Longnose gar in southern MN

[Kurt Paulsen]

I have discovered via the DNR site that lake German by Lake Jefferson in Le Suer county has a population of longnose gar. Has anyone ever fished for them there? It is a rather isolated population and I haven't seen them in any other lakes down here. Does anybody know where to find them other than German?

[hogsucker]

Yes, German and a few of the other lakes in the immediate area have good populations of Longnose Gar. The fairbault area also has a few lakes with these awesome fish in them..........~hogsucker

[V-12 Merlin]

There are longnose gar in Mazaska, west of Faribault. I know a guy who caught one, but it's also on the DNR web site.

[Muddog]

A few years ago I hooked one near the shallow hump south-east of the landing on German. On a windless day in the same area I saw two of them swiming side by side with just the top part of there mouths zig-zaging out of the water. It took awile for it to dawn on me what I was seeing.

[smg04]

im not 100% but i've been told that kelly/dudley lake had a lot of them in there

[Fish'n guy]

I know the MN river has lots of shortnose gar. My buddy caught one that would have rivaled or surpassed the state record !!!

[Kurt Paulsen]

I have been able to track down lots of shortnose in the MN river, now I am on the prowl for longnose. I think I might have to take a weekend here pretty soon to just travel around looking for them...

[mncarphntr]

Don't know how far north you want to go, but I was bowfishing Stalker lake by Fergus Falls yesterday and saw dozens of longnose. I got a half dozen nice fish. Really fun to see those fish in crystal clear water.

[Sonicrunch]

If I understand correctly, they are almost impossible to catch because of their mouth (snout) being bony.

[Kurt Paulsen]

There are special ways to rig up for them. You can use frayed nylon rope o snag their teeth, or in the case of the shortnose, you can let them swallow the hook a bit to get into some soft stuff. They take their time eating prey after they catch it, so you have to be patient.

[Ely Lake Expert]

Does anyone have a link, I am curious what these things look like? Obviously we don't have them up north, at least as far as I know.

[hogsucker]

Here's one I caught in the St. Croix.

[hogsucker]

A closeup of a Longnose Gar's head.........

[Ely Lake Expert]

That thing is pretty crazy looking. Not sure if I would want to catch one or not.

[alwaysfishin]

Check out some of the tanks in Cabela's if you want to see some up close.

[Jim43]

Quote:

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Check out some of the tanks in Cabela's if you want to see some up close.

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Brown county fair in New Ulm has quite few in the Isaac Walton fish pond. They hold all the fish from the local contest and the fair starts tonight, was just up there with my son and it had close to a dozen of them in there.