Keith pulls a poor man’s tarpon out of the first gut.  This weekend was a ladyfish-killer weekend with the Austin Fly Fishers down on Padre Island National Seashore.  No ladyfish were actually harmed in the making of this trash.  Presumably because they are rumored to taste bad, oily– hmm… smoked fish spread anyone?

“Salad”, “moss”, “algae”, “vegetation”, whatever you want to call it… they don’t eat a lot of it, normally.  No, that’s for those asian carp.  The germans like their aquatic insects, freshwater crustaceans, minnows and the occasional egg by preference.  But sometimes, food is scarce, and the germans get hungry.  It looks worse on your leg than it actually is.  Yup.  It’s really nothing more than water and moss, as funneled through the wiley fishcarp.

Hey! Mr. Longnose Gar Fish, jump and

dance for me

Why don’t you throw that rope fly so I don’t

have to hug you

Hey! Mr. Longnose Gar Fish, hold real

still for me

We’ll take that nylon from your teeth and I’ll

be seeing you

Rope flies and river gar make a pretty good combination, at least from the angler’s point of view.  The gar tend to have a bad attitude about the whole thing.  Imagine milling around your favorite hangout one day when you notice a guy cutting up a dripping barbeque brisket for free samples.  When you wander over he puts a slice in a paper towel and you thank him and turn away.  Mouth watering, you bite into your brisket only to find out it’s really seven inches of nylon rope.

Yeah, the gar hates that, too.

The fish in the picture was 15 pounds and mad.  Flossing a gar is plenty of fun with two guys in a boat with lots of tools and gloves, and more or less doable when you’re solo.  However, I don’t recommend it when you’re paddling by yourself.  Longnose gar and kayaks go together like sex dolls and Quakers.

Found some carp in central Texas.  Threw a cast net over this one and then posed it next to a fly rod to make it all look, you know, legit.

Bass fisherman hate them, for destroying their plugs, of course.  As it turns out, bowfin are pretty feisty on a fly.

However the teeth are not quite as impressive as, say, a barracuda.  In this close up you can’t even really see teeth.

Besides having a bunch of great nicknames, bowfin are strong fighters, and you can occasionally sight fish for them in shallow water.

The sunglasses were my spare for people that didn’t have the right sight fishin glasses, but I’m not claiming that straw hat. 

The Young Jedi got the last laugh, though, when I landed my fish we discovered why it had been helicoptering through the water towards the boat.

And you thought you missed this week’s episode of Pimp My Gar.

Gar I see you hiding
But I can’t get my fly there
You’re sunning facing to the bank
And I just can’t make the cast

Just a few more days
And the water warms some more
I’ll stalk you from the open side
And you’ll take the fly and soar
Oh you’ll take the fly and soar

Oh yeah, there goes another packet of gold flashabou.  Pickerel: check.  Spring: pending.