How do I land a Giant Alligator Gar?

Me and my dad are fishing this weekend in a bayou that has some gar reaching 5 or 6 feet in length. I'm looking for people with experience catching these things. We managed to hook one last week that was about 4 feet long, but when we tried to bring it on the shore the hook came right out of its mouth. So, I made a dog catching tool out of some 1 inch heavy duty PVC pipe and some plastic coated steel cable, to form a noose at the end of the pipe. I feel fairly confident this will be sufficient but I wanted to get some feedback from other fisherman out there. Also, how might I go about de-hooking this fish without losing a finger or two. Any other thoughts on Gar fishing would be great too. Thanks everybody.