I concur....the second and third photo appear to be of the same fish.. those wounds were not inflicted by a Gar..As for the first photo...Possible..but it does not have the V shaped teeth marks that myself and a lot of other well seasoned fishermen witnessed on several fish in Sept.
So are we to assume that since you don't show a picture of a Gar wound.....According to you it should not happen at Falcon only Choke ??? That is why you " laugh when I read about the bite marks on LMB on Falcon"
I'm sorry sir but my self and numerous others take offence to that remark

hahahaha!

Fishnfireman,
Sorry to ruffle your feathers. I didn't say anywhere in my post that it never happens like others have said, just that it seldom happens. If far are such a problem, then why do we not see all these LMB with gar teeth marks on other lakes that have a healthy population of gar? Do you really thin a bass is more powerful than a gar and can escape with only a few bite marks? Why are there no teeth marks on the backs or bellies of the bass? I'm still laughing.

I surmise from the moniker you are a large animal vet..How long and where is your practice ??

As to your question "if far were such a problem"..
I never said they were going to be the demise of the Falcon bass, only that it was another strike against an already stressed fishery..
You ask why not on other lakes..
I say how many other Texas lakes (with a healthy population of alligator gar) have lost enough water this year to push everything to the main lake ??????

No sir I don't "really thin a bass is more powerful than a gar"..But then a shad or a crawdad is not as powerful as a bass..However I have seen lots of shad missing scales and lots of crawdads missing appendages..Have you ?? Or is that another possibility that does not happen if you have not seen it??

You ask.."Why are there no teeth marks on the backs or bellies of the bass"
Just keep laughing my friend..It's a proven fact that with age comes wisdom..I'll bet that someday you will be mature enough to realize that...Just because you did not see it..But numerous others have.. Maybe- just maybe it could be true..

Uh, if the gar are really a problem then just bring in those two old coots from swamp people to eat them.

Seriously, a bass is far more manueverable than a gar. Gar will seldom catch healthy bass. However, if there is a feeding frenzy on shad and gar and bass are both attacking, sometimes a gar will swipe at the bass and rough them up. DNR studies have consistently shown that bass is not a significant part of gar diet.

Final point: if there are tons of big gar there, someone should start doing guided trips for them. Trophy gar fishing is becoming pretty good business. Economics dictates that if the population is as high as stated, business will spring up to account for it. Ergo, if nobody starts guiding for them, there aren't that many there anyway.

No one goes to Falcon to catch Crappie or Gar. They go to catch world class Largemouth Bass. The Bass is what brings money to Zapata. Therefore, yes it is the most important fish in that lake.

To the OP. I'm not sure the answer, perhaps mother nature will take care of itself over time. However, increasing the limit to 2 or 3 would be an interesting option.

Last September when we were there I'd say at least 25% of the fish we caught had huge teeth marks in them. We just got back from our annual December trip and we didn't catch many fish, but none of them had marks. Of course a lot of that probably has to do with sample size. We caught a lot more fish in Sept.

I think Senko is correct. I grew up with gar and have know from a very young age that gar are opportunistic feeders, and not active predators. If a bass gets eaten by a gar, it is more often than not because there is something wrong with the bass. Gar have strong straight-line bursts of speed, but they can not keep up with a healthy bass. Also, gar only eat what they can swallow whole. I've never seen them chew anything. In addition, nature creates its own sets of checks and balances. If you are seeing a lot of gar, it is a good thing because that means their food supply is abundant. If a bass swims to close to a gar, then I am pretty sure they will take a stab at an easy meal. For heavens sake though, don't go killing them just because they are there, or because they eat a few bass on occasion.
And as far as them not being indigenous to Texas...think about this: there is only ONE natural lake in this state, so every single Florida strain bass you catch was imported, so that theory goes right out the window as soon as it is mentioned. Given that they have been here since the age of the dinosaurs, gar were in Texas waterways long before bass were. The Rio Grande, Trinity, Colorado, and Red rivers are all natural grounds for gar. Without them, the natural equilibrium would be out of balance and eventually all the others species would suffer. Nature put them there for a reason, and that reason isn't so some uninformed angler can get his jollies by ignorantly and gratuitously slaughtering them. In Texas, gar play a far more important role in the aquatic ecosystem than a bass ever will.

Catch em and sell em to the places that have the asian carp problem. Gar love carp.

You can always tell if it's a gar bite on the bass because the tooth pattern resemble the letter "G"

TPWD Alligator Gar white paper

For anyone interested in reading about alligator gar in Texas.

Leave the Gar alone the are important to the lakes as well.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/nonpwdpubs/media/gar_status_073108.pdf


In 1987, TPWD biologist Paul Seidensticker conducted a study called �Food Selection of Alligator Gar and Longnose Gar in a Texas Reservoir� on Lake Sam Rayburn. By using juglines and gillnets, from September through October he and his team captured 209 alligator gar weighing from 18 to 156 pounds. Most of their stomachs were empty.

Of those that did have food in their bellies, gizzard shad made up 26.4 percent of their diet; channel catfish, 14.9; freshwater drum, 12.6; bluegill, 7.9; spotted sucker, 6.8; white bass, 4.5; largemouth bass, 3.4; spotted gar, 3.4; crappie, 2.2; lake chubsucker, 2.2; and carp, 1.1. Other items included two coots, 11 fish hooks, an artificial lure and a plastic bag.

The guides I have spoken to use cut buffalo and carp for bait. Live pan fish work well for the smaller fish in my experience.

Still waiting on the promised photos of all those gar mangled trophy bass..............