Agreed. Alligator gar are not the same as longnose or spotted. See lots of the others and I almost never see Alligator gar.

You guys crack me up. I watched some Aligator gar in the hundred pound class being cleaned under the 85 bridge where it crosses the Trinity and they were full of sand bass. They will eat anything they can catch and it is easy for the fastest fish in the water to catch any other fish. There is no shortage of them in the Trinity.

Is it safe to eat fish out of the Trinity? Does Aligator gar taste good?

Depends on where in the Trin fish are caught. I wouldn't eat something out of it regardless. It is however the main river that feeds a few of the big lakes like Ray Bob if I am not mistaked, and you can eat the fish from the lake.

I can't imagine eating gar! LOL! And people take one look at me and say I LOOK like I would eat ANYTHING! LOL

~munsie~ i remembered an article on the website and searched it... but i still cant find the one they had on calaveras or some other bexar lake... they had a topo map!!!

i still like saying that "i bet the rio GARnde got bigGAR GAR than that!"

I'm relatively new here, and haven't had the pleasure of meeting up with any alligator gar as of yet. It would seem to me, however, that there are a lot of strictly catch-and-release folks out there. If you are not planning on eating what you catch anyway, then the majority of the sport is in catching and fighting the fish to the shore, taking pictures, and releasing the fish to hopefully grow and be caught another day. As such it would seem that a toothy monster capable of putting up a fight that only a fish in the 100+ pound range can, should be considered a sport fish.
My Grandparents and Great-Grandparents were among those lucky enough to see and catch large sturgeon from the Snake River, one of the tributaries to the Columbia. There haven't been any big sturgeon observable there in my lifetime, perhaps they will make a comeback..perhaps not.
I don't know if alligator gar are, or soon will be, threatened. But now would seem like the time to do the studies and find out. If giving them status as game fish is what that takes, it has my vote.

KUJO - LOL!! Hey, you should catch and release a Gar on some of your flyrod equipment. That would be a great story, photo op. I've conversed with several Fly Fisherman who fish for Longnose, Spotted Gar.

SSport05 - Yes, you can eat all species of Gar. The Longnose Gar is the more popular harvested fish, but the Alligator Gar is quite popular in Southern Texas. As far as eating any species of rough fish (Carp, Buffalo, Gar) I would only take them from clean, running waters.

fishrman - "I don't know if alligator gar are, or soon will be, threatened. But now would seem like the time to do the studies and find out. If giving them status as game fish is what that takes, it has my vote."

Thank you for your outlook on this. This is the EXACT kind of thinking we need. And you are correct, we need studies, research on this fish right now.

The thing is, and I understand your concern dmunsie, when I was a kid it wasn't that uncommon to see pictures in the Dallas papers of Gar people caught that were pushing 300 pounds. 200 pounders were not rare at all. I don't know if a fella could say that any more. Could they d.?

NOW THEN!!!!!
STREAKBREAKER!!!!!!
I've talked with several gar, and they all agreed that they wouldn't be too happy about eating YOU either!

well i have fly fished for baby ali's... down in the brownsville area (forgot the county name), but all i do is cut the cloth and it falls out when thier teeth do...

there was supposedly a link posted a while back about a gar lure that allowed you to easily release it without getting caught in its teeth that bad... forgot what the topic was called..

Kujo - Alligator Gar do not have the long teethy mouth like Longnose Gar do, therefore the "rope" lures don't work as well. The most common method of angling for Alligator Gar is a big single (or treble) hook with a big chunk of Carp or Buffalo cut bait thrown on the bottom, and waiting it out. Something I'll be doing this weekend and as matter of fact.

I also wanted to thank those that have taken the time to sign the petition. Sometimes to take a BIG step, you have to take a bunch of smaller steps, one at a time.

I Have fished for alligator gar for years and i love the fight they provide, and yes i have eaten them before. The meat is very firm and pure white almost like a lobster tail in appearance. It is great if you get one large enough.

I have always wanted to see them as a game fish, i dont believe in bow hunting, I dont think its sporting, I only catch them via rod and reel.

I think alligator gar present one of the most unique and rewarding angling opportunities around and there are even guides in texas that specialize in gar fishing due to the tremendous fight and excitement that awaits anyone who hooks into one of these giants.

I will sign the petition as well.

My largest to date on a rod and reel is 126lbs

"I don't believe in bow hunting". Sounds like another don't know anything about it guy spouting off. I disagree with you DwayneZ but I do think gill netting is unsporting. If indeed TPWD goes off the deep end what regulations do you want put in place? I'm 48 and have killed three Alligator gar and all were used as trotline bait. They were caught on trotlines and were dead when I found them. If made into game fish I couldn't use them as bait so I would have had to trash them because I am not going to eat one. The rareness of anyone fishing for them intentionally has to be considered, it's not like they are being caught and slaughtered, wasted by the thousands. You guys are beating a tiny little drum.

"You guys are beating a tiny little drum."

Only time will tell...

Every year it's getting more rare to hear about large Alligator Gar being caught by any method.

I personally hate to see reports when a big Alligator Gar is killed. A 200lb+ Agar is probably over 60-70 years old. We HAVE to do selective harvest, selective bow shooting when we are fishing for Alligator Gar if we want to continue to see the bigger fish survive.

This is EXACTLY what happened to the Big Blue Cats of the Mississippi. Years ago there were HUGE Blue Cats, but commercial fishing combined with educated anglers that knew how to catch the big ones pretty much wiped out that gene pool. No one really understood this simple little fact, BIG fish produce other BIG fish. They have something different in their gene pool that allows them to obtain such a big size. Why do you think TPWD does the same thing with Largemouth Bass with the share-a-lunker program?

When I first learned about Alligator Gar I was fishing in Ft.Worth on the Trinity in downtown Ft.Worth. If anyone used to fish there they know there used to be alot of regulars, old timers, that fish there. Some old guys in their 60s-80s used to show me pics of HUGE Alligator Gar caught in Ft.Worth on the Trinity along with some monster Flatheads. They're pretty much wiped out now in the DFW area. (Actually, according to a recent discussion with a few game wardens in the DFW area, Lake Worth, Eagle Mountain Lake, Grapevine Lake, are some of the best chances to hold a few Alligator Gar still.)

The idea is to do something now to preserve the gene pool of the larger Alligator Gar. It's going to be almost impossible to stop the decline of their numbers due to shrinking habitat but we can do something about the commercial fishing for these fish and we can also educate Bow Fisherman and Anglers to shoot/harvest only the smaller fish and allow the larger fish to survive so they can spawn and give generations to come the chance to see/fish for these awesome fish.

Not real sure on what all of this means but here goes........

In one of my local catfishin holes, the aligator gar have just about taken over! I used to be able to catcha good mess of 2 to 5 lb cats in a couple of hours. But just recently the river has backed up into the slough where I'm fishin and has become almost infested with LARGE ALIGATOR GAR!! I somewhat stumbled upon the enjoyment of fighting these rascals! I had a shad on a catfish hook and managed to get a good hookset on one of these monsters. I thought that I had laid into a 30 to 50 pound cat but no, it was about a 6' long GAR. I fought with it for about 10 minutes and then it cut my line. I gave it some thought and a couple of buddies and I went back with the intent of catching them and this is what we came up with.....

ALL OF THESE WERE APPROXIMATELY 5' TO 6'!!! I'M GUESSING IN THE 80-100LB RANGE. AND THEY WERE ALL CAUGHT ON ROD AND REEL!
Granted, I am not a proponent of wasting game but what I a person to do when this is just about all that they can catch in a place that used to be a great catfishin hole? I personally don't see it as wasting, more as managing for a sustainable catfish population.