West Point Lake Gar Fishing - My Biggest Gar Of The Season!

Today I went Longnose Gar Fishing with Timmy Montieth (Stepson), Clint Carrington and Shane Cummings, two of Timmy's friends. It was a hot day on West Point Lake with a bit of overcast and the Gar were not surfacing much at the location I had planned on seeing them. We moved under the bridge and saw a few small Gar but nothing to get excited about so I packed it up and moved to a spot known for having big Gar this time of year. This is where Debbie caught her 23lb-6oz Gar and I caught my 22lb-11oz Longnose from last year.

It started pretty quickly with Clint landing a nice 50 incher that weighed nearly 15 lbs and quite fat. Then Timmy lands a good one but since it wasn't as big as Clint’s, we didn't measure or weigh it. As the Gar began to surface more and more we noticed a small area where the Gar were stacked in pretty good so I trolled over and within a couple of cast I got a strike! At first I didn't think it was very big but the drama increased with a few hard jolts on my rod tip and my excitement grew. Then the Gar came up to the water surface for a moment and it was a huge Gar to say the least. Not real that long but as big around as a football and a huge anxiety came over me in remembrance of the many big Gar I had had lost so far this season that came loose before I could even get them to the boat. As I fought the Gar in close enough for Timmy to make a grab for it the Gar saw Timmy and made a large splash, turned and started stripping more drag out. Then I got it up to the boat again and Timmy grab the big Gar. As the big Gar began to frail about it ripped free from Timmy's grasp with only the line left in his hand. I new that if Timmy held that line a second longer it would break would be nothing but a memory so I yelled, "Let go of the line, let go of the line" and Timmy let go and off the big Gar went on another line stripping tear. It was big and slippery and our gloves were wet now making it even more difficult to haul the Gar in. As I finally got it close enough, Timmy got two hand on the beast and pulled it into the boat and I still wasn't satisfied that the Gar wouldn't go overboard, so I told Timmy to take it down to the floor of the boat; then finally I felt safely confident that this gigantic fat boy of a Gar was caught at last! Measuring 52 inches and weighing in at 21 pounds 13 ounces, it was big enough to edge out Matt Toler of South Georgia for the "Big Fish" lead and "Angler Of The Year" on Gar Anglers' Sporting Society's online tournament, so far that is.

Some days you struggle and other you triumph, and this old boy was due for a day like today. On days like this, I love this challenging sport full of excitement and surprises called Longnose Gar Fishing!