Spotted Gar Fishing Guide

The spotted gar (Lepisosteus oculatus) is the most visually distinctive of the North American gars, instantly recognized by the dense covering of dark, round spots on its head, body, and all fins — a pattern shared by no other gar species. It is the smallest of the common gars, rarely exceeding 3 feet, and inhabits the shallow, heavily vegetated backwaters and sloughs of the Gulf Coast drainage and Mississippi Valley. Like all gars, spotted gar are obligate air-breathers that must periodically rise to the surface to gulp air through a vascularized swim bladder, and they share the ancient ganoid scale armor and primitive body plan that places the gar family among the oldest surviving vertebrate lineages. Spotted gar are most associated with the cypress swamps, sluggish creeks, and oxbow lakes of the Deep South, where they coexist with alligators and other ancient fauna in shallow, warm, vegetated water. They are occasionally caught by bank anglers fishing for other species and by bowfishers.

Spotted Gar is a freshwater species.

Habitat

Spotted gar inhabit shallow, heavily vegetated lakes, sloughs, slow rivers, and backwater swamps across the Gulf Coastal Plain and lower Mississippi Valley from Kansas and Ohio south to Florida and Texas. They prefer warm, quiet, weedy water with abundant cover such as lily pads, submerged logs, and emergent vegetation. Often found in the company of alligators in Southern swamps.

Diet

Spotted gar prey primarily on small fish — shiners, sunfish, and other shallow-water species — which they ambush with a quick sideways strike. Crayfish and aquatic invertebrates supplement the diet, particularly for juveniles.

Fishing Techniques

Best Seasons

Spring, Summer

Size & Records

Average weight: 2 lbs. World record: 9.12 lbs (Rend Lake, Illinois, USA (1994)).