There’s rarely a warning. Not with pike. When a striped bass attacks a topwater fly, you often see a boil or a swirl before the toilet flushes. Snakeheads will track a foam frog and wake the surface ...

I have fly fished for various warm-water fish. I have cast flies for bass, catfish, panfish, and carp. The one species I had not cast my fly toward, until now, was a gar. I had heard about it. But ...