With a quick, sideways slash of its open mouth, a long-nosed gar seizes its prey with needle-sharp teeth.  If the prey is caught crossways in the long, narrow jaws, the gar repeatedly releases and quickly adjusts its toothy grip, aligning the prey so it can be swallowed.

The long jaws are hard and bony, making this fish exceptionally difficult to catch on hook-and-line.  They can be more readily caught on a simple, but ingenious, hookless lure made from a 6-inch piece of frayed nylon rope.  As the lure is pulled through the water, the frayed ends of the fine, silvery-white fibers undulate and flash like a small swimming fish.  When a gar strikes at the lure, its teeth become inextricably tangled in the fine nylon fibers.   This gar was caught with such a lure while fishing with “Gar Man” Jack Barnett in northern Georgia.

Size:  40 x 24 inches  (2003)

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