I received a phone call from Peggy a few weeks ago. She and her family were going on vacation in East Tennessee and she was the point person to coordinate a fishing trip for her father (Bob), boyfriend (Tyler), and brother-in-law (Jesse). All three are experienced fishermen from Pennsylvania. You have probably heard the expression ” I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out”. Today’s trip might be characterized in a similar fashion. “We went to fish for gar the other day and a smallmouth bass fishing trip broke out”. As you might have already guessed this was one of those days when the smallmouth bite was slow. They caught six mid-sized smallies and a few slab-sided white bass. During the course of them fishing for smallies they started to get a few strikes from some gar. Tyler and Jesse like to bowfish for different types of rough fish in their home state of Pennsylvania but have no gar species in their home waters, They wondered if it would be alright if they fished for gar for the remainder of the trip. I told them that it was “their fishing trip” not mine and that I would be more than happy to put them on some gar. And that is exactly what they proceeded to do for the next couple of hours. Bob was a good sport and appeared to enjoy watching them land several nice gar as well as a kicker eighteen inch walleye. A picture of Tyler with a 15 1/2 in. smallie should serve as validation that they did indeed catch at least one smallie during their “River Gar Adventure”.
River Smallie Adventures Fishing Report June 15, 2020
