I just started renting a house on Buggs Island while I work on a project nearby and have noticed several gar living in the cove we are on. Anyone have any suggestions for what to throw at them? Terminal tackle suggestions would be helpful as well (leaders, etc?)

Down in south Florida, they will bite at crank baits, spinner baits and soft plastics.Keep in mind they have sharp teeth so you may not want to use any expensive tackle. Watch your fingers. You will need pliers or a knife to cut them loose.

Why target gars? There are probably a few bass or other species more worthy of your time.

Why target gars?

This would be my question.

And you see my name.

Real shallow and small cove. I've tried just about everything and managed only two finger size bass on a nightcrawler while trying to catch catfish bait.

I've never caught a gar either.

Gar are a blast to catch I've caught citations (VA 42") the last two years.Bad news is that September is prime time for gar and the water is getting a little chilly now. They are very tricky to catch you should use a palm sized bluegill or the largest minnows you can buy at the tackle store. Use an steel wire leader with a cheap hook (one that will rust away eventually) the eagle claw ones work fine. Put on a slip rig bobber with a tie stop at 3'-8' then a small bullet weight above a swivel clip, put the wire leader on the swivel clip and hook the large minnow or bluegill between the eyes (gar will eat dead minnows also). I put about four of these rigs out at 3',5',8', and 10' deep and see which depth I catch the first couple on then switch all my rigs to within 2' of that depth. When a bobber goes under or starts movin start a stopwatch and feed line off your reel to the fish for 3 minutes, if the fish is still on after 3 minutes then make sure it's not swimming towards you and set the hook.

cut the wire leader off as close to the fishes mouth as you can (Watch out for those teeth)

these fish are prehistoric and are very cool especially when they are all gulping air and you see them breaching constantly in your fishing area.