Gar

[Shurdaddy]

Anyone have a good gar story??

[fishingkid78]

I don't have any interesting stories, but would like to know what to use and where to target gar.

[Doop]

i don't have any good stories but in a couple days i'm going to shoot alligator gar with my bow! i'm sure after this experience i'll have a story or two!

our guide seems to think we have an excellent shot at a gar over 200 pounds!

[Roughfisher]

I caught my first longnose gar last summer on the St. Croix. Best way is to fish at night, near shore, in shallow water. I used an LED bobber set to 6 feet of depth in 1-2 feet of water, so the gar feels no resistance until the minnow is into the soft part of the mouth. Small, sharp, roundshank hook. Medium shiner for bait.

[ironman]

two summers ago I was night fishing for cats out of my boat on the Minnesota river near Bloomington. Fish were surface feeding around me, figured it was smallies or white bass or something of that nature. Grabbed the flashlight and took a gander and there were huge schools of minnows all around the boat along with scores of shortnose gar. It was pretty cool....I didn't have any tackle with me for them, just big cat stuff. Bummer..it would have been easy. They were everywhere..it was fun to watch the feeding frenzy however. Oh yeah...no cats.

[Mr Special]

Seems to me taht when you catch one gar there will be many others close by. Almost ever year I will see them in big groups on the St. Croix and MN.
When you do run into a school I like throwing a floating Rapala or Curltail. But I don't think it matters much they just hit anything they see.

Good Luck

[Fat Rap guy]

I caught several gar at the MN river last year. I used part of a sucker sitting on the bottom of the river like I was catfishing. The gar were pretty aggressive, but their mouths are so narrow they wouldn't get hooked a lot of the time. I'd reel them next to shore and they'd let go. They'd chase right after the bait again if I got it in the water quickly. I tried using smaller sucker chunks and smaller hooks to get them hooked more often. We did get a few that weren't hooked by yanking them in quickly when they got near the shore. Nasty looking things, ain't they?

[Dennis Steele]

THese fish are COOL!
I love fishing for them,allthough thye can be challenging to catch.There mouth or beak is very hard and its tough to get a hook into them.One trick I picked up is to put a piece of frayed rope on the treble hook of a spinner.There teeth get tangled in the rope and gives the hook a little more time to "bite" into their beak.
Another method I found to wrk well is to use a circle hook and let the fish swallow the hook.When you get a gite just give them lots of time,when you set thee hook the cirlc will put from the fish's gut and end up hooking right in the soft flesh in the corner of the mouth.
I usually find gar in the large slack water pools behing points or wahsout deltas.Or anywhere you find massive schools of emerald shiners.A good portion of the time they are feeding on the surface so the spinner/rope trick works or I will set a bobber with a foot of line under the surface and use a live minnow.
Early May you will find them shcolled up thick in these slack water areas.Some years I have seen them so thick you could walk acroos their backs.They just sit there waiting for a happless minnow to come along.

[The Grebe]

My wife and I stopped at a cafe once and the waiter came up to the table with a little pair of rolled up shorts on...hairy pimply legs and all...says he, "Hi, my name is Gar"...we got up and left!

[The Grebe]

Years ago, I used to catch an occassional gar below the St. Anthony Power plant, on the Mississippi in S. E. Mpls. They were never very big, maybe a foot, to a foot and a half long, but the little dudes had some game!