West Point Lake Gar Fishing - Connie Catches Her First Gar!

West Point Lake Gar Fishing - Connie Catches Her First Gar!

It's hot now! That's a really good way to start this post I believe. Not only is it hot but the Gar are out in deep water doing their proposing summer ritual. They seem to all start surfacing about the same time then all go down for a while together, and that can make for some pretty tough Gar fishing. You have to have the right cast and at just the right time to snag the Gar you want to catch; and that's how it went all day long.

Keith a Connie though made the best of it and kept making cast after cast until finally Connie scored her first Longnose Gar catch; then caught the biggest of the day.

I hear that Connie has this cousin who live to fish and is always talking about his biggest and latest catch. We'll cuss, try and top this one. Connie has caught the biggest fish on a rod and reel and WITHOUT A HOOK!!! Try and top that one!

West Point Lake Gar Fishing-Catching Up On My Posting

It's been an interesting few weeks of Gar Fishing on West Point Lake since my last report. The weather has gone from warm to hot and the water has gone from warm to too darn hot! You'd think you can't get to hot for Gar Fishing but the truth is with a full pool of water and surface temps in the low 90's Gar Fishing has been different this year than in the past 3 or 4 years.

I did manage a few nice ones though regardless but I missed more whoppers this year than ever before. My largest so far was 20 pounds and 2 ounces and measured 52 inches long. It was a typical West Point Lake Georgia Fat Boy of a Gar and put up a healthy fight of which I have the end of the catch on a video. You can tell from my reaction I didn't know it was as so big until I pulled the Gar onto the boat!

I've spent most of my time purposely missing Gar in search for that 18 pound plus fish that eludes me this year it seems. Normally I would have boated about 6 of those so I guess July will be my month.

The highlight of the past few weeks was a guide trip where Scott caught his first Gar on the fly rod. We are going back again in the morning to try and build on that first trip to the Gar I want him to snag.

Until next time, here's a few photos and videos from the past few weeks!

I know you want to schedule a trip don'tcha, so call me!

From The Archives

First Big Longnose Gar Of The 2010 Season on West Point Lake

First Big Longnose Gar Of The 2010 Season on West Point Lake

This 2010 Gar season has been an unusual one to say the least. With cool air and water temperatures and with flooding rains it's been slow, but man is it ever heating up quickly!

My last two trips have been rather uneventful, if you don't count when me and a couple of co-workers went up river right after flooding rains the day before to discover that my boat was taking on water and both bilge pumps quit working! That was a pretty scary ride back to the boat landing. George and Tim didn’t seem to upset but it wasn’t their boat, right? That problem was swiftly solved with several hundred dollars worth of hull reconditioning and two new pumps but the other detouring factors that slowed this year’s progress remained, namely cool water temperatures. With the water rapidly warming, still a full pool of water from the floods, the big girls are starting to come right on in to the shallows now, a little late but this is the yearly occurrence that gives me a good feeling that this could be the year to set a record to remember.

After going up river and catching one small Gar, my daughter Shelley and I decided to work our way into the main lake where my greatest success was earned last year. It was very encouraging to find a few nice sized Gar I could sight fish for and I soon snagged a nice one that jumped out of the water and flipped my rope lure free. After wearing this spot out chasing pre-spawn Gar that we not very interested in feeding, I switched gears and went to my original Gar hole, the place it all started on October in 2003.

We fished this spot for quite a while and we both caught a few small ones with the sun going in and out, now you can see, now you can't, then suddenly I felt that good jolt from my rod tip and I told Shelley, "This feels like a good one this time"! It didn't take very long to know I was right as the Gar stripped a good 30-yards of line on its initial run. I really couldn't see how well it was tangled so I played it very slow until I could get a good view and I finally got it close enough to make a grab for it, then there she goes again, and again until she finally got tired of trying.

My first big Gar weighed in at 18-pounds 1 ounce and measured 53.5-inched in length. It's a pretty good start for another great season of Gar fishing on West Point Lake!