I hunt with a Diamond but don't feel like taking off my hunting equipment.

What kind of spool do you use on front, arrows, etc?

Cajun Dave:

Arrows:

http://www.amsbowfishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=235

Broadheads:
http://www.amsbowfishing.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_55&products_id=41

Retriever:

http://www.amsbowfishing.com/product_info.php?cPath=32&products_id=144

How about free! Come on down to San Marcos and I will take you out for Talapia. I am serious on this. We shoot a bunch and have Talapia every week or so for dinner! mmmmm, blackened talapia. Nothing better!

Mesquite Man - Count me in. PM sent.

I've eaten gar before and it was damn good! It was in Florida and we had a recipe claiming the meat would taste just like lobster. I can't remember how we did it, it was a long time ago but I think we broiled small pieces and dipped it in a butter like you would lobster.

USA-1,
After reading your initial post with pics I had the boy bowfish for a gar and I tried the tin snip method - works great. Sounds like cutting fiberglass as you make the long cut down the middle. I noticed the meat was unusually tough as I was slicing it up. Decided to use this round for jugline bait but am wanting to try another for a fish fry. I used a spray nozzle from the hose to clean the fillets up and they looked like blue cat meat. Do you grind it up and make a ball to fry or use the nuggets from the fillet? Thanks for sharing this info.

I cut it into pieces about the size of Mcdonald's chicken nuggets and then beer batter fry them. 6-8 pound longnose are the best I have found. The texture is not not like any other fish you have likely had. It is rather firm much like cooked chicken but not the same.

Its sad that a person had to go through this much length to get a positive response about bowfishing. I bet if you were to just post the picks of the fish and nothing of the cleaning there would be people bashing this thread. USA-1,I enjoyed your story and am glad to see you've got the kiddo's involved. Keep up the good work.

I'm USA-1's brother. The guy in the picture with the tin snips. Steve, I understand how you may have thought twice about eating it. I had the same reservations when I cleaned my first one. Not quite the same feeling or salivation you get when you clean crappie. The meat does seem like its gonna be tough but when you cook it it'll have the consistency of SUPER TENDER chicken. I make mine like Lawman does, with beer batter. McCormick makes one in a blue box. It says, "Golden Dipt Beer Batter" (yup they spell it Dipt). Absolutely AWSOME stuff as long as you don't use awful beer. Puts a beautiful almost fluffy golden crust on the fish. The beer I used was my very own homemade Kolsch, a light German beer. I've never found Kolsch in the states but you could probably substitute a good Wheat beer like Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat or one from Blue Moon. Don't use a dark ale. I recently had a fish fry and everyone that tried the Gar loved it. Even my wife liked it and when she first saw me thawing the gar meat she said she refused to,"cook that [censored]". I took offense but made her eat it anyway and now she likes it, just doesn't care to ever look at another Gar again.

Sometimes when you are cleaning a gar (dead of course) the muscle tend to fibrillate and contract in reaction to you cutting. As I was holding one of the removed filets it continued to wiggle a little bit. Creepy stuff. They are a little time consuming to clean because the hide is so tough and rigid and doesn't remove from the meat easily. That is why we stick with larger fish so that we get a larger meat payoff for the cleaning effort you have to put into it.

This was one of the most interesting threads that I've read on TFF in quite a spell!! I have also eaten some gar patties that were ground up with green onions, bell peppers & some fresh chopped garlic, then rolled in corn meal like salmon patties & then pan fried, man alive!! you talking about some fine eating now!!I had a work partner that was a lifetime black friend that would go home for supper & his wife would fry them up for mine & his supper with some fried taters & pork & beans with some sweet tea, I gained about 20 pounds while we worked together because one of us would have a feast every night for supper!! USA, I really enjoyed your thread, good job, that really enlightened my ideas of bowfishing, if everyone of them would do like you do, it would be a more accepted sport I think!!

Thanks Steve, jt1, Hank1951 and others.

Originally, I thought to just post the pictures of the catch and then wait for "others" to start asking what did you do with your catch (which I find it none of their business for asking). I then thought to follow up with the photos as proof to show the processing. Rather, I wanted it to be a positive post for us bowfishers. My brother returned back to New Mexico and fed samples to several people (around 20 people) gar meat and as far as i can tell, nobody puked (LOL)! They all seemed to enjoy it.

So folks, get you a small bow and keep it in your rod locker. It would be great if someday we can start sharing "positive" bowfishing stories and recipes instead of trying to carve out negative imagines based on emotions.

Nice post, USA-1!

Old post but it was a good read.

I usually keep one in my extra rod locker. It's a blast when the fishing gets slow! I've got a recurve that can be broken down without the string. It fits real nice and can be rigged up in about 1 minute!

while bass fishing is fun and hard to beat i found i enjoy the payoff of a big flathead on a r&r much more. then i was drug out in to the river by my buddy with bowfishing on the agenda, i havent been r&r fishing since... we have gotten tons of gar from 6 inches to a little under 5 feet, and i think that that the easiest way to clean them is with a skill saw... i lay the fish flat on the belly and then i nail the head to a board, next i set the skill saw as shallow as i can and run it down the length of the body. flip it over and repeat. i finish it off by cutting the head off and removing the guts. now you can easily seperate the meat from hide without any bones in the remaining backstrap type fillet... i find that cutting it in to steaks about a half inch thick and tossing them on to the grill is the only way to eat them. it will be better if you marinate it in milk all day to draw the blood an gameyness out of the meat. as for the carp and buffalo... i need advice on what to do with them... also i am starting a guide service for bow fishing... anyone looking to be turned on to the extreme skill of fishing with a bow for the best rate just pm me...