Gar On A Slim Dog

Fishing the thunderstorms this afternoon gave me another chance to toss topwater baits and even catch a gar on a Slim Dog.

Left the house around 4:30 pm during a thunderstorm and headed to Gator Creek road.  

It was raining on and off, mostly on, and there was a slight wind over the water when I got to my fishing area.

There was absolutely nobody in the area when I started blind casting a white XPS Slim Dog topwater bait over the weedy flats.

I had a couple of followups without any hits and one small ladyfish that danced all over the flats before jumping off,  so I smeared up the new Slim Dog with some Pro-Cure and continued casting the area.

The Pro-Cure did the trick.   On the first cast in the new area, I hooked a gar that put up a decent fight for it's size.  I took a couple of pics before releasing the fish and continued casting in the rain.

A gator that was watching me cast my topwater bait really got interested in what I was doing when I threw the gar back.  It began to follow the next couple of casts.

Evidently it was my day for gar because after a few more casts, I hooked another gar that was a bit smaller.  I released the fish and decided to move out of the area when the gator got way too inquisitive.

The rain was slacking up when I moved to the last spot I wanted to fish.  I missed a couple of juvenile tarpon here almost every day I went fishing so I decided to try it again today.

After several unproductive casts, I tied on a baby bass pattern Chug Bug and smeared it up with Pro-Cure.   This area was a lot calmer and walking the dog didn't seem to be putting down the fish.

I waited five minutes or so till things calmed down and tossed the Chug Bug to the opposite bank.  The lure briefly hit the grass as I flipped it into the water and slowly started chugging it back.  

The plug was about 8 feet from the bank when a juvenile tarpon nailed the plug and started jumping all over the area.

The fish put up a great fight and I almost lost it into the mangrove roots twice but I finally landed it and took a couple of pics before putting it back where it belonged.

I fished the area hard for about 20 more minutes before giving it up for the day.

I'll be going back there again this week for sure.

Till next time, Tight Lines