“Crawford, with his fishing bow, stalked the great fish carefully, knowing he might only get one shot. When he finally fired, he scored a direct hit, unleashing the fury of the 8-foot, 2-inch beast, which created an explosion of mud and water before it ran toward the lake.
Big problem, because the nylon cord had become tangled at Crawford’s feet, and when he grabbed the line, as it began to tighten, it became wrapped around his hand. The line went taut and the fish yanked the fisherman into the water headfirst. That’s when Crawford’s dog, Bleux, grabbed him by the cuff of the jeans, creating a bizarre riverbank tug-of-war.” (Link)
Kind of like a Sturgeon with Teeth. What does one do with that much Alligator-Gar?
my son had been jonesing for a really large gar (we don’t have alligator gar).
so i tied up a bunch of rope flies with and without hooks.
there’s an oxbow lake a couple of hours north of home with a good population of gar.
we took several 2 and 3 footers. they really fight in a tenacious almost preternatural manner.
off to one side we saw a very large fish gulping air. i dropped a fly on his nose and all hell broke loose.
did you know a four or five foot gar can tailwalk, clear the surface by several feet and not necessarily swim away from you when hooked.
anyway i was using a 10weight uglystik with a 30 pound straight leader. the rope tangled in his teeth so well that unfortunately he couldn’t escape. unfortunately because after you land him you have to pick the rope out his snapping jaws.
all in all it was quite an adventure. thank goodness david got his fix.
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Geeze! that sounds exciting. I noticed a few years ago some fly fishers out of Canada promoting the Gar fly fishing. Toothy critters I noticed. The fly fishers never looked very relaxed holding those shredders.
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I think that I shall stick to Upstream Dry Fly………..apart from anything else I don’t have a rescue dog.
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WOW! This is great fish… shouldn’t seem that it was easy… Thank you dear Gary, love, nia
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There still are those ‘prehistoric’ beasts around the world.
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Yeah, and unfortunately one of them just gave up blogging.
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That would be a tragedy given the unique, real and special nature of the work so far. Touches a special place and should be maintained at all costs because it gives a voice to other’s feelings and it shares true joy for certain things that make that person very special in this world. Hopefully that decision will be reconsidered. The Alligator-Gar gave its life so that others could carry on and survive and grow. Angels abound…believe!
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