My wife and I managed to go gar fishing Tuesday morning but, after about 30 minutes, the water level in the creek we were fishing rose well over 2 ft. and we had to head out before the current got too strong. You can see the water level in the back ground but, less than an hour later, the water level rose to where Terry was standing when the picture of her and her gar was taken...

Terry caught a nice 50" gar and the only one I managed got a picture of...



After getting the gar back to the house, I procedded to cut out the "back straps" on the very first gar I have ever cleaned...

I nailed the tail to a board and cut the top "strap" up the back of the fish...



I then filleted out the two back straps - solid meat and no bones...



This was what I wound up with...



After getting the gar cleaned and cut into small chunks, I coated it cornmeal seasoned with seasoned salt and black pepper...



After cooking up the gar and some sweet potatoe fries...



The fish was the first to go, then the fries, then he salad....... The first thing out of anyones mouth was - is there any more fish left?

I didn't see a spot for FISHING and hope you guys don't mind me posting this over here...

D/S

Deer sniper you stop that now you hear.....
You are making me hungry and my wife claims that I am fat enough. What is really missing is a BEER to wash that down..

Terrie's a cutie! Way to go Terrie!!
Great guns what a toothy fish, I've never seen one of those. Where in the world do you find them?

Suz

Suzanne wrote:

Great guns what a toothy fish, I've never seen one of those. Where in the world do you find them?

Lakes, rivers, and streams everywhere in North America. I had the roles reversed on me. While rowing on our nearby lake one morning at dawn 15 years ago, I had a long nose gar like that jump out of the water and tag my hand. From the bite marks on my oar handles, F&G estimated he was 6 feet long. Lucky I didn't fall out of my rowing shell (12" wide). The fish must have thought the white cuffs on my dark sweatshirt sleeve was breakfast. I wish I could have made good eating out of him like you did Deer Sniper.

That was one. Last January, I was rowing along side a kayaker who was ribbing me about my episode. A few strokes later, a gar struck is paddle and it took him a few seconds to shake him off. Great Timing!

Oh, Suz, gar have made the River Monster TV series. The largest has been 10+ feet long and over 350 lbs.

great story thankyou for sharing a fishy story so Im not the only one who does.
try the beer batter recipe next time you have some fish to try.

Nice fish!! Congrats Mrs DS
For once someone tell a fishing story that come with an actual fish
And this is the first time I saw carpentry tools used for fish filleting..

I was watching the "Fishing" channel, and saw that some places in Norway, they fish for gar without using any hook!! Instead they use a piece of red color string, the gar would chomp on the string and got it tangled up on their teeth, and thats all it took to take them off the water.
Got to try this one day.

Well done Terry...awesome fish. Hey DS...how come you didn't catch any mate...oh hang on...you were making sure that everyone was safe from the rising waters.

We have garfish out here in Australia, but they are a saltwater fish and the biggest they get is about 12" - 14" long. Good fishing though, and great tasting.

Cheers, Vince

I just read something that said they are found in eastern North America, then in the same article, they said they can be found all across North America. Then I found; Found along the Gulf coast from the Florida panhandle around to Mexico and north up the Mississippi River drainage to the mouth of the Missouri and Ohio Rivers, they like sluggish rivers and lakes.

Interestingly here in Oregon we don't have northern pike or gar, but both fish like brackish water, slow running water. That's fine with me, I don't like fish with needle tooth smiles. I bet they're fun to catch tho.

eeyouelder - I'm not a beer drinker but, a big glass ol glass of sweet ice tea sure made things better....


Suz - Terry is my BEST half and thank you! She caught this gar here in Oklahoma down on one of our many creeks....


slimjim - when I lived in Mississippi, one of my favorite duck hunting lakes had some really BIG gar in it. While out building duck hunting blinds, we have seen several gar along side our 12 ft. john boat that were the same length!!!


Elvis - do you have an exact recipe for the beer batter? I have heard people mention this before but, it is something I have not tried. Our temperatures have been running as high as 127 degrees here but, when we start to cool back down to more comfortable levels and can stand to be out fishing again, we'll have to catch a few more gar and try out a beer batter recipe....


gelandangan - thank you! This is the first time I have ever had to use "carpentry" tools to clean a fish. It literally took a heavy butcher knife and hammer to get that strip of hide cut up the back of that fish! It then took a pair of tin snips to cut that armor plated hide down the sides before the meat could be filleted off the bones. We also make gar lures out of nylon rope that is used to catch the bigger gar. I'll post a picture of our lures this evening when I get back on the computer....


Hi Vince - Terry says thank you! We never had much time to fish because of the rapidly rising water that just came out of no where. Earlier rains apparently busted through old beaver dams and such and with flooded rivers from 600+ miles away, it was finally making its way down to us and we were unprepared for it. Before we got back in our little 8 ft. boats, the water lever had risen over three feet and by the time we got down river, the water level had risen over 6 ft.! What was a peaceful boat ride turned into a short nightmare. Terry was trying to get her boat lodged between a couple of trees so she could climb out and when she was stepping out, the tree moved and she took a face plant in the river! I swung my boat around, grabbed her, got her on the bank and then had to run her boat down. I had only one chance to grab her boat and tie it to mine, then jump out of my boat and hope I landed on the last gravel bar there was or else I was gonna be swept down river to no telling where. In traveling to our fishing hole, which was 8-10 ft. deep, we were very easily able to paddle there and did not take our trolling motors with us, as most of the creek was less than knee deep. But, at least Terry made it out okay, sore and bruised but okay.... What kind of "big" fish do you have where you are at in Australia?


D/S

DS in the recipe section.

Great story. We have gar and alligator gar everywhere here in florida. We use nylon rope as it tangles on their teeth to catch them. When I was younger, I saw a alligator gar on the tensaw river in alabama that was as long as my uncle's 15' boat. No joke. Them things get massive down here. The alligator variety are endangered I believe now and your not supposed to target them when fishing. I've never eaten one.

That picture isn't photo-shopped ,
Down here in Louisiana the old timers would
tell stories of catching gar that ran over 300 lbs.
, and over 12 ft long, So large that they would
have to use the mules to drag them up the hill.
Longest I ever remember seeing a few years
ago was a little over 10 ft. best I remember he
weight in at a little over 200

Dearsniper you did good on the dressing of the gar
I use a pair of "fisker" pruning shears and run them down
the back first , that hide is hard on a knife blade.

Good looking fish there DS.

Like Vince, we too have an unrelated species called garfish: belone belone.
It's an eastern Atlantic species & has bright green bones.

The similarity in names comes down to the "gar" part of the name, which is old English for "spear".

tend to make you not want to go "skinny dipping" in those waters!!

Great job DS! Made me hungry(er).

Best to you the and the fam sir!

"Boomer" says Hi!