Including the alligator gar, long nose gar, spotted gar, short nose gar, and Florida gar, these fish have a massive range in the United States, taking up nearly half of the country. We’ll go ahead and say that gar are incredible, and incredibly underrated. So, with that in mind, here are five unique species we think American anglers should target. And, as you broaden your scope to target less-popular species, you’re only expanding the amount of days you can spend on the water. The beautiful thing about angling is that as one season begins to wind down, another begins to heat up. Once you realize that a cutthroat isn’t any more valuable than a spotted bass and that they just “are,” then you can make the ultimate realization: that there are hundreds of species that will take a fly.Īnd that’s what we’re here to talk about today. With this perspective in mind, it becomes easy to open up our scope when it comes to the species we target. The truth of the matter is, fish don’t give a rat’s ass what you think about them or where they rank on your scale. Just the fact that the term “trash fish” exists is proof enough that we rank species based on arbitrary factors. While the social tides have started to change, traditionally there’s been a quality scale, with permit sitting squarely at the top and something like carp or ladyfish sitting squarely at the bottom. The point being, there’s a whole vocabulary and set of unspoken codes surrounding our sport, for better or worse, and this definitely includes the species we target. Is a $40,000 skiff actually more effective than a $800 jon boat or are we told that it is? For instance, it’s regarded as a faux pas to throw an indicator for many anglers, but for some reason a big foam indicator fly is a-okay. It’s hard to ignore the social influences that come along with fly fishing - and there are plenty of them.

Florida gar fishing planet guide