Lake Amistad Family Night Fishing Adventure

Alligator Gar

Alligator Gar (Atractosteus Spatula) Description

The Alligator Gar resembles its namesake, the alligator. With long bodies and a jawline full of sharp teeth, they look like the tenacious alligator but actually are fairly passive when it comes to humans. The Alligator Gar is one of the largest freshwater fish in North America and the largest in the gar family. Their prehistoric look gives them their accurate nickname ‘primitive fish,’ since they keep certain characteristics of their earliest ancestors. 

The Alligator Gar is a ray-finned euryhaline fish that typically reaches around 4 - 6 feet in length and around 100 -160 pounds. They have elongated snouts with a lining of razor-sharp teeth. These fish are typically brown or olive-colored while fading to a gray or yellow on their stomach. Unlike other fish, Alligator Gar have rhomboid ganoid scales that resemble bones, kind of like dinosaurs. Ganoid scales are incredibly strong armor, giving them an advantage in their defense against predators.

Interesting Facts

 The alligator gar has a similar digestive system to sharks, leveraging a spiral valve intestine, a more ancient fish characteristic before years of evolution. 

Alligator Gar can breathe in water as well as above water, allowing them to prey on anything from small fish to even birds, small mammals, and reptiles above the water.

Distribution and Habitat 

Over the years, the Alligator Gar’s habitat has diminished due to habitat destruction, segregation, and unrestricted harvests. Today, they primarily reside in the southern portions of the United States. They are typically found inshore of lakes, rivers, bayous, and backwaters in the states of Mississippi, Florida, Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. While there have been reports of Alligator Gar as far north as Nebraska, those are rare and have not been confirmed in quite some time.

Fishing Techniques - How to Catch Alligator Gar 

Catching an Alligator Gar ain't easy. There are a variety of techniques and methods to catch one. Methods include legal bow fishing, rod-and-reel, and passive gear such as juglines, limblines, and trotlines. Bowfishing is regulated as a lethal method to catch these fish in most states, however,  once a gar is shot with an arrow, it cannot be released.

Even though the Gar spawns in brackish waters in spring, the best time for hunting them is in late summer in hot and dry weather.  They can be found in deep river bends adjacent to shallow pools.

The best bait to use is common carp, smallmouth buffalo, gizzard shad, and mullet and shiners. Rig them on a 5/0 to 6/0 treble hook tied 6 inches below a bright-colored 4-inch in diameter bobber.

It is illegal to keep an Alligator Gar.

Common Carp

Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio) Description

The Common Carp is a popular game fish that thrives in warm freshwaters. It has a golden-yellow hue on its body mixed with olive color on its top and face. They are heavy-built and have a barbel on each side of their lower jaw, just like some catfishes. These barbels are whisker-like sensory organs that help the fish get a taste of their environment; making them alert for both food and predators.

They’re mostly found in waters that are stagnant such as lakes, lagoons, sloughs, reed beds, and slow-flowing rivers and they easily thrive in both clear or murky water. The common carps are voracious bottom-feeding omnivorous.  They eat aquatic plants, bottom-feeding insects, crustaceans, crawfish, and worms.

Interesting Facts About the Common Carp

• The common carp is not native to the US. It’s the 3rd most introduced fish species in the world and is considered as pests in some countries, including the United States. They have a knack for dislodging aquatic plants which destroy some homes of tiny fishes and in turn reduces the number of both plants and other fish species. Though they can be destructive, they do have benefits such as dispersing seeds of aquatic plants. It’s just that in some areas they lack predators to keep their numbers in check.
• They were brought in the US mainly for food but did not become a popular choice by the general market.
• Wild common carps and domesticated ones look slightly different. Wild common carps have a slimmer body compared to domesticated ones which are stockier and a bit rounder.

Common Carp Size & Speed

Common carps are known for their stocky built body. Anglers love their fighting spirit; they trash around and they don’t get tired quickly. They are large fishes with average sizes of 15.75 - 31.5 inches and their average weight is 4.5-31 lbs. Anglers would often target the carps that are around 20 pounds or more as these are the more challenging game fish. They can also grow to enormous weight and sizes. The longest caught was 47 inches, and different anglers around the world caught 100 pounders (though the biggest one is 100.5 lbs).

Fishing Habitat & Distribution of the Common Carp

The common carp is known as a hardy fish that thrives in most areas around the world, including North America. You can check the nearest lakes, inlets, and ponds in your area and you will most likely get a catch of this carp.

They prefer water temperatures of 35-85 F° but look for temperatures of 73.4°F and 80°F if you want to catch a good 20 pounder carp. They mostly stay at the bottom but they do go to the surface to catch some insects or if people are feeding them bread.

During fall and spring, they come into the shallows and feed aggressively. It’s also the time where they gather in large schools to spawn their eggs. They can lay about 300,000 eggs in a single spawn, which is why it’s hard to eliminate the fish where it is considered invasive. Once summer hits, the carps spread out and they go slightly deeper, about 8-12 feet deep. During winter, they become lethargic but they will grab food if given the opportunity.

Fishing Tips to Catch a Common Carp

Carp fishing is popular among anglers. They’re known for their strength, which is why anglers who want to test their skills are quite fond of this fish. There are various ways to catch common carps; you can do it through fly fishing, sight fishing, or fish trolling.

For the equipment, a nine-foot rod is a standard length for these freshwater fishes. Using a 7 or 8 weight is good for carps around 10 pounds. If you want to catch 20 pounder common carps, use a weight of 9 or 10. For hooks, best to use #4 or #6 circle hooks for the 10-20 pound range, but you can use size #8 or #10 if you feel like you’ll be catching more than 20 pounds.

Seasons come in factor when you’re trying to catch a fish. In winter and fall, the common carp will be more active during the highest temperature of the day, which is the early afternoon. In summer, try to fish at sunset and sunrise where it’s colder in the day. 

Always check the water where would you think they eat or stay before you set your gear. Check where insects stay or where the water is more active. These fish tend to get spook too easily; Try to avoid using shiny metallic rods or reels that glisten in the water as these might scare them. Don’t move your rod too much as that might spook them, too. Let your lure stay still and wait for the fish to take your bait. Use a hair rig if you’re trying to catch this fish from the bottom. A hair rig works great for carps that are hook shy as this will help them avoid seeing the hook.

Acquiring baits for common carps is pretty easy. You can use bread, corn, and boilies. Bread is more effective for carps that live in ponds since they are familiar with it. The downside with bread is they fall off too easily. Most anglers use corn as they don’t fall easily like bread. Boilies are the most expensive, ranging from 4- 10 dollars, but they don’t fall easily and carps love them.

Mozambique Tilapia

Mozambique Tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) Description

The Mozambique Tilapia is a small brackish water game fish. It has a grey to black color with a tinge of grey-blue. It has a deep compressed body, its dorsal fins are long, and the front part of the dorsal fins have spines. Its underbelly has a pale yellow or cream color, and its scales are large.

Size and Diet of the Mozambique Tilapia

The biggest Mozambique tilapia was 15 inches long and weighed up to 6.8 lbs. On average, they can weigh between 1 to 2 lbs and usually grow up to 12 inches long. The Mozambfique tilapia is an omnivore. They will almost eat anything, from algae, rooted plants, small invertebrates, younger Mozambique tilapia, and even the feces of other animals.

Interesting Facts About the Mozambique Tilapia

• The Mozambique tilapia builds a nest, like other tilapia species. They make small holes where females lay their eggs in these holes if they are attracted and the males will cover the eggs with sperm.
• The Mozambique tilapia is considered an invasive species. They originated from Africa but were introduced in Florida during the 1960s as a game fish and to manage the invasive plants. Unfortunately, this hardy fish’s numbers got out of control and spread throughout other states.
• You can tell when a male Mozambique tilapia is ready to breed, its lower jaw becomes elongated and its forehead becomes concave.
• This species often interbreeds with other tilapia species such as the Nile tilapia and the Blue tilapia making it harder to control the population of the invasive fish. It’s even considered as one of the top 100 invasive species in the world.
• The Mozambique tilapia is known as a hardy fish that can survive high salinity waters, both brackish water, and saltwater. It is also one of the reasons why they are considered a difficult invasive species to deal with.

How to Fish a Mozambique Tilapia

Despite having a large number in the population, the Mozambique tilapia can be hard to fly fish since they can easily get spooked. First, check the water condition and try to spot tilapia nests. If the water is murky, then it is safer to cast near them but if the water is a bit clearer, then cast farther from them. So, cast slightly away from the spot to avoid scaring the fish and slowly entice it along their way with a figure 8 retrieves.

Here are the recommended gears by anglers to fly fish in a Mozambique tilapia. Use a 7 to 9 foot 5 to 7-wt fly rod equipped with a 4 to a 6-wt floating line. For the leader, you can use from 4 to 8-lbs monofilament line and a #6 to #4 hooks for their small mouths.

Good flies to use are popping bugs, fritz, nymphs, or bug-type flies. According to anglers, the effective colors to use are white. For the baits to use, the recommended are minnows, worms, and nightcrawlers. You can also use easy access baits such as corn, bread balls, and peas.

Habitat and Distribution of the Mozambique Tilapia

The Mozambique tilapia is an invasive species in the US. Originally, they are native fish from central and southern parts of Africa where they thrive in rivers, lakes, swamps, estuaries, inshore and coastal waters. Sometimes they can even be found in open seas. In the US, they are mainly found in Houston, Florida, and even in Hawaii. They also thrive in manmade structures such as canals, drainages, creeks, and ditches.

They prefer warm tropical water temperatures ranging from 63–95 °F and where the waters are shallow. You can catch Mozambique tilapia any time of the year, but their peak season is during spring and fall.