Gar and Redhorse

Two friends of mine wanted to catch their Gar badly. The last two weeks had been really good for Gar fishing, but now that the fish were moving out, there were only a handful of them left in our area.

Still, we picked at fish. There were two guys also fishing for Gar and they had arrived before us. They reported no Gar caught. While we watched them fish across the river, they had one bite but the Gar came off.

When you know how to catch them, it's not hard at all. The guy across the river was sporting a centerpin reel and all dressed for the occasion, but he doesn't know the first thing about Gar feeding behaviour. Meanwhile, we were getting constant bites for a while until the Gar smarten up. In the end, we managed to bring one each to the net for both Tristan and Stefano.

When we hooked the rest of the Gar and they seemed to avoid our baits, we switched to Redhorse.

I sight fished a nice Silver Redhorse that was actively feeding.

I had polarized sunglasses and I could see the fish and their behaviour clearly. Tristan and Stefano both had trouble seeing the fish, so I spotted the Redhorse for them, guide them to bait placement, and even told them when to set the hook when I could see the fish slurp the nightcrawler.

Tristan's Silver Redhorse

Tristan's Shorthead Redhorse

Stefano's Shorthead Redhorse

Stefano's Greater Redhorse

I only caught one Silver Redhorse (and too many Rockbass...as did everyone), but guiding them to these fish felt just as good as catching them myself!