It’s been quite a week here in Texas.  Thank goodness I took Brian Iannacchione’s offer to join him with longtime friend and guide extraordinaire, Jako Lucas.  The fishing this week has been a true eyeopener.  I’ve seen great jack crevalle fishing, bull redfish like never before and had some fun on the flats.

Both Brian and I fly home tonight but before our three hour drive from the coast back to Austin, we fished a short day with Jako with one target in mind, sheepshead.  But along the way to the flats we ran into the gangsters.  We just couldn’t resist!  In less than a few casts we doubled up with the monster jacks.  The problem however, sharks.  We’ve been fortunate not to have problem sharks this week but this morning we both lost our jacks to bull sharks.  When this happens the best thing you can do as an angler is move on.  We did.

The flats were waiting in stunning fashion.  Like I mentioned yesterday, when its calm fishing is tough.  But when the view is like today – I’ll deal with a little tough fishing.  It was truly a gorgeous morning and we both still managed to coax at least a few redfish.

At first, it was only the redfish.  And they were nice ones.  For the first couple hours the sheepshead were nonexistent.  I talked about them being challenging for a number of reasons yesterday, well, we can add “hard to find sometimes” in there too!

There was another contestant however we weren’t really targeting.  There are alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula)  here and we saw several while searching for sheepies.  They don’t panic like most fish they just push away from the boat when they hear you coming.  Some of the bow waves they were creating were huge.  I rigged up my 10-weight with a large white streamer to be ready.

Brian patrolled the front and hammered away at redfish.  There were a ton of them today and they were big.  I too enjoyed them but spent most of my time hurling the big white fly for the alligator gar.  The giant scary looking gar species would be a new one for me.  I’ve cast at them before in Louisiana but unsuccessfully.  Unfortunately the dinosaur fish weren’t into me today either.  Meanwhile Brian kept landing beautiful redfish.

Late morning we finally started seeing some sheepshead.  Both Brian and I had a couple very close calls.  The finicky striped fish gave us follows and we each may have had a bite.  But their tooth filled mouths didn’t let us connect.  And sometimes we’d get intercepted by greedy redfish.

As it got late in the morning, shots at gar disappeared.  They seemed to have hidden from the scorching TX sun.  Plus there were enough sheepshead to focus on them alone.  I reeled in the rod and stowed it away.  I kid you not, within seconds of putting it away, and keep mind it sat unused for three hours because the gar were gone, Jako whispered, “Get out the gar rod.  I see one.  Seriously”.

I know how fish work and no doubt, the boys weren’t screwing with me.  “Hurry up!”, they raised from a whisper.

By the time I was ready the fish was sneaking past us.  There are lots of grass clump islands where we were and he was scooting around the back of one.  I made a lucky and perfect cast.  The fly landed inches from his nose.  I stripped and he continued with zero interest at all.

Usually if you don’t get the fish on that first cast, your chances are slim.  This gar however was still in easy range so I figured bomb him again.  I did but again, no interest.  I sort of looked away as he disappeared under a grassy bank.  It seemed over.  Naturally I looked back and he was in sight again.  I launched and it appeared I went past him so that by the time I did my first strip, it looked like I was going to snag him.  I lifted my rod tip and tried to slide it over without hooking him.  Wham!

All we saw was an explosion and the alligator gar was on.  I honestly couldn’t see exactly what happened because I had a clump of grass blocking my full view.  Brian thought the fish was snagged.  Jako thought he made a quick attack and ate it.  To our delight, this fish ate my fly.

With jaws full of daggers for teeth, I rigged my fly to 60lb Fluoro bite tippet earlier.  Even so, with teeth like this, there was no guarantee I wouldn’t get bit off.  The sooner I got him in the better my chances were.  I heaved on him hard.  The way the long fish fought was with short smoking runs, then he’d stop and I’d gain.  Then he’d smoke off again and stop.  It wasn’t a long fight but it was a strong fight.  After a few minutes he was at the side of the boat.

Now what?  Last time I landed a gar (a longnose) I got tore up by its teeth when trying to get a good photo.  That wasn’t happening again.  Especially because of the size of this guy.  His length was give or take a few of 40” and his weight likely around 15lbs.  I could lose a finger let alone get tore up.  Jako very cleverly lassoed the fish and then as he calmed down, I went overboard to handle him.

By being in the water I could lift and dip the fish while not having to squeeze him much.  With any fish, if you can keep them comfortable they often pose nicely.  It takes a lifetime of practice but lucky for me and the gar, the process went smoothly.  And Jako, as most of you know from his photos and films, he knows how to work a camera!

We released the big prehistoric looking fish with ease.  I love the way they look and watched him swim till I couldn’t see him anymore.  Very cool!  Add another species to the list!

We were at the end of our day at that point.  Brian got a few more tries for the elusive sheepshead but we didn’t break through.  We’ll have to settle the score with the prison permit (the local fly angler nickname for sheepies) at another time.

That’s the end of a great trip.  A special thanks to Brian for the invite and to Jako for bringing his top guide South African skills to Texas.  I can’t wait to fish with these guys again!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing