Start the day off as I always do fishing saltwater, yesterday it was the beach.  Nice groundswell coming in with about 15 mph wind, needed a kastamaster to get out to the trough.  I pop about a 10# jack right after daylight and gave me all I could handle, the surf can make it a tough catch.  Follow up with couple 3-4 pounders, bite went dead and I was wacked out.

About noon I go out for my daily bass fishing, the canal was beautiful with no floating grass or high weeds, fished a jerkbait.  4 or 5 small bass then I get hit what felt like a barracuda, lol, pretty nice fight.  Was the highlight of my day, don't actually hook and land many of these, just get strikes.

Nice catch! I was in Jacksonville for work training a couple years ago; ate at Clark's Fish Camp which is next to a creek off the St. John's river and saw a bunch of those. "Are those pike?" I naively inquired. Strange looks from the natives.

What sort of gar is that?

What sort of gar is that?

Looks to be a spotted gar, but could be a shortnose gar. Lots of the shortnose variety around here but they don't usually get that big and aren't usually that colorful. 

Looks fantastic which ever type it is. Fished Cayuga a couple of years ago with JFrancho and the gar seemed to be spawning. There was a lot of surface activity from them rolling and crashing all over the place, over quite deep water though. They wouldn't take a lure whatever they were doing!

The FWC refers to it as a Florida Gar, it may be it's own species, I thought it was a spotted gar myself.

I've caught them before, they hard to get a hook set on, look closely and you see it was actually snagged on the side of the mouth.

I have them crush jerk baits and s-wavers all the time, but I have never kept one pinned for more than 5 seconds. If you want to crush them just use little pieces of cut bait with no weight, sight fish and let them swallow it!

Nice catch.  Congrats.

Cut cheap yellow nylon rope in 6" sections and throw that out there.

Their teeth get all caught in the rope and (from what i understand) they stay buttoned up all the way back for a landing.

(But then you have to touch them, yuk, trash fish)

Cut cheap yellow nylon rope in 6" sections and throw that out there.

Their teeth get all caught in the rope and (from what i understand) they stay buttoned up all the way back for a landing.

(But then you have to touch them, yuk, trash fish)

 

Sure it was fun and it doesn't happen every day, but it has happened before and will again.  I don't mind targeting so called trash fish, it has to be done in a sporting manner, that would eliminate the use of rope or bait.  Fish like these are accidental catches, fun when they happen but not the intent.  The intent is a bass of that size, catching one using bait is absolutely out of the question.

Nice catch! I was in Jacksonville for work training a couple years ago; ate at Clark's Fish Camp which is next to a creek off the St. John's river and saw a bunch of those. "Are those pike?" I naively inquired. Strange looks from the natives.

 

Jacksonville has some killer fishing holes. St. John's river is one of them and connects to an inlet I have fished at whiteys fish camp when I have visited that area. 

Tats a Florida gar! A nice one too!

Jacksonville has some killer fishing holes. St. John's river is one of them and connects to an inlet I have fished at whiteys fish camp when I have visited that area. 

 

 

Sadly I had no time to find out for myself, maybe next time.

Sure it was fun and it doesn't happen every day, but it has happened before and will again. I don't mind targeting so called trash fish, it has to be done in a sporting manner, that would eliminate the use of rope or bait. Fish like these are accidental catches, fun when they happen but not the intent. The intent is a bass of that size, catching one using bait is absolutely out of the question.

I wasn't trying to insult your gar... (How is a stickbait more sporting than the rope?, the rope doesnt even have hooks.. LOL)