2011 Longnose Gar Season Has Begun On West Point Lake

2011 Longnose Gar Season Has Begun On West Point Lake

After about two weeks of Gar sightings I tossed my ropelure in front of this nice 15 pound 51 inch Gar and he splammed it's teeth shut on it. As you can see in the video it layed down for me for a moment then once it was near the boat and saw my ugly face, it stipped out so much line that it found a tangle in my spool just as it can to a stop.

I also saw a fairly large black Gar that nipped at my lure but didn't take it. Then after moving to another location I found Garzilla! She was in about a foot of water, in a spawning mood and wouldn't have a thing to do with my lure.

In the next few weeks after this hopefully last cool front Gar Fishing will begin to really light up, and I can't wait!

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!

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!

West Point Lake Gar Fishing - 18 Pounder And The One That Got Away!

Today was what I call perfect Gar Fishing weather. It was about 90 degrees, the wind was light and the Gar were easier to see. Now if we can just get the water right. There's still a pretty heavy stain but with calm waters you can still see your target at times.

I was supposed to go into work at noon so I got up early and hit the water. I fished close by the boat ramp, an area where I caught a 16 pounder on Sunday. Well, it didn't take long to hang into a really nice 18 pound 1 ounce Longnose Gar that measured 51.5 Inches.

That was the extent of my action so I loaded the boat up and went into work for the rest of the day. My boss Mike Anderson saw me and said, "what are you doing here?" I said "you said come in at 12:00 so I'm here". Mike says, "that's next Tuesday!" I said, "well ok then, we'll see you tomorrow" and I headed back out to the lake and to a different boat ramp up river.

Man, it had gotten hot by now and the wind was light and I felt this would be a very good thing, so I buzzed my way up to my original Gar Fishing Honey Hole and man was I was right! It was one of those days when I could have caught 10 Gar but I went right into Big Gar mode. I began cruising and looking, passing up big Gar and looking for bigger Gar. As I cruised about 20 yards from the bank Gar were everywhere, but where is that Monster Gar that's is lurking just under the surface, waiting for me? I circled back around to make another pass when sudden, here she was, the Gar I was looking for and man was it big! I made the perfect cast, the Gar bite my rope and immediately began trying to back out of the rope lure like a big, mature, wise Gar will many times do. I moved to the back of the boat to turn on my video camera on then moved back into position and had just started telling about the Gar I had snagged when suddenly I felt my line go limp. I thought maybe the Gar switched directions and started moving back towards me, but nothing. You can here my frustration in the video, I had just lost my biggest Gar of the season and who knows; maybe the biggest Gar I've ever caught!

We'll, I'm getting ill just writing this thing, so long story short; I caught one more Gar that weighed 12 pounds, 5 ounces and 46.5 Inches. I had burned up my window of opportunity where the sun is high and the Gar are basking just underneath the waters surface. So I moved around a while until I got tired, loaded up the boat and here I sit. Left with the memory of a good morning, with an 18 pound trophy, but how I missing the chance for the Gar of a lifetime, and wondering what could I have done different to have landed that big Gar.

West Point Lake Gar Fishing-Jay Moore Land's His First!

Tuesday the 12th, Jay Moore and I hit the lake for a little Gar Fishing on a not so perfect day. It was cloudy and windy which are not your ideal conditions but we were determined to make a go of it. Like Jay said, "we're not working are we", and that makes a great day of well earned relaxation even if conditions aren't on our side. I knew better than to go up river due to the recent rains and heavy stain so we concentrated our efforts in the clearest water we could find for sight fishing, only the sun wouldn't participate which made sight fishing tough regardless of water clarity.

After an hour or two of trying to find our groove Jay's snagged on and the fight was on! Not what we hoped for but still a nice first-time Gar that put on a pretty decent fight. I wasn't so lucky though and only landed a small Gar that jay's could've had for lunch.

After disturbing our spot pretty well we decided to try our luck in the lake area and that was a pretty good idea even if we didn't catch a Gar. We both had several HUGE GAR follow our lures to the boat and I mean big ones! Seeing those big girls gave me great hope for a good Gar Fishing vacation coming up in the next week.

West Point Lake Gar Fishing-2009 Season Got Underway Today!

Debbie and I hit the lake today to get the 2009 Longnose Gar season underway and as usual; it took a little time to get our groove on. After checking our spots down the lake from Georgia Access we decided to go where we normally start catching Gar early season and we headed up river. At our first spot I was able to snag my first of the season, a nice 13lb-7oz Longnose that measured 47 inches. They weren't stack very deep though so we move about 5 miles up river to our best hole but it didn't take long to realize that sight fishing there wasn't going to happen. This place was heavily stained and although I hung one Gar, I let it slip off on purpose because it was only about 10lbs. I really don't like blind casting for Gar, especially on a windy day because if I'm going to go through the trouble to release one and winding up against the bank or way away from my spot I want it to be worth while. If you can't see them you don't feel very good about catching that hog either. So, we moved back towards the lake to a spot we skipped on the way up and it turned out to be the best location of the day. After presenting my lure to great big ole gal that just turned her nose up at me, I was starting to wonder if I was just going to spin my wheels all day, then a saw her; about 15 feet out in front of the boat coming dead at me. I made a cast to the side and behind the gar, sped the lure up and let it drop a little right in front of her and she went after it. It looked like the line got wrapped around her and I let my reel free-spool as the gar darted out into the deep. I told Debbie "I don't think this Gar bit the lure, I think the line is just wrapped around her". I was working very easy because I have caught a few before this way when the line would wrap around the Gar and the lure would get caught in the Gars scales and I'd wind up bring them in sideways, slowly. As the Gar got closer though I could see she was wrapped up tight all right, around that old toothy beak! After about four good long and strong runs she finally gave up and I landed a 16lb-3oz 51-inch Gar to top off the day.