Fishing for longnose gar in Upstate NY with hook-less, rope flies: ‘There’s no experience quite like it’

Fishing guide John Gaulke said there’s no experience quite like it on fresh water.

Veteran angler Joel Spring said considering the fight and the size of the fish, he wonders why more anglers don’t give it a try.

They’re talking about fishing for longnose gar using hook-less, artificial streamer flies made from thin strands of rope. Gaulke prefers to use a fly rod; Spring, a light-weight spinning outfit.

“They’re not protected, not studied. Nobody seems to care. But they’ve been around for 100 million years or more. They’re primitive-looking and pretty cool in my opinion,” said Gaulke, of Finger Lakes Angling Zone, which specializes in taking clients out on Cayuga, Seneca, Owasco and Skaneateles Lakes for trout, landlocked salmon, northern pike and bass.

Spring, of Ramsonville in Niagara County, has given seminars on the topic at the Greater Niagara Fishing and Outdoor Show during the winter. Author of book on kayak fishing, Spring uses his kayak to target gar on the nearby Oak Orchard River, which he said is full of them.

“They’re not as heavy, but they fight like a pike. They stay down,” he said. “As for size, 30 inches is common. I’ve caught a couple pushing 50. The big ones will tow your kayak in a circle.”

Gar have a long, narrow snout and a mouth lined with sharp teeth. Along with their gills, they can take in oxygen by swimming to the surface and gulping air into their “highly vascularized swim bladder. Gars can survive in water with very little oxygen and even out of water completely for many hours as long as their bodies stay moist,” according to forum.americanexpedition.us.

Both Gaulke and Spring are self-taught, learning by reading up about this unique fishing activity and learning from trial and error. Both tie their own rope flies (streamers) from the core of a nylon rope and comb it out. Gaulke said he ties his around a long-shanked hook and breaks off the hook. Spring ties his around a big swivel. The end product is about 8-16 inches long and when striped or reeled in, resembles a small fish in the water. White is the best color.

The best time to fish for gar? Both anglers said late May to late August, with the most action in the middle of warm, sunny days.

Gahr, which mostly school up or hang in pods, stick to the surface of a waterway and are often visible near the water’s surface, gulping in air, Gaulke said. They vary in numbers from a few up to dozens.

And the way to catch them is sight-casting, preferably casting just beyond the fish and pulling in or reeling the rope fly by the gar’s side where it can slash at it with its beak, Spring said.

Gaulke, who teaches a couple of fishing courses at Cornell University, explained using a hook to catch them can present problems as the fish’s snout is practically all bone and teeth and a hook often doesn’t take hold. With a rope fly, the fish’s snout and teeth get tangled in the strands. Sometimes it doesn’t work and you miss the fish. More often than not, it does, he said.

“With bait, the gar basically have to swallow it before you can hook them, usually resulting in a dead fish. The rope flies allow for catch and release,” Spring said.

Both anglers practice catch and release. These slender fish are particularly bony and reportedly not very tasty.

Spring said he doesn’t use a net because the fish is so slender they often go through the net’s holes. When the fish gets close enough to his kayak, he grabs the gar by its snout, which he said “immobilizes them.”

“The hardest part is getting them untangled. It depends on how messed up they get. It can take longer than with a normal fish (caught on a hook). Sometimes three to four minutes,” he said. “You have to get all the rope off because it clamps their beaks shut. If you don’t get all the rope off and let them go, they’ll starve to death.”

Gaulke noted that once on a boat, gar and usually calmer than other fish. They don’t flop around “and go crazy like other fish” because they can breathe air, he said.

You have to watch out, though, for their teeth. Spring said. Even with gloves, he said he has gotten “a couple of puncture wounds on his hands.”

“And once I had a big female clamp on my ankle. I have a couple of war wounds from that,” he said.

The state record for a longnose gar is held by Michael Gatus of Hoosick Falls. His fish, caught in 2018 on Lake Champlain, weighed 14 pounds, 10 ounces and measured 52.25 inches. He caught it using chunk bait.

Gaulke said his biggest gar to date measured 48 inches. Spring said he has markings on his kayak paddle for 52 inches.

“If I catch one bigger than that I’m keeping it and having it officially weighed and measured,” he said.

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