Markus, Snag and Bacon's Gar adventure

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Markus
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Markus, Snag and Bacon's Gar adventure

Post by Markus »

Bacon and Snag made the trek from Ottawa to enjoy a bit of Great Lakes fishing. After washing lures yesterday evening at Port Weller/Dalhousie on Lake Ontario we decided to change our target species for today.

We decided to target Gar! Both Bacon and Snag have never caught one, so we loaded up the baot and made our way out on Lake Erie.

We located the gar and went to work trying to figure out how to catch em. RJ and I learned a few days ago that getting them to hit wasn't the problem...getting them hooked was. After trying various baits and methods, we came up with an awesome set up! And now we started landing fish, but we're out of minnows! So worms and twisters had to be substituted into the rigs. Still got the hits, just not as many.

I banged off the first 2. Twins. back to back 30 inches.
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Then Snagglepuss hooked into one and had her first ever gar in the boat! 28 incher.
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I boat the 4th one...a tiny 19 incher and Bacon is starting to feel the presure. He asks that him and I switch spots on the boat. The fish are obviously over there. So we switch spots and I instantly set the hook into another decent gar. After playing this 40 incer and getting him boatside...comes the task of landing the creature. Bacon (team captain of the Bassturds :roll: ) helps me with this task. Bacon puts his big mitt firmly behind it's head and in an instant he's gone. :cry:

We resumed our positions at the back of the boat and with a monsterous hook set Bacon is into one. This one has weight! Suddenly the water breaks 40 feet behind the boat and there's a huge gar tail walking at the end of the line! It made two huge jumps and gave Bacon a run for his money. Bacon brought the fish along side of the boat and now it is my turn to land his fish. :lol: Using both of my arms like a cradle, I pulled the beast into the boat and Bacon had his first ever gar! We celibrated, took a few pics and prepared the fish for transport! This monster has an appointment with my taxidermist.
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Bacons 46 inch gar was the highlight of the afternoon! Bacon also boated his first gobie and I managed 3 smallies. The weather was awesome today and the boat company even better. I'm sad to see Snag and Bacon leave in the early AM. I wish we could spend one more afternoon on the water.
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SALMON
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Post by SALMON »

:shock: What can I say...work work work... soon I can fish again.Great catches everyone!
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Post by Muskiemagnet »

Nice gar guys, looks like the gar are starting to school up again in the cooling waters. Time maybe to hit the secret spot on the Ottawa. :wink:
How deep is the water you getting those gar? With the water on the river rising after that rain action should be pretty good.

Markus, I hope you can still make it up sometime for a Muskie adventure. The big ones are still in my area. I'll try to keep on top of them.
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Post by Wall-I-Guy »

Wow, what a blast that must've been :!: :shock: Nice fishing there guys :!:

Can't wait to get down and try that myself....Wahoo!!...
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Post by wolfe »

What a fun day for everyone. It's always nice to catch what you target! Way to go, everyone, especially you BACON!!!! That's a BIG'UN !

W.
Thanks, Dad, for taking me fishing when I was a kid.
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Post by fisher »

WTG,every one.nice pictures.
You didn't try to lip that monster C.B, did you :shock: :?:
We saw a whole bunch of them GARS in Trent years ago.they were hugging the shore wall you could reach out and touch them,we threw every thing at them but they wouldn't bite(didn't have minnows)how do you guys get them to bite?and how do you rig the bait Markus?
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Post by slushpuppy »

OK, no fair. Looks like Bacon used his Martian powers to catch that thing. You forgot to hide the antenna before taking the picture :!:
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Post by CDF »

Some guys (and gals) have all the fun!

looks like you all had the time of your life...

good job,

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Post by RJ »

Nice fish Big Man!

What was the rig that you used?

RJ
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Markus
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Post by Markus »

We threw everything we had in our boxes at them. I tried small hooks with a minnow and float, Bacon tried crankbaits, Snag worked the plastic...hits, but no hookups.

There had to be a simpler way. The problem with missing the fish was the hooksets. You could feel the them take the bait and start swimming with it, but you'd just end up pulling it away from them. How could this be solved?? :!: A stinger hook! I tied on a 1/4 ounce jig head and left a 18 inch peice of fishing string and direct tied a trebble to it.

This worked like a charm. When the gar would take the bait, they would scissor the stinger bait line. When you set the hook and pulled the jig head from the gars mouth, the stinger hook line would floss through the fishes mouth and the treble would set on the outside of the beak or in the side of the face. We still of course experienced break offs, but I think by changing the line to something heavier will help with this.

Too bad we ran out of minnows. We still got them to hit worms and twistertails, but the minnows worked 10 times better. I can't wait to try for a few more gar tomorrow night with WIG.
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Post by M.T. Livewell »

WOW!!! Very nice guys!!!!

M.T. Livewell
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Post by wolfe »

Slushpuppy, you are too funny!!!!

Nice "antenna", Bacon. :wink:

PS: signal received from the Mothership. Leaders are very pleased with your enormous gar.
Thanks, Dad, for taking me fishing when I was a kid.
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ken & Jo
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Post by ken & Jo »

Awesome fish! Is Bacon's bigger than the one you just had Mounted Markus?

You ever tried a nylon rope as your "hook"? Apparently the fishes fine teeth get wrapped in the rope and your hookup ratio may well improve. Sounds like it would work. I'll try and find the article where I read about this Gar hunter that used this technique.

Ken
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Markus
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Post by Markus »

ken & Jo wrote:Awesome fish! Is Bacon's bigger than the one you just had Mounted Markus?
Ken
Ya his was much larger. I had a 36 incher mounted...it was my first gar and was a very special day I had on the water with family from NS. Bacons was 46 inches with weight! A really nice fish. I believe the one MuskiMagnet landed this spring was bigger yet.

I have Bacon's fish here ready for the taxadermist. It's gonna look super.
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big-o
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Post by big-o »

Nice Gar.....I think Bacons is the biggest i've seen this year :shock: ....No rainbows??????
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