In between tying orders, I’ve been doing some creek fishing recently. A few days ago I spotted a nice sized gar that I’ve been itching to catch. He took a bite of my fly the other day, which was a Grandpa’s Chickenhawk, but I couldn’t get him hooked. If you have ever tried to catch gar, you know the feeling. They are hard to hook because of their long narrow mouth with teeth.
In this same water there are Pumpkinseed Sunfish and I have a feeling the gar love them. There are flies made specifically for gar from nylon rope because it will get entangled in their mouth and you can pull them in that way. I didn’t want to do that, so I created this little Pumpkinseed of Doom to try out. It includes John Rohmer’s Arizona Simi Seal and a bit of Senyo’s Laser Dub. I tip my hat to the guys at FlyFishFood for turning me on to Simi Seal, it’s great stuff. I gave the fly a trailing Intruder hook for good measure. This is not a big streamer, it is a small one. Perfect for small creek fishing.
So I went out to the creek yesterday to do some fishing. I was not able to get a good look at a gar like before, but it was fine by me, because I was rewarded anyway. A nice Smallmouth Bass grabbed a hold of the Pumpkinseed of Doom and gave me a good fight. He made a few runs back and forth and made two jumps trying to shake it off, but couldn’t. To my delight, I was able to bring him in. Man I love Smallies, they are so tough!
I have not given up on the gar. I will continue to hunt for one. I’ll definitely be tying up some more Pumpkinseed’s of Doom to take with me, no matter what I’m fishing for.
-Paul
