Trash on the Fly

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 [...]

Got a call from The Young Jedi; man has been bustin a cap on some carp on the flats lately.  One day in 2006 we bolted out of work early and went straight to the lake and I showed him the joys of lead core on a running line and he got his rod bent [...]

To the tune of “Beth” (Kiss): 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 [...]

I went back to the site of Apex Trash.  I was hoping for another alligator gar– maybe even a bigger one.  When I got to the spot, there were gar rolling, and I couldn’t see them while they were near the surface long enough to be sure, but, I hoped they were all alligator gar.  After [...]

All the chatter on the net lately about gar on fly makes me wonder if I should post a bunch of old gar pics.  Or new gar pics… ironically it was gar that really got me motivated on trash fishin.  Early on, I went on a lot of wild goose chases and had a lot [...]

We have all seen thousands of hero shots, the standard grip-and-grin, front cover of a magazine shot.  And, most of us are tired of them, unless there is something truly special about the picture– a guy with no arms and a grander marlin in his lap, a 5 year old girl hugging a fish twice [...]

I was cruising along on my way to a virgin flat when I noticed some small pops on the glassy surface.  I took a harder look and cut the motor without bothering to throttle down first.  By the time the boat came off plane I was already reaching into a rod locker and within seconds I was casting [...]

Wikipedia defines apex predator as …predators that, as adults, are not normally preyed upon in the wild by other large animals in significant parts of their range. In other words, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Grizzly Bear, Bald Eagle, Great White Shark– most of us would just call them badass. trashonthefly defines trash* as Fish species that under-observant anglers [...]