We headed back down to fish the Nueces River again. Was going to put out our standard drop and jug lines hoping to catch a big catfish but we were out matched by some HUGE gar. My standard line is 300lb mono with 10/0 Eagle Claw swordfish circle hooks.
Bait
We put out a 8 jugs up river and then 15 3 miles down river using cut carp Wednesday morning. That evening we started down river and just had a couple small blue cats. Right as we were checking the first jug set up river our neighbor pulled up in his boat and asked how we were doing.. We said "Not good" About then Jason picked up a still jug and it jerked out of his hand and the jug disappeared under water. Both boats sat there for 15-20 seconds waiting to see where it came up. This was a 1 gallon jug. Long story short we had no idea what to do with a +/- 200# alligator gar LOL Sucker was a freaking beast. It broke the hook after a while and that made it easy. It was on the top hook and the bottom hook had a 8-12 lb flathead which then felt like nothing. Another jug was 40 yards away and we saw it go completely under but just for a second. It had a 27# flathead and a smaller blue on it.
I have video's on some of the gar. May take a while to post them.
To sum up...Over the next 2 days we had 6 or 7 10/0 hooks get straightened and 3 lines plain snapped off. Every time we ran lines the big gar were hitting closer towards the lake. I assume we hit a trifecta of luck. Spawn, rain upriver days before we got there, and the gar all being stacked up where we fish as water slowed down.
We ended up landing 7 or 8 big gar. All released although I bet the last 2 big ones died. I had moved up to 13/0 hooks and just couldn't get the hooks out. The biggest one we got in the boat was 70" long with a 31" girth. I think the smallest was still big around 55" long.
If you hate snakes you would NOT have liked being the one pulling up this trot line LOL
Caught a couple soft shell turtles also
Bait
We put out a 8 jugs up river and then 15 3 miles down river using cut carp Wednesday morning. That evening we started down river and just had a couple small blue cats. Right as we were checking the first jug set up river our neighbor pulled up in his boat and asked how we were doing.. We said "Not good" About then Jason picked up a still jug and it jerked out of his hand and the jug disappeared under water. Both boats sat there for 15-20 seconds waiting to see where it came up. This was a 1 gallon jug. Long story short we had no idea what to do with a +/- 200# alligator gar LOL Sucker was a freaking beast. It broke the hook after a while and that made it easy. It was on the top hook and the bottom hook had a 8-12 lb flathead which then felt like nothing. Another jug was 40 yards away and we saw it go completely under but just for a second. It had a 27# flathead and a smaller blue on it.
I have video's on some of the gar. May take a while to post them.
To sum up...Over the next 2 days we had 6 or 7 10/0 hooks get straightened and 3 lines plain snapped off. Every time we ran lines the big gar were hitting closer towards the lake. I assume we hit a trifecta of luck. Spawn, rain upriver days before we got there, and the gar all being stacked up where we fish as water slowed down.
We ended up landing 7 or 8 big gar. All released although I bet the last 2 big ones died. I had moved up to 13/0 hooks and just couldn't get the hooks out. The biggest one we got in the boat was 70" long with a 31" girth. I think the smallest was still big around 55" long.
If you hate snakes you would NOT have liked being the one pulling up this trot line LOL
Caught a couple soft shell turtles also
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