A professional fisherman instructing a youngster on the ins-and-outs crankbait fishing found a way to change the lesson plan from casting to catching after spotting a big gar gulping air only 40 feet from his boat. On his third toss to the fish, he enticed the 5-footer to swallow his lure and was soon in possession of Louisiana’s new longnose gar state record.
Jake Ormond, a bass pro, guide, and fishing instructor from Sterlington, was on his home lake of Bayou Bartholomew July 17 when he spotted the gar just a few hundred yards from his house. He put down his crankbait rod and picked up another rod with a flutter spoon tied on. Banking on the idea that gar are attracted to “flashy” lures, he started pitching.
“I didn’t get a bite on the first cast, so I turned the trolling motor and I saw him on ‘perspective’ on the LiveScope, on the bottom,” Ormond told Louisiana Sportsman. “The second pitch, he turned, and I could tell which end was his head. The third cast, I pulled it right over the end of his nose, and he came up and grabbed it.”
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