Fish Tails by Drew Camp: Summertime Gar

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.

My first Gar at 40"

Dad's 41" gar

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.

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.

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.