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| 42" Trophy Gar |
Summer has arrived and now that I’m out of school, I
have been able to fish a lot. The last
couple of months I have been thinking about fishing for gar, and now that I had
time I loaded up my Kraken and went gar fishing.
I saw several gar while fishing for bass last year, so I had
a good idea of where to go. I got my livebait,
loaded up my Kraken, and went down to the lake.
It didn’t take very long for me to find the fish. I paddled into a large cove and found fish
rolling on the surface and gulping air, just like tarpon. On the first day of fishing, I landed two gar
with one of them measuring out to 40 inches, enough for a Virginia trophy fish citation. After the first trip I went back out several
times, catching them with livebait and sight-fishing for them on
bass tackle. My Dad joined me one trip,
and caught a 41in gar.
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| My first Gar at 40" |
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| Dad's 41" gar |
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| 41" on a jerkbait |
My last trip was by far my best one. I set out for a new location with bigger
livebait, hoping to catch a really big one.
I was in a large creek off the main lake and gar were rolling all around
me. I put out my biggest bait and when it went down I set the hook. I could tell that this was a better class of fish, it made long runs and stayed deep. When I finally got the fish boat-side, I saw
that it was a BIG gar. I grabbed the
fish and pulled it in the kayak. It took
up the whole foot-well because it was so long and I was stoked. I beached the kayak and measured the fish out
to 45 inches. I took a few pictures,
removed the hooks, and released the big fish back to the lake.
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| 45" BIG Gar |
I caught three more fish in the creek, and two of them were
over 40 inches, the other was in the upper 30 inch range. So far this year I have caught eleven gar with five citations.
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| 42" citation Gar |
Gar haven’t been the only fish I have caught lately. I caught a lot of bass up to 21.5 inches
on deep-diving crankbaits, Carolina-rigs, and jigs out on deep water
ledges.
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| 21.5" Bass on a crankbait |
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| I have also caught several big sunfish up to 10.5 inches |
Summer time is an awesome time to get out and catch
fish. Just remember to stay hydrated in
the heat and stay safe out on the water.
