Hello from the heartland

[JR_Gar_Fisher]

Hello from the heartland. I am JR_Gar_Fisher and my family and I live on a small farm between Perry and Stillwater Oklahoma. And yes we do on occasion fish for longnose gar when nothing else is biting. My son and I experimented with lures a few years back until we came up with a pretty good one to catch the toothy critters. It is basically made with a piece if nylon cord (no hooks) and when the gar hit, it gets tangled in their teeth. Locally we call them a poor mans marlin. When “hooked” they can and have danced on top of the water. We have caught several that have been over 48” long and would weigh in at over 16 LBS. All are released unharmed; I have a special glove to handle them so I don’t get cut up by the teeth.
My boat is a 2004 190 Bay outfitted with a Johnson 140 4-stroke. The decision to purchase a Triumph was pretty easy for me. We live at the end of 5 & ½ miles of gravel road that eats anything being towed that wears paint or gel coat. My last boat was a Ranger Cherokee (welded aluminum with paint). It was pretty chipped up when I sold it and bought the 190. Just could not bring myself to make a switch to glass. So far so good!
We have a place at a little lake about 80 miles from home where we spend most of our summer weekends. There we have a dock, screen house and a place to hook up our 5th wheel. The lake is stocked with walleye, channel cats and has good sand bass and largemouth bass. We have several gar holes when those others aren’t cooperating.
My profession is in engineering and I am employed by Ditch Witch. We manufacture trenchers and horizontal drills for a worldwide market. I enjoy being hands on and am very much a DIY’er. That also applies to working on the boat and making the modifications necessary to make it “fish”. I am married and have 2 children. My 16 year old son is my best fishing buddy.
One other thing about me that is worth mentioning is that my mother was in the federal building in Oklahoma City when it was bombed. She was CEO of the Credit Union on the 3rd floor and lost 18 of her 33 employees that day. I thank God she escaped with only minor injuries and was back on the job that same day to put the CU back together. She has since retired and now enjoys life.
You coastal guy’s don’t shun me because I fish for gar on purpose, you might land a shark once and a while and they are basically the same thing!!! HE-HE
JR

[NCangler]

Hey JR. I've enjoyed your posts and it is great to learn a bit about the art of gar fishing! I've seen them but have never been able to catch one. Your lake property sounds awesome. Nothing like fishing with the kids. Thanks for being here and for sharing your DIY mods! I am very glad that your mom was not seriously injured that terrible day. I can't imagine the loss. Thanks for posting JR!