Gar fish caught by hand

[mrregal]

I was in long point bay for bass opener a few years ago and the were tons of them sitting just under the surface maybe 20' off shore. It was really cool seeing so many.

 

[Alfiegee]

I was in long point bay for bass opener a few years ago and the were tons of them sitting just under the surface maybe 20' off shore. It was really cool seeing so many.

They love that, was it a sunny day? They seem to gather and sun-bathe near the surface. That's why I find flies to be good or else live bait no more than a foot below your float. I find in situations like that, spinners, spoons and other lures don't really work well. You need something that will just sit in the water and that they can come to.
A few years ago fishing the Thames near London on a sunny day we spotted quite a few Gar basking in the sun and could not tempt them with anything. Finally I caught a grasshopper and put it on a hook and just let it drift down to them, the rest of the morning was non-stop Gar as long as we could keep catching hoppers.

Alfie.

 

[fishing fr3ak]

Nice fish, how big was it?
Can we see more of the gar pics you took? :mrgreen:

Here's a few more pics i took of the gar before i tired to catch it by hand. wished i wasn't alone so someone could of videoed it. made a quick lil collage of the few pics i took.

 

[getin]

Not trying to be evil but is it legal to catch fish by hand? Just wondering!

 

[concant]

Nice man! It must have beem a surprise when it came through the ice!

Yeah that was the last thing I expected to come out of the hole. Fishin for walleye when I saw something swim about 2 feet under the ice with my flasher so I reeled up to it fast with my jiggin rap. He hit it right away, set the hook and he just flew outta the hole. Had quite a few people pretty excited about that one.

Successful live release too

 

[AaronKrick]

Here's a few more pics i took of the gar before i tired to catch it by hand. wished i wasn't alone so someone could of videoed it. made a quick lil collage of the few pics i took.

Nice pics! Gar are pretty amazing fish.

 

[fishing fr3ak]

Not trying to be evil but is it legal to catch fish by hand? Just wondering!

no idea to be honest. I can't see it being a problem though i'm sure if we all fished by hand the fish population would go up drastically. I did practice catch and release with this guy as I usually do with almost all the fish i catch.

 

[hamiltonangler94]

Haha ya im sure the percentage of fish released that lived would be way higher if they were caught by hand

 

[yush_gta]

Not trying to be evil but is it legal to catch fish by hand? Just wondering!

I've also wondered about this too. Have been told conflicting info by other anglers. It seems like the most humane way to catch. Netting a fish without a commercial license or something like that is illegal no? By hand is a different matter.

Nice looking gar and awesome story.