Rob G Posted April 7, 2015 Report Share Posted April 7, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jude Posted April 7, 2015 Report Share Posted April 7, 2015 Creative tie! Don't know why it wouldn't work. Is that your own design? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted April 7, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rich mc Posted April 8, 2015 Report Share Posted April 8, 2015 may work for tarpon too. tarpon flies have the longer beak so the roughness of the mouth wont rub the line but rub the hook shank rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike G Posted April 8, 2015 Report Share Posted April 8, 2015 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. 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gillio Posted April 8, 2015 Report Share Posted April 8, 2015 I agree. This garish fly will be engulfed like a worm. I do like it's looks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Ferguson Posted April 9, 2015 Report Share Posted April 9, 2015 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. 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted April 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2015 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Ferguson Posted April 9, 2015 Report Share Posted April 9, 2015 Learning bass behavior from observing the hawg trough is like learning about love from watching Hollywood movies. It's an artificial environment and the fish do not behave the way they do "in the wild". What exactly are you paranoid about? That it's hard to hook bass on a senko? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Wright Posted April 9, 2015 Report Share Posted April 9, 2015 Excellent bug. Let us know if it hunts! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Ferguson Posted April 9, 2015 Report Share Posted April 9, 2015 Scott, Fixed! We should show that to Case Plastics as in improvement in their baits! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Clifford Posted April 10, 2015 Report Share Posted April 10, 2015 Would love to see a Case Helgie fly........just sayin! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gillio Posted April 10, 2015 Report Share Posted April 10, 2015 Rob, I may be mistaken, but is it possible that this garlike fly could be a gar magnet? It looks to be the size and shape that a gar would like. Is the material something a gar could get it's teeth tangled in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted April 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2015 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?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gillio Posted April 10, 2015 Report Share Posted April 10, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted April 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gillio Posted April 10, 2015 Report Share Posted April 10, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted August 12, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2016 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gillio Posted August 12, 2016 Report Share Posted August 12, 2016 Rob, sorry you have had limited luck with the fly. I wonder if maybe smallies just don't like feeding on gar (too hard to digest all of those tough scales and teeth). It would probably be super along the coast as a needlefish representation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike G Posted August 12, 2016 Report Share Posted August 12, 2016 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted August 12, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2016 would stinger hook help? I wondered about that as well, I think I'm going to at least tie one on and see how it works but I'm afraid it's too likely to get entangled in those long Pulgisi fibers or Congo hair to be of much use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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