Fishboy, I appreciate the lack of anger and/or vemehence in your post, but I think there is still some mis-leading here. The truth is it resembles a flattened out cotton ball not a rope, also it takes a lot of skill to use properly. There is a learning curve to releasing quickly, just like other types of fishing but in a short time I got it down to 2 or 3 seconds,worst case 10 seconds.
I have fished gar with several different techniques including fly fishing and have to say this is the most gar freindly technique.Anybody who knows about gar knows they are the toughest and most resiliant fish that inhabits our waters, and also have the ability to breathe air through their nostrils.
What may hurt them though would be a hook in the eye,gills or throat, or a really long battle on light line.
And by the way, have you got any Grey Poupon?
TLunge