DONT

Battered some up and ate up. Mighty good eating. Tastes like alligator. It was my first Gar experience. Now I'm hooked.

I would like some Gar recipes and tips on how to dress em out easier.

Any real Carp recipes out there? Is it good? or is it ?

I'm willing to save your Bass one gar and carp at a time.

Carp is as good as the water it comes from! I've had it smoked, and greatly enjoyed it. But there are a lot of ways to prepare it, and buffalo is actually a much better eating fish. Let me see if I can find you the website I used full of various rough fish recipes.

Well, I couldn't find the exact website, as it seems the Arkansas fish and game website has been changed around a lot. That's where it was hosted before I believe.

But I found one of my old posts where I copied and pasted it for someone who couldn't access the adobe file, so here's what I copied and pasted for him:

At the Arkansas Game & Fish
Commission, we receive lots of phone
calls and letters from people wanting
to know how to cook roughfish - carp,
buffalo, gar, bowfins, drum, suckers,
eels, paddlefish and sturgeon. These
neglected fish are common in fishing
waters statewide and are frequently
caught by anglers seeking more
popular species. Bowfishermen take
hundreds of thousands of pounds each
year, yet many have no idea how to
prepare a roughfish so it�s fit to eat.
Contrary to popular opinion, most
roughfish are mighty good eating, a
fact confirmed by the millions of
pounds caught and sold by commercial
fishermen each year. We�re not out to
change folks eating likes, but we want
to be sure good-eating wildlife isn�t
wasted. We figure fewer roughfish will
be thrown away, and there�ll be a lot
more people fishing for them, if folks
know roughfish can be fixed to taste
just as good as more popular food fish.
Try the recipes presented here, and
discover the fine culinary qualities
of these underwater outcasts.

[b]Carp & Buffalo: First �fleece� the large
scales off the skin in a single layer with a
sharp knife. Insert the knife just forward of
the tail, then working toward the head with
short, sawing cuts, remove the scales along
the side, leaving the skin intact.
Unless it will be cooked whole, fillet the
fish, cutting through the ribs to produce
fillets with skin on one side and the ribs
attached. Divide each fillet into two long
pieces by cutting lengthwise along the lateral
line. Then remove the dark red meat along
the lateral line portion of each piece.
Now, cut the rib section off each piece,
and slice between the ribs, creating strips
that each contain two or three ribs. Cut the
remaining meat in smaller portions, if
desired, and score each piece across the grain
at 1/8-inch intervals along the entire length,
slicing to, but not through, the skin. This
virtually eliminates the free-floating Y-bones
when the meat is cooked.

Drum (gaspergou, sheepshead): Contrary to
popular belief, drum do not
possess the many small �Y-bones� found in carp
and buffalo. Filleting your catch and removing
all dark red flesh along the lateral line produces
boneless strips of meat. The cooked meat is firm,
not flaky, and can be broiled, baked, fried, smoked,
canned or made into chowder.

Gar: Gar are a staple in Louisiana fish markets,
often selling for as much as $4.50
a pound. For the best-tasting fish, bleed and gut
your catch as soon as possible and place it on
ice. To dress the fish, use heavy shears to cut
down the back and
shuck it out of
its skin. Then fillet
the long strips of meat
away from the backbone,
and cut into
serving-sized pieces.

And a couple of recipes they include:

Boiled Carp,
Austrian Style
One 4- to 5-pound carp, fleeced
of scales, gutted, washed
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup sliced carrots
1/2 cup sliced onion
30 peppercorns
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon fresh chopped thyme
3 tablespoons butter, melted
Cheesecloth
Wrap the fish in cheesecloth and tie
with cotton twine. Cook remaining
ingredients except butter in one gallon
of salted water in a long, deep roasting
pan, 15 to 20 minutes. Place the fish in
the pan, and, if necessary, add more
water to cover the fish. Simmer 30 to
45 minutes. Remove fish to a heated
platter. Serve with melted butter
poured over.

Buffalo Cakes
1 small buffalo, prepared
for cooking
3 eggs
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh-ground
black pepper
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon
milk
Cracker meal
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
Bake the fish in a preheated 350 degree
oven until meat flakes easily from the
bones. Remove meat from bones, allow
to cool, then crumble in a bowl.
In a blender, mix onion, green pepper,
garlic salt, salt and pepper, and liquefy.
Add liquid to crumbled fish. Shape into
patties. Dip each patty in egg/milk mixture,
then dredge in cracker meal. Fry in
shortening heated in a skillet. Brown on
both sides.[/b]

Gar are indeed some of the best tasting freshwater fish. Don't be scared to clean em folks. If you're eating them, target the small ones, much better tasting.

Here's a photo of a few "Y-bones" and two ribs of a two poundish buffalo. The ribs make great toothpicks.

Fried buffalo ribs are the best. Buffalo make excellent chowder, which is a great way to eat the fish without having to worry about those wicked "Y-bones". They are easily picked from the meat once boiled.

A great way to prepare drum is "Poor Man's Lobster". Cut into bite size pieces and boil it up just like you do bugs. good stuff

http://fishing.about.com/library/weekly/ftales/bl021216a.htm
http://www.longnosegar.com/

2 web sites that may help you
John

I have had gar many times it is great to eat. But man that fish stinks. And a real pain in the arse to clean. I just dont mess with them. You have to bleed and gut them right away. I just dont mess with them anymore it is a pain. As far as the carp and buffalo you guys can have all them you want I tried it as a boy and wont try it again EVER.

Gar is the nastiest [censored] on the planet they should all be taken out of ponds and killed. All they do is get in ypur way while fishing for other fish.

Gar is the nastiest stuff on the planet they should all be taken out of ponds and killed. All they do is get in your way while fishing for other fish.

Gar are NATIVE TEXAS fish, no reason to "take them out and kill them" for no reason...

And I think you'd find if you had gar well prepared you'd quite enjoy it, as everyone else on the thread seemed too.

large gar can be frozen after cleaned.then sliced crossways with meat saw. makes pretty nice steaks