The Gar attack the frays on the end of the rope that you throw into the water which get stuck in their teeth, and then the Gar roll like an alligator. It can take up to five jugs to finally stop a Gar.Īnother neighbor, Duane Dodson, used to fish for Gar on Cooper’s Creek in Gainesville, Texas, with a frayed nylon rope for a good fight when he was a kid. In the Mississippi Bay while bowfishing, where they have bigger Gar than in Lake Texoma, Harold has wrapped fishing line around a coffee can, attached one end of the line to jugs, and the other end to the arrow. The Gar began pulling the boat to Texas, but the anchor stopped his boat, and when the arrow popped out of the water, the only thing on the hook was one 4-inch in diameter Gar scale. While bowfishing in an area called Limestone on the Oklahoma side with one of his childhood friends, Harold shot a Gar with 220 lb test line on his arrow. Harold remembered that they caught a 375 lb Gar at the OU Bio Station where Buncombe Creek flows into Lake Texoma in the 1960s. ![]() At times Harold has tied himself to the front of his boat to hunt Gar. The Gar will grab the bait, then he sets the hook and lets the Gar run with the line. Harold will take a large cork attached to 2 ½ to 3 foot line (maximum) down to the hook with live bait. In hot months, the Striped Bass move into deeper cooler waters. Striped Bass do not like hot water, but the Gar do not seem to mind it at all. He can drop his lights on the bow at night into the water. The lights do not phase the Gar’s behavior. Harold installed lights across the front of his boat. With this, he can navigate shallow water without the trolling motor running aground and investigate extremely shallow water during Gar spawning season. He mounted an air motor above the stern to serve as a replacement for a trolling motor. Harold built his own boat customized to his needs for how he likes to catch Gar. He bought his first hunting bow when he was 12 years old by hauling hay for a whole summer just so he could hunt Gar. Harold has been bowfishing for Gar since he was a kid. There are different methods for bowfishing and fishing for Gar. In my neighborhood, we have a beach called Gar Bay, and come to find out, Harold says there are a bunch of Gar in Gar Bay. Gar are predators, not scavengers they eat live prey and attack artificial bait. There are four species of Gar in Oklahoma and Texas along with a hybrid species. My neighbor in Sherwood Shores, Harold Hurst, a life-long Gar fisherman, served as my guide for this article. The fact that Gar and Striped Bass do not like the same water temperatures leaves the options open for exciting fishing at different times of the day and year. There had to be more than a skeleton to the Gar’s story. ![]() There have been no reported attacks on humans who swim in their waters, but I found out that they frighten some people. ![]() Before this, the only thing I knew about the Gar was that they left long skeletons on the beaches of lakes and rivers. Sport fisherman know this fish to be as great of a fighter as the Striped Bass, and they love to hunt and fish for them. Vicious-looking teeth, armored bodies, and huge in size describes the Gar fish.
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