By Jake Bussolini
On one recent hot afternoon, I grabbed a few shiners from my bait tank and did a quick cruise around a couple of large coves in the area where I live. I wasn’t really interested in fishing that day I just wanted to see what I could determine about the current fishing conditions, which have not been very good recently on Lake Norman.
Of course any time I’m on the water I’m going to be fishing so my trolling motor may have been at a higher than normal speed, but I was indeed fishing. I noticed three interesting things that day. First, there were massive schools of shad that had finally moved back into the coves. Big shad schools had been missing since last fall. Second, there were large numbers of fish images on my sonar, but no fish seemed to be schooled. The fish however were pushing the shad schools close to the surface. Lastly, since there was no wind at the time, I saw several surface swirls that seemed to suggest that several Gar were in the area.
I had five trolling lines in the water, all set at different depths and all baited with live shiners. Suddenly one rod was hit so hard that it was nearly pulled from the rod holder. I assumed that I have been struck by a large catfish but I was mistaken. Almost as soon as the fish hit, I saw this monster Gar break the surface like a salt water billfish. I had caught many Gar in the past but never saw one jump as high as this one. Immediately the fish ran sideways and tangled two of my other lines. I wasn’t concerned about the line tangles but I knew that the only way I was going to get this fish into the boat was to tire it by letting it run. Than tactic worked and I finally got the 53 inch fish close to the boat and at the surface. My next problem was my 2 foot net. When Gar are alive, they don’t bend very easily. The next few minutes would have made a great video if I had my gopro with me. Picture a 68 inch older angler, trying to get a 53 inch fish into a 24 inch net, tangled around three lines. I guess it was 15 minutes later I finally had the fish in the boat.
Gar are not considered a game fish but they are one of the best fighting fish. They are defined as remnants of the prehistoric past, having been traced back millions of years. They swim near the surface hunting for small fish, most often at night.
Gar can’t open their mouth very wide so they search for small prey as their food. They attack their prey from the side and have a technique of rapidly turning the fish so it enters their mouth head first. Their large swim bladder is directly connected to their mouth so they often can be seen gulping air from the surface which permits them to survive in low oxygen waters that may be hostel to other predators.
Humans often misunderstand this ugly fish thinking that it might attack swimming humans but do not feat, Gar never eat things that they can’t get into their mouth.
Gar meat is edible and tasty, but it is rarely used for human consumption because the bone structure makes it very hard to clean and process for eating. The eggs of a female Gar are considered toxic to humans.
The large diamond shaped scales of the Gar are very sharp. I have always recommended to anglers that they wear gloves if they intend to handle a gar because grabbing a live fish with no gloves could very easily incur a deep wound from the scales.
I did notice one thing new with this fish. As I was untangling the fish and taking a photo, the fish gave off a terrible odor, one that I had never before witnessed. The odor was so bad that after I slid the fish across the floor of the boat to put it back into the water, it left an odor that required that I hose down the boat when I returned to my dock.
Jake Bussolini is a freelance writer that has written several books about freshwater fishing. His books can be seen at www.booksbyjake.com.