By Louie Stout
If you simply like to catch fish and don’t care what species, Kyle Hammond has some advice for you.
Try fishing for gar.
Gar record-holder Kyle Hammond
“I’ve never met a fish I didn’t like and I’m always chasing something different,” says the Fort Wayne angler who holds TWO Indiana records, the spotted gar and the shortnose gar.
He’ll fish for them from the bank, a kayak or a canoe, and has caught more than 15 this past summer.
But why gar?
“Because they are different from any fish out there,” he explains. “They have a mouth of teeth, a hard, armored body and they can breathe even when the water has low oxygen.”
He likes fishing for them in quiet, off the beaten path waters. The Maumee River around his home is a good place, but so are the small pothole lakes around northern Indiana.
Gar fishing lure
Surprisingly, he only uses artificial lures and generally ones that he makes himself.
He sneaks around, looking for the gar to hover on or just below the surface and will cast to individual fish.
“It’s like sight fishing,” he describes. “Watching them strike is really neat. They don’t fight hard but make fast runs and jump.”
Gar rope rig
For longnose gar he uses rope flies made from frayed, small diameter nylon rope sections. He unbraids one end of the rope piece then combs it out then attaches a large split ring on the other end.
The split ring is secured by pushing the rope through the split ring twice and then tightened with either a fly fishing wrap or a zip tie.
“It has a ton of action,” Hammond offers. “It shimmies and looks like a school of baitfish.”
And get this – no hook required. The moment the gar latches on, the fibers get tangled in the fish’s teeth.
He casts a foot or so in front of a gar that he sees then eases it towards the fish.
“If they see it they will bite it,” he insists. ”There’s no need to jerk hard; just add pressure. If you do it right, you will land nearly every fish that bites.”
Gar fishing lure rig
For spotted and short-nose gar, he uses a 3-inch soft plastic minnow bait. He pushes a screw-in spring lock into the nose of the bait and attaches a split ring and a treble hook. He then ties a piece of fluorocarbon line to the split ring and attaches it to another treble on the back of the soft plastic bait so that there are hooks fore and aft on the bait.
“Those types of gar have solid bone in the mouth,” Hammond says. “You need something small and sharp to get the hook into them. I will have 10 fish strike and land only 2 or 3.”