The only gars I have landed with a traditional lure is where a hook managed to get stuck in the hinge of their jaw.
The fuzzy frayed rope can catch in the toothy mouth but you still have to play them.
We had a bunch of spotted gar in a stream pool two summers ago.
Our best technique with the fuzzy rope was to hold your rod tip up with light, steady pressure after they took the rope. They would swim a while, and then make this powerful head jerk to try and throw the "prey" back into their gullet. They also rolled their heads a little with that movement.
We never lost a single gar once you were able to play them to that point. There were some steep banks around the pool, but one spot with a sand bar just above the water level. We used that as our landing spot. We even successfully passed rods around trees with "fish on" to walk over to the sand bar.
I could not remove the frayed rope from their mouths. I would have my son hold the fish with their snout's closed, and then I would cut off rope fibers with my sharpest Rapala fillet knife.
I hope they come back this summer!
P.S. If they turn out to have some value in a pond, but they get overpopulated, then I think you could cull the gar with an air rifle. When it is hot and still, they just float like logs at the surface.
