Gar flies

No hooks.  Just a few unraveled strands of nylon rope and a ring to attach to your leader.  And it better be a wire leader for these toothy SOBs.

Let's kick this off with a little fly fishing for gar. That's right - gar.

Rob Prytula with a beauty. Caught on a 6 wt. and a hookless rope fly. Gar have seriously bony mouths and hooks are practically useless.  Serious gar anglers use a short length of old, very frayed rope or something similar. The gar takes the fly, chomps on it a bit, and gets all of those tiny fibers entangled in its teeth. Then, usually, you have him.  No hook-set needed since, well, there isn't a hook. Just gradually remove slack and draw tight to the gar once you know he has the fly.  He'll let you know when the fight begins. I'll post some photos of a few gar flies soon. Thanks to Rob for the photo.  He actually caught a few of these on this trip. And yes, I'm jealous.