Morning on the Black River

I had my morning coffee on the Black, literally.

Small gar were pretty active. They are becoming increasingly predictable and fairly easy to catch. I've got the retrieve down for these little guys (25-35 inchers). I've also been dousing my flies in night crawler scent, which sometimes seems to work well, other times, after my fly has been in the water a lot, I'll still get strikes, suggesting that it isn't all about scent. Blind casting is a waist of time, better to look for rising fish.

The key seems to be to figure out which way the fish are oriented after a rise and casting ahead of them. It doesn't seem like they move a great distance after a rise, so the fly just needs to be off to the side a bit (the correct side).

These are pretty basic lessons I've learned about small gar in a fairly well-oxygenated river setting. This likely differs somewhat from lower oxygen and more lake like situations (e.g. the Mississippi River backwaters) but I've less experience there.

I continue to see very large fish roll (>5') but have had absolutely no success in getting one to hit. When I see fish this large 1) it scares me, 2) I reevaluate the size of my flies and 3) I wonder what I'd do in 9' kayak with such a fish. I'd like to go toe to toe with one sometime. That might be the understatement of the year:)