I looked at the middle section yesterday on my way home and it did not look bad at all, actually looked pretty green, but that can be deceiving when you put the lights on it at night, but daytime should be good.
Love catching gar on rod and reel, it is a blast. I usually use shiners or bream, but you need to let them run with it, they will usually stop several times, after the 3rd time is when I set the hook and fight them in. They have to turn the fish and position it to swallow so that is why they are stopping after the 3rd time they usually swallow it. I use 30-40# mono leaders and smaller hooks so they can swallow it easily then all I have to do is just snip the line at the jaw to release them. I like to catch them on light tackle and just cannot set the hook in the jaw so have to allow them to swallow the bait. Good luck