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A different type of fishing that has seen rewards been reaped by many. This forum allows us to learn more about Float and Fly fishing from those who have made it their number 1 way to fish.
Hey Joco,
I nearly caught a Gar last year at Shirley's bay on a black wool bugger. I was standing in 4 ft of water when I noticed hundreds of minnows swimming my way. Then out of no where a 3 ft Gar came along nipping at the minnows. I backed up and casted towards it. It took the bugger and then thrashed as I set the hook. I fought for a minute or so before the hook became dislodged. So cool to see up close.
Good luck on those bony mouthed buggers.
Craig.
Musky51 wrote:won't even say which one is my favorite!
great pics, are they from Eastern Ontario?
hey man,
those pics are mostly from the southern United States (they're all from garfishing.com). But a longnose gar is a longnose gar. There's no reason why it shouldn't be possible to pull a few of these critters from any quiet back-bay on the Ottawa river on a sunny summer afternoon They're a blast; just gotta be careful handling them.
I grew up about one Kilometre down river from Champlain Bridge on the Quebec side.
As a kid ( 9-10 years old) I remember my buddy catching one right at the Parc Moussette beach in Val-Tetreau. I will never forget both our faces !! We had caught a pre-historic fish, wow.
We ran home so fast to tell our dads, while dragging the beast behind us.
Over the 20 years that I lived there, I witnessed some real big Gar coming out of the Ottawa River but never caught one myself.
I also remember an episode of The New Fly Fisher when Colin McKeown and his guests from the Green Drake Fly Shop caught one just below Champlain bridge near the parking lot off Island Park Drive.
They're in there that's for sure, I guess luck has a lot to do with catching one. The Ottawa River offers many surprises.
Guys, I tried "gar getter" lures last year and had good success with them, they might be perfect for a fly rod setup as they are nothing more than a little strip of fluff with no hooks, and believe me when a gar bites they are hopelessly hooked. It's better than using hooks as you dont have to let the gar swallow the bait. Just make sure you carefully remove all the fibres from it's teeth before you release it as it could lock their beak shut
TLunge
Can you tell me who the editor, or author of the article is? My guess would be Glen Hales?? He is from Quinte and guided Bob Izumi for a show on flying fishing for gar.
I have not fly fished in about 10 years, but when I was into it, I was in a fly fishing club with Chris Marhall (Editor/owner of Canadian Fly fisher, Glen Hales, and Nick Pujic all three whom are very much involved with the magazine).
The key to ctahcing them was using a stinger hook on a large streamer fly. I have a couple photo's from 1996 or 97, but their not digital. It was basically sight fishing for them, wading in a river, and was SO easy. I do recall we used a steal leader, and the stinger hook was essential.
That was some good fun. They would jump out of the water and tail walk like a sail fish or marlin.
TLunge wrote:Guys, I tried "gar getter" lures last year and had good success with them, they might be perfect for a fly rod setup as they are nothing more than a little strip of fluff with no hooks, and believe me when a gar bites they are hopelessly hooked. It's better than using hooks as you dont have to let the gar swallow the bait. Just make sure you carefully remove all the fibres from it's teeth before you release it as it could lock their beak shut
TLunge