I thought Garfish were freshwater but i’ve caught a gar 3 times in Bohicket which is a saltwater creek. I was also wondering if they are territorial because it seems to be the same fish everytime. I also caught it on video under my dock on the link below. If anyone can tell me some info on these or if anybody is also catching them in saltwater I’d love to hear.
The video is from 4/3/2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgiEGnSuwlk
The picture is from May 31, 2014
Those are hard as heck to hook! In the summer they are thick around our dock on the Ashely. It is not in common for us to look down under the lift and see 5 or 10 just siting there. I’ve spent countless days siting out there trying to set the hook on one. I read online onetime that people use baits made of " frayed rope" so that it will get snagged in their teeth. I’ve never tried that but it sounds like it would work … Good luck
Small hooks work and use tiny minnows. I used to fish on the Ashley river growing up and and there was a ton of Gar in that area and they were always under this oak tree and they would eat bugs off the top of the water. I’ve always wanted to try to catch one on a fly but have never got around to it.
Was told this would work
Take white cotton twine ( like cooks use ) cut 10-12 pcs about
6in long, lay side by side, tie fishing line to center of bundle,
fluff twine as much as possible and add 1/8 oz split shot to line.
When wet it sorta puffs up like a big bug.Gar can’t resist it but also can’t spit it out either.
I used a live mullet on a bottom rig to catch the gar in the picture above. I brought a fairly large one up to the boat but didn’t hook it. It was just hanging on to the big menhaden I was using as bait.
My son legit hooked one on arty. A big one. It jumped like a marlin. Luckily it broke the line. Some times if you get a definite bite again and again but can’t hook up, it’s agar. BOSN and I learned that one day. They will grab it and let go
I didn’t know there were so many gar around Edisto untill while running a creek I ran across 2 guys in a jonboat pulling in a gill net, WOW 100s of them!
Those sumbiches get big! My son caught one on a Mickey Mouse(The Disney dude) rig when he was about 6 years old. That little plastic outfit was toast after he finally got that toothy bait stealer to the oyster bar we were fishing from. That dinosaur was about 15 pounds. I had to teach that kid how to fish a spinning reel after that, and buy him his own rig. He learned to keep his bait in the water on that trip!!
See them all the time on the Wando as the water warms up. Def a pain in the a$% fish. Rope trick will take care of them. Used to do that on Murray growing up. A big one will put up a decent fight, but that’s all they are good for.
