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A Gar Fry Fly


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Does anyone know of a reason why a smallmouth wouldn't prey upon a juvenile gar fry? (Not to be confused with a gar ball fry : ) I have a couple smallmouth streams that have a reasonable gar population and just wondered if this could be considered a reasonable fly.

 

002ab.jpg

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Yea, maybe I should call it the GARider fly.

 

Edit: Got a chance to cast and retrieve it tonight, not a bad action on the fly and seems like a believable imitation. My only concern is that unless the smallies are on their A (aggressive) game, there's a lot of fly after the hook that they can hit short. We'll see.

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Yea, maybe I should call it the GARider fly.

 

Edit: Got a chance to cast and retrieve it tonight, not a bad action on the fly and seems like a believable imitation. My only concern is that unless the smallies are on their A (aggressive) game, there's a lot of fly after the hook that they can hit short. We'll see.

 

The profile is very similar to Baby Pike streamers that are said to be very effective. It is not far from another favorite of mine.

 

RW1.jpg

 

Rich's ultimate worm is another example of a fly with the hook way up front. Predators take these flies head on. So I have minimal worries about short strikes on the regular shank hooks.

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Does anyone know of a reason why a smallmouth wouldn't prey upon a juvenile gar fry? (Not to be confused with a gar ball fry : ) I have a couple smallmouth streams that have a reasonable gar population and just wondered if this could be considered a reasonable fly.

 

002ab.jpg

 

Except for the nose, it looks pretty similar to a fluke, or in the photo below a Case Sinking Shad or Sinking Minnow. Smallies eat these pretty well. In any event, a fish isn't looking at it's food to see if it is a specie he normally eats. If it looks like food and he's hungry, he'll eat it.

 

10cw5uh.jpg

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Scott, maybe I'm just paranoid after seeing pros pitching senkos into the hawg trough at Bass Pro and then watching several big bass only partially inhale the thing and proceed to swim all over the tank with over half of it hanging out of its mouth. Ha

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Is the material something a gar could get it's teeth tangled in?

 

We should know by late July-early August. If this fly has any real value I'll send a few up your way since I'm thinking this could be a hot item on your Vermilion since I know there's a sizable gar population up there (or am I wrong?)

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We should know by late July-early August. If this fly has any real value I'll send a few up your way since I'm thinking this could be a hot item on your Vermilion since I know there's a sizable gar population up there (or am I wrong?)

Thanks Rob. You are not at all wrong. The river is full of the short nose variety. They just aren't as large as they once were. I'm guessing this is because of the lack of shad and emerald shiners. I'm guessing this is due to the large Silver Asian carp population. They seem to be smaller than in past years . I'm guessing this is also due to their tremendous numbers. I'm doing a lot of guessing lately but I guess it is just the nature of our sport.

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Your guess Professor Gillio, or shall we call it a working hypothesis seems to me to be very plausible. I know up until a few years ago, the Wabash River near me was loaded with nice gar, many large longnose in the 4-5 ft range but they seem to have gone missing and not coincidentally at approximately the same time we have seen a huge uptick in the numbers of Asian Silver carp, likely due to the large schools of Gizzard shad that also seem to have moved on.

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The sauger and walleye in the Illinois river this year have been averaging much larger than in the past. I was told that this is due to the Asian carp which supposedly have begun spawning farther up stream. Supposedly their young are a new food base for the sauger and walleye. I suppose this is possible and may be one of the better side effects of the Asian carp invasion. I have seen a few sauger just under the state record, and some walleye in the six pound range which is huge for this area.

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  • 1 year later...

Well after a few times out with this fly, I can't really endorse it much. Yea, it looks good in the vise, it looks good in the water and you can swim it just like a small gar with the right animation of your rod tip but it just hasn't produced. Yea, it draws attention and yea, you'll get followers but unless the fish is really aggressive, unfortunately they too often come up from behind and suck in about 1 or 2 inches of the tail without hook and it takes them all of about .02 of a second to realize that this is not food and let it go. Maybe if you fish in faster water or the aggressive bite is really on, it might be worthwhile but not in slower water where you can't strip it fast enough to keep them from moving in for a small taste. Just my take anyway.

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Well after a few times out with this fly, I can't really endorse it much. Yea, it looks good in the vise, it looks good in the water and you can swim it just like a small gar with the right animation of your rod tip but it just hasn't produced. Yea, it draws attention and yea, you'll get followers but unless the fish is really aggressive, unfortunately they too often come up from behind and suck in about 1 or 2 inches of the tail without hook and it takes them all of about .02 of a second to realize that this is not food and let it go. Maybe if you fish in faster water or the aggressive bite is really on, it might be worthwhile but not in slower water where you can't strip it fast enough to keep them from moving in for a small taste. Just my take anyway.

 

would stinger hook help?

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