What a Chunk this one was

Selling Cars and Catching Gars!

Ask For Donnie Hinkle "West Point Lake Gar Grabber"

I Went fishing by myself on my normal Tuesday off. I'm still using the 1/2oz bullet weight with my homemade rope lure. This time I thought I would stop in at the Pic Nic Basket Bait and Tackle Shop to pick up some red dye with garlic scent. I used it in the spring with good success but I've been out for some time now. I'm not sure if the dye did it but I caught my biggest Longnose Gar of the month using it. It had to weight almost 15-20 lbs. Talking about a chunk now! It was about 50 inches long and fat fat fat! I wished I had someone with me to take a picture of me with this awesome specimen of a fish. I tried to hold it while I set the timer on my digital camera but as I held it off the side of the boat in case it got rowdy that's just what It did and Fatty slipped from my hand and into the water. I guess that's better than getting bit trying to do something that difficult.

Timmy says "I'd rather be lucky than good"

Selling Cars and Catching Gars!

Ask For Donnie Hinkle "West Point Lake Gar Grabber"

Timmy and I spent the day Gar fishing. It proved to be a very frustrating day for us. We caught a few small ones but had to endure watching a bunch of large Longnose surface for a gulp and then go right back down time and again all around us all day long. We just couldn't seem to catch them. Except for this one Gar. Timmy placed his rod in the rod holder to take a leak and as he was shaking so was his rod tip. Here's Timmy's skillful catch.

Julie lands her first Longnose Gar

Selling Cars and Catching Gars!

Ask For Donnie Hinkle "West Point Lake Gar Grabber"

My daughter-in-law Julie Monteith on her first Gar fishing trip lands a nice 3-4lb Longnose Gar. I showed Julie the fishing show, O’Neill Outside, featuring Longnose Gar lake guide Terry Smith on the Coosa River weeks before our trip. She remembered Terry showing O’Neill how he uses a hair brush to brush the rest of the nylon from the teeth of a Gar. He told O’Neill he called it "grooming your Gar". So here's Julie grooming her first Gar.

Largest Gar So Far

Selling Cars and Catching Gars!

Ask For Donnie Hinkle "West Point Lake Gar Grabber"

I caught this Longnose Gar on May 28th, 2004. It's the biggest one I've gotten all the way in the boat so far. At this point in time I didn’t fully realize just how sharp a Longnose Gars scales are. While I held it up for Timmy to take a picture it suddenly started thrashing and carved a nice cut into my little finger and the rest of them too. Now, I use two gloves on the bigger ones. You see, Longnose Gar have large very thick scales on them. Each one is like a thick layer of enamel with a sharp edge on it. It's no wonder that this fish has survived for some many years. I really doesn’t have any natural enemies except for man. Here's a picture of another whopper Timmy caught about 30 minutes later. They are very hard to hold with these leather gloves. We've got to find a better glove.

West Point Lake Longnose Gar Fishing

Selling Cars and Catching Gars!
Ask For Donnie Hinkle "West Point Lake Gar Grabber"

I've discovered over the past year that a huge sportfishing opportunity has been overlooked on West Point Lake. Longnose Gar Fishing! That's right. That may seem odd to some fishermen, but don't knock it till you've tried it. After all, they pull like a race car, they jump like a Tarpon, they tailwalk across the water, and grow to be very big as well. What more could you ask from a sportfish? I believe the reason they are not pursued as often as Largemouth Bass or other sportfish is because of the fear factor involved in boating one of these hard fighting prehistoric creatures with a 8 to 10-inch beak full of needle sharp teeth. Lets face it, when you do accidentally catch a Gar you're never prepared to handle one. This is why I've set up this information site, to post my fishing success as well as educate fishermen who may enjoy learning about how to catch a Longnose Gar. Believe me. It's very exciting fishing. And you don't use hooks.