gatorgar

[Phone]

All,

 

There has to be a "fishing" topic worth discussine. In 2001 I posted this (I still had it on Word). Vagabond was going on holiday to Texas to "get hiself" one - on a trip to see family I believe(?). Vagabond, were you successful? Alligator gar or longnose gar?

 

Here's my 2001 post:

 

Gatorgar are very distant cousins to "pike". I though this would be a coarse fishing topic.

 

My home is "gatorgar" country. When I was a nipper, I had a job on the Missouri River as a commercial fisherman's helper. Gar were loathed. Shot with handguns without mercy. Of course, now an old man, I have sense learnt better. I thought you would like to know the Phone lore for gatorgar.

 

The largest I have seen was as a boy and it was probably 7 ft and around 150 lbs. The documented record is 9 ft 8 1/2 in. weighing 302 lbs. The hook and line record is 279 lbs. The 279 lb fish was caught in the Rio Grande River Tx. in 1951. (Not far from where Vagabond is going on holiday.) Probably hasen't been a 50 pounder from the Rio Grand since at least the 60's and a 10 is real rare. Gatorgar is a sought after source of protein for poor folks along the border in Texas although it is rather rank eating itself.

 

The gatorgar got it reputation from its voracious appetite. They can eat there weight in food fish every day.

 

The lower Mississippi River "sporting method" for gatorgar fishing was jugging. A two liter pop bottle for a float and steel or heavy braided line with a two pronged hook is tied securely to the jug. A stout 6 foot pole (just a stick) is attached along the length of the line at the jug, to prevent a hooked gar from eating the jug and/or the fisherman. A 2 or 3 pound carp was used for bait. The rig was set free to float all night. The next morning we would go "spotting". Sometimes it would be several miles before a jug with a fish was discovered. Gatorgar thrash, belch, and jump in spectacular fashion when prodded. They would pull jug and stick under water and not come up for maybe a 100 yards or more from the boat.

 

If someone wanted a gatorgar they are so tough that they had to be skinned with a hatchet. Only about 50% was salvagable.

 

The most unusual feature of a gator gar is that after they get to about 75 - 80 pounds they become females.

 

The only place I know for sure that big gatorgar still exist is the White River of Arkansas (near home) and its confluance with the Mississippi.

 

My alltime largest freshwater fish is a gatorgar at about 83 lbs.

 

Phone

Questions?

[Tigger]

They sound like a brilliant fish. Would they take lures ? I would imagine it good fun targetting the smaller one's on ligth tackle.

[Vagabond]

Vagabond, were you successful? Alligator gar or longnose gar?

 

Only spotted gar, although I have the skeleton of a small 'gator gar found beside Lake Travis, and I hooked a longnose on a Mepps spinner on the South Llano River which shed the hook, I was after Guadalupe Bass at the time - if I had been after gar would have fished with strand of semi-unravelled rope (their teeth get entangled.)

 

BTW the freshwater gars are more closely related to the sturgeons than to pike. They have ganoid scales - I'll do some pics tomorrow.

[Phone]

Tigger,

 

Yes and no to the lure question. Actually, I described the "old fashioned" way of catching them. Today, most just use a 6 - 10 inch length of nylon rope that is slightly frayed then soaked in chicken blood . It doesn't require a hook. The direction of the teeth doesn't allow them to "throw the hook". Other methods include putting a small fish or chicken parts in the toe of a ladies stocking. Works like the rope, they can't throw the nylon stocking either. Traditional lures are not to common - but possible. The wire trace has to be almost cable strength as they can bite through a #6 or #7 wire trace. I say that but there are "flyfishing" records. I'm not sure how that is done.

 

My 83 lb. fish was caught accidentally. It was in Vicksburgh Mississippi under a gambling casino (moored boat) on the Mississippi river. They throw lots of table food overboard and carp congregrate in this stretch of the river. I was carp fishing (freelining). I was using a fishmeal doughball (paste). The gar actually wrapped it's long snout up in my mainline. It took a long time and lots of patience to land the fish.

 

Alligator gar are not customairly fished for with light tackle. A different story for its smaller cousins the longnose gar, spotted gar, and shortnosed gar. They are indeed a BLAST! Their mouth is EXTREMELY tough and hard to set a hook into.

 

Phone

Edit:

 

OOPS sorry Vagabond, I was typing right over the top of you.

Edited September 30, 2011 by Phone

[Vagabond]

My 83 lb. fish was caught accidentally. It was in Vicksburgh Mississippi under a gambling casino (moored boat) on the Mississippi river. They throw lots of table food overboard and carp congregrate in this stretch of the river. I was carp fishing (freelining). I was using a fishmeal doughball (paste). The gar actually wrapped it's long snout up in my mainline. It took a long time and lots of patience to land the fish.

 

 

OOPS sorry Vagabond, I was typing right over the top of you.

 

No problem phone - that account of your big gar is good stuff.

 

There is a similar place on Lake Travis, although it is not a gambling casino, but a restaurant which serves a mean Cajun chicken and fries. Anyway, lots of food gets thrown overboard (it must be the only restaurant in Texas where the plates are cleared before going back to the kitchen.)

 

Dined there once, and although we all cleared our plates (as a family we never leave food on our plates), adjacent tables provided a steady stream of surplus food, which attracted large numbers of carp and channel cats up to about twenty-five pounds - all swirling and competing for the scraps. Big notice up "No Fishing"

 

Anyway, here is the only photo of gar I have, a couple of small "spotties"

 

Dunno where that gar skeleton has gone, I put it away "safe" somewheres

[Tigger]

They don't look as powerfull a fish as a pike. Their mouth is a lot slimmer and they look a lighter framed fish...in the pic's any how.

I suppose the fact that they grow so large in comparison to a pike would possibly make them more of an attraction.

[Tony U]

Phone are you aware of any "Gator" Gar in the Red River around Shreveport La. we have been invited out there to stay with relatives in 2013.

 

 

Tony

[Phone]

Tony U,

 

You are in the "heart" of gar country. Here's the problem. The dynamics of the downtown Shreveport area have changed greatly since I fished there last (1980(?)). For sure, don't restrict yourself to the Red River. Within 15 miles of Shreveport there are several MAJOR gar producing waters. If you Google a map - see all those little squiggles and lines? Those are gar waters.

 

Now, while it is getting better, gar are not a favorite sport fish. Their treatment may be a "shocking gulper" to anglers from UK/Europe. If you need a guide there with be two kinds available (dynamite specialist or illegal netting specialists). Be careful to "explain" what it is you want to do and be prepaired for a lot of head scratching. If your "flag" in your do-dad by your name is meaningful you will be among some of the worlds best rod and reel catch for the pot anglers.

 

Tigger,

 

First, when I made the compairison to pike I lied. I have no idea how closely they are related. Second, I'm not a good judge of a "proper" pike fight. I wouldn't say chit with a mouth full that would be critical of pike on AN anyway!

Vagabond's fish are respectable samples of spotted gar which are overall the smallest of the gar family. And, I might add, the most difficult to locate. He can answer better than I can.

 

Phone

Edited October 1, 2011 by Phone

[Vagabond]

Vagabond's fish are respectable samples of spotted gar which are overall the smallest of the gar family. And, I might add, the most difficult to locate.

That explains why the Texan anglers I was with were quite excited about them - got them at the mouth of a backwater on the Nueces River. Got lots of cats that weekend, and a freshwater drum, but alas no 'gators