Red River, Gar and Gou, 08/05

[Fishin_Magician]

*fishin' tips in bold

Well Mark and I hit Red River this weekend for a little "rough" species fishing with the rod'n'reel. I do not like to call um trash fish because I am one that believes all fish are worthy... no matter how bad they taste! lol

But I do think I am beginning to learn from my mistakes and we had a good plan for dinner after gar and gou fishing. Throw them all back and eat frozen redfish, shrimp, and crabs from our last trip to the gulf! heh I think this was the right choice dinner was far less "chewy" this way I guarantee.

Anyways here are a few pictures.... first a few from Gou fishin.

We set up bottom fishing for gou downstream of lock'n'dam #5 about at the buoy line. We started out in the middle away from the rock and action was a little slow so we moved in just off the rocks. The gou were here and we started getting some hookups but we had allot of problems hanging leads in the rocks. I think next time I will rig slip corks to a depth just above the rocks and cast out over the submerged rock drop-off. We were using cut and live shad as bait.

Here are a couple pics from there...

First Mark bringin one to the boat...


Displaying his catch...


Here I am with a nice plump one. Often gou are skinny and look sickly but this little dude looked like he needed a diet...


After we had enough watching bottom rigs we headed downstream to the intersection of Loggy Bayou to the Red to do some fast paced casting rope lures for needle-nose gar. We were using homemade rope lures with a bit of cut shad mixed in to sweeten the deal. The best spot we have found in not far up Loggy maybe 1/2 a mile where it makes it first turn back the right if headed upstream. Fish the outside of the turn near some 1/2 submerged timber. If the gar are there you will see them rolling. Cast the rope lure right up to the bank and work it slowly down the drop-off into 20 or so feet of water. The trick is to work it slowly they like to hit it on the fall or a slow glide.

Here are a few pics of the gar action...

First Mark landing a beaut...


Displaying his toothy catch...


Just a pic of one in the water... I love that pattern in their armored scales...


here I am wrangling one at the side of the boat...


Me bringing one aboard...

[Fishin_Magician]

Displaying my catch... and my fine hat!!! lol I know its time...


And that’s all the pictures and my report from my trip to the Red. But Slab Hunter had asked for an old post I made on the making of the rope lure so I will include it here.

First this is the type of rope you want, a nylon 3 strand braid. do not get the woven nylon it's too hard to unravel.



You want to unravel the rope into the primary 3 strands and then cut a length twice what you want for your jig. (you are going to be doubling this over when you tie it off)

Here is a picture of all tools needed and rope unraveled.



Now as far as the hooks on the jigs either cut them off, or I like to bend them up into a loop to tie my trailer line to. but I guess you could just leave the hook and attach bait here to simplify...

(sorry pic fuzzy but here is a jig hook converted into loop)



Then just tie a little leader to the loop. might try wire here my mono trailers have been breaking...



And like the pic above attach a hook or small jig head to trailer leader. this will be for hooking your bait on. (live shinner or baitfish)

Now to attach the rope... just lay the strands over the jig with 1/2 hanging off either side...

[Fishin_Magician]

Then take your thread and make some wraps to hold it in place.



Over the first set of wraps (like the picture above) double the rope down flush with the jig hook shank and make some more wraps...

Now your lure should look something like this...


Once you have your jig tied off you want you cover the thread with epoxy to seal it all in place. Then take a wire brush or just your fingers and "frizz" the nylon into a rat’s nest.


Your finished product is a rope lure you can trail with a live bait or piece of cut baitfish.

~Fishin' Magician~

[Slab Hunter]

Markham,
Thanks for the post. That fellor will be tickled to see how to build the lures.

Randy

[jlaughlin72]

Looks like yall had fun. Those were some nice size goo, is that the size yall usually catch, down here in the river most of the ones we caught(been a while) seemed to be half that size. We would catch them on bush lines, best bait that we found for them was small(bout 1.5") gray crawfish/crayfish/crawdads/mudbugs, whatever you want to call them.
Thanks for the pics.

[Mo'nBack]

FM; Are there any fish safe around YOU!! Looks like a great time, even without eating them!!

[x19]

It takes alot of lead some times but when we fish the rocks below the dam we put a lighter line leader on the bottom and hook above it so the leader will break off but you will still have the hook and fish above it.I pour my own lead so losing them does'nt really bother me.You can get a mold from the pro shop or go to barlowstackle.com.They have any kind of mold you can think of from jig heads to spinner baits.

[shadow]

Markham, that is some nice pictures. Maybe one day I can catch some of the gar we have down here and feed them to you. (They really are good to eat) It looks like the ones yall were catching were needle nose?? I heard that they are Not good to eat.
Here is a picture of some of the gar we catch. Alligator gar (I don't know the guys)
http://www.rodnreel.com/POTB/PicView...ection=forward

Shrimp season reopens the 3rd Monday in August! 8-15!:D Let me know when yall want to come back down!
Dwyane

[Brikatw]

WOW!!!! You guys have just about got me ready to go now. Still got ANOTHER 3 weeks at least. This looks like a good spot for me and the Boy to go when we can get out though. Did y'all see or catch any striper???? That's anoyther of our favorites to catch. Good Job guys, Glad you had fun.:D