Hey guys, I have a questions. I find long nose gar fascinating, admiring them in aquariums and pet stores. I`m from Medina, Ohio, witch is about 20 minutes south of Cleveland. I hear Longnose are common fish in Ohio, but I cant seem to find a wild one. Id like to catch fry for an aquarium, and maybe try to introduce them to my pond. If you can give me any tips on catching them or help me locate a gar hot spot, I`d appreciate it.
Catching a baby long nose
Started by
Guest_gijosh84_*
, Jun 03 2007 02:58 PM
13 replies to this topic
#3
Guest_NateTessler13_*
Guest_NateTessler13_*
-
- Guests
Posted 04 June 2007 - 02:50 PM
Catching "baby" Longnose Gar would be difficult at this time of year because they are all spawning right now. In fact, if you went looking for them right now, you could find them in schools/shoals of hundreds in shallow water. You'd have to wait until later in the summer/early fall to find ones suitable for an aquarium. I'm not sure how well putting gar in with each other will do. You'd have to have a rather large aquarium because they grow fast and will want to eat each other eventually.
#4
Guest_gijosh84_*
Guest_gijosh84_*
-
- Guests
Posted 08 June 2007 - 06:43 PM
Thanks for the replys guys. Im racking my mind trying to find them in this area. I guess Im not looking hard enough. I figure if I could figure out where they spawn then I could atleast figure out where they would likely be later. And yes, I have a rather large aquarium.
#5
Guest_Skipjack_*
Guest_Skipjack_*
-
- Guests
Posted 08 June 2007 - 09:11 PM
Looking at records, my last years first longnose gar fry were found on june 14th. So start looking now! Kick waterwillows above and below large pools in large streams and rivers. Just as a note, if well fed they will be 12 inches long in less than a year. As juveniles, you can literally watch them grow from day to day.
#6
Guest_frogseatflies_*
Guest_frogseatflies_*
-
- Guests
Posted 10 June 2007 - 12:02 AM
I am in the same boat as the inquirer. I just recently got a nice aquarium in which I'm putting natural-to-the-area fish. I had an aquarium about 8 years back and had bluegill, other beautiful sunfish, and crawdads. All retrieved from a couple nearby creeks. Good times. I've always wanted to get baby gar (3-8 inches long would be perfect). I've wondered how to go about acquiring some. Here in Tulsa, Oklahoma we've got the Arkansas River, filled with Gar. I'm guessing I'll take some sort of small net and dip in near grasses and brushes in still water, a pond/stagnant like area, where it's pooled off of the main river flow. I've seen adult gar there. Do you think now is a good time to find them? I assume so because one SkipJack mentioned a siting of gar fish fry on June 14.
#7
Guest_Brooklamprey_*
Guest_Brooklamprey_*
-
- Guests
Posted 10 June 2007 - 08:26 AM
For the Ohio area right now is a very good time to find small Longnosed gar but do not expect these small fish to be easy to raise at this size. Finding a location where the fry are present in numbers, then coming back in two to three weeks, would be best as the fry will be beyond the delicate size by then. Longnosed fry (juveniles) can be found in a variety of locations but usually right up on the shoreline near reeds or emergent vegetation works best.
For Oklahoma:
Try exactly where you described. Going out at night actually may work better for you. Your fish will be much further along and developed than our Northern ones are as they spawned about a month or two ago.
For Oklahoma:
Try exactly where you described. Going out at night actually may work better for you. Your fish will be much further along and developed than our Northern ones are as they spawned about a month or two ago.
#10
Guest_flamingo_*
Guest_flamingo_*
-
- Guests
Posted 11 June 2007 - 06:20 PM
If you try at night, the small gar will probably be up against the shores in the vegetation, and less likely to shoot off before you can catch them. We do this with small pike and bass in early spring and late summer around midnight. Stock at those times usually differs greatly from what you'd see at about 3 in the afternoon.
#12
Guest_Duckman77_*
Guest_Duckman77_*
-
- Guests
Posted 13 June 2007 - 08:38 PM
I was out on the water today collecting sand for my aquarium. I was in an area where I'd caught baby longnose gar before. This time I noticed numerous adult longnose in the shallows. There were some beautiful spotting on the adults.
Amongst the weeds in these same shallows I caught many 3-4" longnose babies with my dipnet. I thought about keeping 1 or 2, but ended up letting them all go.
So depending on where you are, the longnose babies are out right now.
Amongst the weeds in these same shallows I caught many 3-4" longnose babies with my dipnet. I thought about keeping 1 or 2, but ended up letting them all go.
So depending on where you are, the longnose babies are out right now.
#13
Guest_mywan_*
Guest_mywan_*
-
- Guests
Posted 19 December 2011 - 05:07 AM
When I was a kid in east Texas there was a large pond or near lake with an overflow. Just down from from this overflow there was a place under a big tree root where the flow cut a fair sized pool under a tree root. You could always go there day or night and see a large 4 to 5 foot gar that hid under that tree root. Smaller one were in the more open area of the pool. Can't say what kind of gar it was at this point. I guess the prey coming through the overflow kept it and some smaller ones there fed.
If you know of a lake that has gar, and has an overflow feeding out of it, that would be a really good place to hunt especially at night. In such an area they have much less opportunity to escape than in the open water.
If you know of a lake that has gar, and has an overflow feeding out of it, that would be a really good place to hunt especially at night. In such an area they have much less opportunity to escape than in the open water.
#14
Guest_joemueller_*
Guest_joemueller_*
-
- Guests
Posted 20 June 2012 - 01:49 AM
Backwater areas at night - with a flashlight - if you are slow and calm enough, you can catch them with your bare hands. When I went, they were feeding at the surface close to shore. all were about 2-3 inch long. that was in Kansas, mid June.
Reply to this topic
0 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users
NANFA Youtube Channel 
