The longnose gar is unmistakable as a species. It's long snout, heavy armor plating, and cylindrical body make it hard to mistake this fish for anything else. Their bony snouts are crammed full of shrp teeth, and their rear fins and tail are bunched together at the back to provide quick acceleration for ambushing prey. Adult longnose are usually grayish or brownish, rarely spotted, and black or albino color phases exist. Rear fins may be red or gray.

photo courtesy of Matt T

  photo courtesy of Krippes

This longnose gar shows shows slight characteristics of the rare black color phase which sometimes occurs in this species.

Longnose gars can live almost anywhere. In our area, they are mainly found in large river systems and the attached backwaters. However, they may also be found in certain lakes. Gars like still or slow-moving water, with an abundance of aquatic vegetation, although I've seen them caught from sandy flats as well. Gars are quite rare in the north, so you'll have to ask around and do some research just to find them. Once you do, get ready for an expedition! Longnose gars like slow-moving, weedy water with an abundance of prey. Find the prey, and you'll find the gar. Swamps, marshes, backwaters, sloughs, oxbows, and impoundments are all good places to look for them.

Gar fishing is a thrilling sport. In the areas I fish, longnose gar are caught mostly at night, on shiners, sucker minnows, or fatheads. For night fishing for gar, I use a lighted float, with the hook set to twice the depth of the water. A single large split shot two feet from the hook keeps the rig from drifting in the wind. Very sharp hooks are required to penetrate the bony skull of the gar. Once a gar takes a baitfish, it needs to arrange it headfirst in it's mouth to swallow it, so it's best to let a gar run with the bait before striking. Gar often lurk in extremely shallow water at night, so be careful not to spook them as you walk along the shore. Gar are perfectly comfortable in three inches of water at night.

 photo courtesy of Matt T

Small longnose gar are almost impossible to hook, since their mouths are so narrow and bony that your chances of a solid hookup are almost nil. Gar may be fished on the bottom, freelined, or with floats - which is probably the best method. Gar may also be taken on artificials, including flies. Flies for gar should incorporate some frayed rope into the design, since the gar will seldom hook itself on the strike. It will, however, get the frayed rope tangled up in its impressive array of teeth, allowing it to be landed. Hooks on rope flies are optional. Mepps spinners and rapalas are spinning lures that may take gar, but such lures won't last long after the gar have been biting them, and reliably hooking gar on such lures may be problematic. 

Here's a good thread about rope lure designs

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