of the structure of their beaks. So, I set out tying the ugliest gar-fly known to mankind from stuff lying around the house. It was a simple structure of some white nylon rope, red hackle, and a little flash. I made two flies just in case I lost one and set off for the river with my eye on landing a gar.
My dad and brother were both skeptical of my homemade gar flies but still came with me to help with netting the fish, and for a chance to catch other fish in the river. When we got to the river I immediately went back to where I had hooked the gar yesterday and began working the homemade fly through the deep pool. Absolutely nothing. Not even a snag. I continued fishing, for about an hour, until the last few minutes of daylight were left. At this point, I was losing hope. I gave up fishing in the deep pool and began working the fast water off to the right. We had spotted a few gar traveling up the current and I figured I would give it a try. At this point I am not paying attention to my line as it goes through the drift. I started talking with my dad and brother about how to improve the presentation and design of my homemade gar fly. As I picked up my rod to set up for the next cast I felt a very strong pull and said “Oh it's on!”. The gar came up to the surface and proceeded to do a roll. It was here I started fighting back by pointing the rod upriver and doubling down on the line. With neither of us budging, I began walking backward to pull him up onto the shelf. As I did that both my dad and brother jumped the fish to keep it from getting away. When we landed the fish, we realized it was a Longnose Gar, about a foot and a half in length, although most of the length is in its beak. Once we had him in the net we began inspecting the fly in the gar’s mouth, we realized that the rope strand had completely tangled in the front of its beak. I cannot tell you how stoked I was to successfully land this gar on a homemade fly For me this just proves that you can catch anything if you put your mind to it, and as Coltin says “You can’t catch them from the couch”.
