Bastrop Bayou 9-8-2022

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Tenore
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Bastrop Bayou 9-8-2022

Post by Tenore »

Myself and two friends launched from the Clay Banks site at 7:30am. Nice, cooler day with light north wind. At the point right across from the launch I hooked into a small flounder just moments after launching. We basically explored the bayou branch that ran perpendicular to the main bayou. During the day I spotted a fair number of alligators that fortunately ignored us. I caught an 18” spec that was put into the cooler and our only keeper sized fish that day. My friends got into some fish as well although they were mostly small flounder. The big excitement for me was hooking a roughly 4’ alligator gar on very light tackle. This thing really fought but I used the drag of my kayak to tire it out. I only brought the gar along side the boat to pull what was left of my paddletail and released him. He was hooked in the extreme corner of his mouth which made it easy to unhook with a long plier. No interest in getting bitten or capsized with this beast in the boat. I ended up hooking into another gar but lost him early into the fight. This was my first time in this area and it was quite nice apart from the plentiful gators. Mosquitoes were brutal in the early morning too but did not bother us on the water.
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karstopo
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Re: Bastrop Bayou 9-8-2022

Post by karstopo »

Excellent report. Gar are oddballs, but they can happen.
imaoldmanyoungsalt
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Re: Bastrop Bayou 9-8-2022

Post by imaoldmanyoungsalt »

A 4 foot Gator Gar in a yak must've been a heck of a ride. I caught this Longnose a few weeks ago and it was an incredible fight but I imagine that Gator Gar was even more so!
IMG_4258.jpg
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karstopo
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Re: Bastrop Bayou 9-8-2022

Post by karstopo »

7BB04CC5-1A83-4F4B-B7F4-5055CA49D45D.jpeg
7BB04CC5-1A83-4F4B-B7F4-5055CA49D45D.jpeg (78.91 KiB) Viewed 748 times
Gar will bite lures at times.
imaoldmanyoungsalt
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Re: Bastrop Bayou 9-8-2022

Post by imaoldmanyoungsalt »

I quite often hook gar on lures......actually getting them to the boat and landing them doesn't happen very often :shock:. Like Tenore, I got lucky on the one in the pic and hooked him right in the upper, back part of the jaw (corner of the mouth) and the hook came all the way thru the outside of his mouth. It kept the line away from his sharp teeth.
This one was hooked in the end of the snout but the line wrapped around his snout and and thru the treble hook on the lure, making a half hitch around his snout keeping his mouth closed during the fight.
rodneybrazosgar.jpg
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