I have some family in Louisiana that sent me this photo of a gar caught in the Mississippi River.

It will be a while before I swim in the Mississippi again.

I believe that is the new MS record...was something like 215 lbs...just think, a 302 lb specimen was caught in the Nueces some years back....yikes!

holyee guacamole'! That would be a fight on any tackle!!!

Wonder how old that rascal was? They say that there are sturgeons in the rivers of the Pacific Northwest that were alive when Lewis & Clark were exploring the area.

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RRhyne56, Flyfishing Warden
rrhyne56@attbi.com
Robins Custom Flies and Leaders

Sure is a shame that he killed it. Something that big does take decades to get that big and is killed for nothing but a picture...

[This message has been edited by striker (edited 06-03-2003).]

Awwww, com'on JP, it's just a widdle fishey....

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As far as the fish just being killed for pictures, actually, that fish will probably be eaten. Not that I have tried it, but alligator gar is suppose to be very excellent eating and it highly sought after in some areas of south Texas and Louisiana. In fact, I have heard of some restaurants serving it in those areas.

I'm not an expert but I've read somewhere that gar of that size are likely to be 50 years old or older. Some fish like sturgens, gar, catfish will and can live a very long time. I too think that the aged deserve more respect no matter what they are,... living or otherwise.

[This message has been edited by hook-line&sinker (edited 06-03-2003).]

Catfish and gar can be very small and still be very old, it depends on thier surroundings and food supply to the size they will become.

FL

mmmm gaaarrrrr---lic

Fishes can be like people...they can be young buck gluttons that can weigh as much as older, well fed ones.

Me, it took many years and one heck of a lot of expense to get to my 285-pounds!

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striker, that's exactly what I thought when I saw the picture. Something that old and big, it just seems a shame to kill it even to eat. I wouldn't try to judge him but I just hate to see it.

Man, you could put a saddle on that thing!

First it was killin and eatin bass. Now someone posts a pic of a dead gar that was caught and we hear it again. Good gosh, get a life, LOL.

Believe me, there are more where that came from. I have fished the Mississippi, Missouri, and Osage rivers in Missouri and have seen some (never caught) things moving that were huge. Maybe not as big as the gar in that picture but HUGE! I was in a canoe on the Missouri one time when I saw something in the water that I thought was a log. Didn't think much about it. Then I bumped it. It was a gar almost as long as my canoe. When it took off it almost upset me. I went to shore to see if I needed to clean my britches out.

While staying at the Old Oar House Inn on the Osage River part of the Lake of the Ozarks I was talking to some divers that had the job of checking Bagnell Dam every year for cracks and leaks. They hated it. Said it basically scared them to death. They would get down 40-100 feet and just see huge shadows moving past them. They had no idea what kind of fish they were but, whatever they were, they were much larger then they themselves were.


[This message has been edited by ksutton (edited 06-04-2003).]

Yes, truly a waste to kill a fish of that size. It was probably pushing 50-70 years old or older. But thankfully a fish that old probably spawned several times to keep the big gene pool going. Just think, there are Alligator Gar that big or bigger in Texas. Especially in South Texas.

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