Need gator gar tips

[Aussiecajun]

G'day all. After having lived in Louisiana for nearly 4 years now, and being a mad keen fisherman, I'm fast running out of new fish to catch. The 1 fish I've been aching to catch but keeps eluding me is the alligator gar. I've had a few take my baits, but have yet to even convert that into a single hookup. So I'm making it my focus this year to finally land one. Does anyone have any tips to help me break my duck? Not necessarily looking for spots, as I have some spots already worked out where I've seen both numbers and size, just looking for techniques and tips to help get one on the end of my rod. Thanks in advance.

 

[bwalke1]

View attachment 35808View attachment 35809 i live on the Diversion canal and fishing is just a pastime for me not really into it but its something to do. i will throw a cast net and catch some small to medium size bream. i will put this bream on a large hook (not sure what size) and use a short steel leader with a weight further up on the line. i throw it out and put the rod in a rod holder on my deck and go to sleep. the next morning i usually have one of these on the pole, or sometimes a big catfish. the dogs go crazy barking and running around while i bring it in. great fun for all except the wife who has no outdoor adventure bone in her what so ever....lol

 

[charlie12]

View attachment 35808View attachment 35809 i live on the Diversion canal

The Diversion Canal in lower LP?

 

[bwalke1]

The Diversion Canal in lower LP?

approximately 1.5 miles upriver of the hwy 22 bridge

 

[brfd557]

Good eating too!

 

[charlie12]

approximately 1.5 miles upriver of the hwy 22 bridge

My girlfriend and I deliver The Advocate down there. We do the LP side of it and she goes all the way to the end on Diversion Canal rd. and then on Amite river rd.

 

[charlie12]

G'day all. After having lived in Louisiana for nearly 4 years now, and being a mad keen fisherman, I'm fast running out of new fish to catch. The 1 fish I've been aching to catch but keeps eluding me is the alligator gar. I've had a few take my baits, but have yet to even convert that into a single hookup. So I'm making it my focus this year to finally land one. Does anyone have any tips to help me break my duck? Not necessarily looking for spots, as I have some spots already worked out where I've seen both numbers and size, just looking for techniques and tips to help get one on the end of my rod. Thanks in advance.

Maybe you can make it to this years Garfish Rodeo in lower Livingston Parish.
http://theadvocate.com/news/536541-65/anglers-cast-off-in-garfish.html

 

[bwalke1]

View attachment 35810
yes they are very good to eat; notice the yellow handle tin snips in the photo. best thing for cutting the thick scales on the gar. the gar fish rodeo is a blast and it is not unusual to see some 80lb + size gar. go if you get a chance. i'm on the ascension parish side or should i say the gonzales side because the parish line crisscrosses back and forth on both sides of the river, very confusing.

 

[charlie12]

View attachment 35810
yes they are very good to eat; notice the yellow handle tin snips in the photo. best thing for cutting the thick scales on the gar. the gar fish rodeo is a blast and it is not unusual to see some 80lb + size gar. go if you get a chance. i'm on the ascension parish side or should i say the gonzales side because the parish line crisscrosses back and forth on both sides of the river, very confusing.

I know it's crazy the way the parish line runs. We used to do the other side all of River Highlands and Bayou Terrace to the end and gave that part up in about 2005.

 

[Gator 45/70]

Well it just ain't that easy AussieC....Better come get me and load me in the boat and that way noone will learn my secret's...Oh and NO foster's beer..correct ?

G'day all. After having lived in Louisiana for nearly 4 years now, and being a mad keen fisherman, I'm fast running out of new fish to catch. The 1 fish I've been aching to catch but keeps eluding me is the alligator gar. I've had a few take my baits, but have yet to even convert that into a single hookup. So I'm making it my focus this year to finally land one. Does anyone have any tips to help me break my duck? Not necessarily looking for spots, as I have some spots already worked out where I've seen both numbers and size, just looking for techniques and tips to help get one on the end of my rod. Thanks in advance.

 

[N4sir]

Haaaa......! Had to comment on this.
When I was a teenager and going out with a classmate in high school her whole family would rent a camp every Summer out in Little Woods on Haynes Blvd. right on Lake Ponchartrain. We'd be up all night almost every night gar fishing on the big back pier. Had to use big equipment for these monsters and we took turns whenever a fish was on. Average size was between 5 nad 6 feet long and were serious fighters. It was like fishing for Jaws. Funny that I just remember it now but Jaws was I think the first movie date we went on. Lol.... Once landed they were dispatched with a hatchet to the back of the head. Her brothers had the skinning and cleaning down to an art and in no time you were looking at a huge length of bare meat. The meatiest back area and tail were sliced imto steaks. Beautiful white flesh! The next afternoon or evening we'd have fish fry's and when those gar steaks were breaded and fried they went quick. Flakey is the best way I could describe how it came out and sometimes eaten on french bread with mayo and ketchup it was absolutely delicious.

I realized after posting this that of course it had to lead up to eating or cooking didn't it? Lol........

 

[Hitman]

Wait you're having problems catching them?

We used to TRY and avoid them like the plague.

 

[tbone]

View attachment 35808View attachment 35809 i live on the Diversion canal and fishing is just a pastime for me not really into it but its something to do. i will throw a cast net and catch some small to medium size bream. i will put this bream on a large hook (not sure what size) and use a short steel leader with a weight further up on the line. i throw it out and put the rod in a rod holder on my deck and go to sleep. the next morning i usually have one of these on the pole, or sometimes a big catfish. the dogs go crazy barking and running around while i bring it in. great fun for all except the wife who has no outdoor adventure bone in her what so ever....lol

You meant to say you catch some bream on a small rod and reel and use them for bait. You catch some shad or mullet in the cast net.

 

[Armnhammer]

We used to cut up perch and tight line for garfish and choupić. I think smoked garfish is the best. Had a friends dad who smoked it in Pierre part when we were kids. They are fun to catch but hard to clean. Good luck

 

[cnodie1]

I actually caught one on a purple and white H&H cocahoe minnow. It was about 4 feet long and put up a great fight. We gave it to a passing crab fisherman who was delighted saying "My momma make some good gar balls cha!!"

 

[Hitman]

Go here > http://goo.gl/maps/niqai

Knock yourself out

 

[SigArmed1]

Here's how you do it...

As a kid I used to "try" to catch big 5'-6' gars that were always rolling in the slip in front of our camp on Bayou Lafaourche (Leeville). Funny thing is, although I had many take my bait and swim off, I never could set the hook in their bony mouth. That is until an old cajun man named "Crip" who had lived on the bayou his entire life showed me how to do it. He would take about 6 feet of wire leader and string a piece of cut bait onto the wire. Then he would form a 6 or 8 inch loop around the bait and bend the wire such that it would hold the loop open sort of like a lasso. Then he put a popping cork on it and threw it out. As soon as a big gar would take the bait all you had to do was "set the hook" so to speak and the little bend in the leader would straighten out and the loop would then pull tight around his snout and he was yours! After that, I caught big gars until I literally just got tired of it. His technique worked every single time without fail! BTW, as an interesting aside, his name was Crip because he only had one leg. He lost the other as a child because of a simple scratch that got infected. They had no antibiotics then and so a simple scratch eventually led to having his entire leg amputated, he said.

 

[tashle1]

View attachment 35808View attachment 35809 i live on the Diversion canal and fishing is just a pastime for me not really into it but its something to do. i will throw a cast net and catch some small to medium size bream. i will put this bream on a large hook (not sure what size) and use a short steel leader with a weight further up on the line. i throw it out and put the rod in a rod holder on my deck and go to sleep. the next morning i usually have one of these on the pole, or sometimes a big catfish. the dogs go crazy barking and running around while i bring it in. great fun for all except the wife who has no outdoor adventure bone in her what so ever....lol

FYI, it is illegal to keep any gamefish when you catch them in a cast net.

 

[charlie12]

Go here > http://goo.gl/maps/niqai

Knock yourself out

I fished that place on the west side of the road years ago for Bar Fish.

 

[bwalke1]

You meant to say you catch some bream on a small rod and reel and use them for bait. You catch some shad or mullet in the cast net.

yes, yes, your absolutely correct sir !!