Friday, May 17, 2019

Ferocious Fishing



The sun shone down on the mighty Brazos like the hand of God and we had the Lake Whitney dam spillway pretty much to ourselves. An auspicious start, fortified by a first light men's prayer breakfast with the cowboys at ORCC. Would starting the day right make for good fishing?




It sure did. We cast off into the pool with frozen shad and it was pretty much a strike with every cast. I say strike but don't be fooled, these were gar strikes and that's a different kind of thing altogether. Gar, ferocious prehistoric ambush predators that they are, are also weirdly shy.




They'll take the bait, hold it, sensing for threat, and then run with it. Sometimes they'll just take and run, but whatever the case, the temptation's strong to set the hook like you would for a bass or some kind of normal fish. 




As the Good Book says, resist that temptation. Seriously, because chances are if you try and set the hook too soon or even have too much resistance in the form of drag, the fierce but strangely scarified gar will drop your bait and swim off. And don't forget the added issue of a successful hookset in the gar's bony beak. Not easy.




That said, the Cadet sent out delicious if slimy shad into the water and played the game, letting the pleistocene monsters take the bait, meditate on it, run with it, stop for a solemn collect, run again and  then boom! Pull back and set that hook.




Rod double, big fish, leaping, monster, thrashing action. Then try and bring the beast in, which isn't easy because they'll bite through your line (use a steel/heavy duty leader) or pull your hook off into the depths in 4+' prehistoric fury.




The kid got three gar to my one, well done. However, I did manage to pull out a catfish, which evened things out a bit.

I tell you, what a lot of fun. Gar can be great gamefish, though they take a lot of patience and a bit of thought. And here's the thing, other people turned up with long-distance casting setups, they were fishing for striper, and mostly caught nothing. We caught far more and had way more action.

There's a moral here, if you care to draw it.

Tight lines,

LSP

9 comments:

Brig said...

The Cadet sure looks like his pa!
Praying with Cowboys is always on. Congrats on the catch.

LindaG said...

Around here a lot of people eat gar balls.
In Michigan we used to feed them to the garden.
Definitely a good fight!
And who doesn't love Southern Fried Catfish? :)

Have a blessed weekend!

LL said...

I’m sure that the prayer breakfast helped the luck quotient. In any event it didn’t hurt.

LSP said...

Brig, we had big fun!

LSP said...

Mmmmm, delicious, Linda.

Some people like to eat gar but I've never tried. Great gamefish though.

LSP said...

LL, it certainly didn't hurt. Now the question is, if people prayed harder, longer and more fervently, would Hillary, Comey, Brennan, Strzok & Co. end up in jail?

Well, it worked at Lepanto, and let's not forget that Charles Martel wasn't famous for being an agnostic.

Anonymous said...

Dear LSP:

Enough of these ad hominem fantasies!

Show me some drawings of Donald Trump and Elizabeth Warren venerating the Risen Christ.

What the World needs now is a whole lot more of Jesus and a lot less rock and roll.

Dhimmi

LSP said...

Dhimmi, you have a point.

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