I haven't been fishing long, but I was wondering about the Gar that are in the lakes. Most people tell me to kill them at every chance. Any insight on these things would help.

No, now don't go killing all those gar now! Seriously they are just a prehistoric fish that has survived and like the cockroach would probably be around after everything else was gone as long as it had water to swim in. They won't hurt you and it's a fish that helps maintain the balance in nature. Some efforts are taken when they seem to get too plentiful such as commercial fishing for them but from my view over the years they've been here before me and will be here after I'm gone! Good fishin! Jimbo

I've been fishing Texas waters ever since I got here in 1986. I have yet to hook up with but one gar, a big fellow in the Brazos River below Granbury dam around 1990 on a pencil popper while fishing for striper. He managed to work himself free about 10 feet from me.

Your chances of hooking up with a gar are pretty slim unless you fish for them on purpose. No need to kill them just for the sake of killing. Just keep fishing and don't worry about them.

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[This message has been edited by redfin (edited 05-26-2003).]

Okay, wanton gar-killing is my pet peeve, so be forewarned!

There is a ton of ignorance and prejudice out there regarding gar. When in doubt, believe the biologists...gar help more than they hurt. If anyone tells you they eat all the game fish, it's a load of fooey. 1) Their bills can't open wide enough to get around most of those fat fish 2) Gars are LAZY. Any fish they eat will be an inch from death anyway. 3) An actual scientific survey was done on Sam Rayburn a few years back to determine if the gar were eating up the bass. The biologists examined the contents of a whole bunch of big 'gator gar stomachs (like 100 or so), and found like one bass. So much for the theory that "them dern trash fish is eatin' up all the bass!" The gars' diet turned out to be 97% shad.

I personally think gars are pretty cool fish, and make it a point to fish for them (catch & release mostly). They get big, put up a good fight, are plentiful, and as I said, they are really cool fish. Any creature which has been around for more than 100 million years is worthy of my respect.

Check out www.garfishing.com It's a great site for gar fishing tips and other gar info.

Be careful about finding too much out about gar, you might just get hooked on 'em and forsake the bass and catfish to chase those toothy critters...it happened to me.

Best wishes!

The largest I have caught is 4' in Arkansas. One thing I have noticed, if you are fishing an area where they are plentiful, you might as well move on. They are very hard to catch because their head is just mostly bone and that is pretty hard to hook. They really do put up a good fight and just when you think you have really hooked one about half way in they will spit out the bait and is gone, Sharon

Those gar ain't hurting nothing, and they can be a lot of fun to catch. They grow to be enormous. Watch out for the teeth. I was watching "Honey Hole Magazine" this past saturday (5:00 A.M., KLTV channel 7 out of Tyler), they were fishing for bass and one ole boy hooked a gar that was about 5 or 6 feet long. He finally broke off but they got good footage of the monster. Check out the bowfishing topics on this forum for more good info on gar.

Quite often I catch gar when fishing for catfish with cut shad. They are fun to catch. What I really need is to find a fishing partner to take them off the hook for me. Redrader26 gets a little upset with me when I try to hoist one over the boat for him to remove. He makes me cut my line and re-rig.

i love them, i kill rays, but save the gar!

I caught one once and netted it. Big mistake on my part. The teeth were tangled in the net and I had a heck of a time getting the gar untangled.


Z

Gar just happen to be the toughest, biggest fresh water fish in our Great State Of Texas! There is a group of anglers (around 50 now) in the DFW area (and beyond) that enjoy fishing for these awesome fish and other rough fish, via rod and reel. Check out my signature for more info.

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Wanna catch something bigger?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dfwroughfishinggroup/

if you want to see how bad gar teeth are, try untangling serated braid!

No kidding, Kujo. No kidding! Trying to untangle those teeth is almost as bad as picking out one of those world class birdnests that occur every now and then.

Here is a pic of a gar:



[This message has been edited by Rebbasser (edited 05-29-2003).]

after one nest on berkley ironsilk i trashed it, lol. it didnt even have to be a state class nest to ruin the whole line.

I've never eaten gar, but I read in a magazine several years ago (Texas Hunting and Fishing News, maybe) that they are underrated as far as eating fish. They showed a way to clean them that involved a hacksaw (no kidding!), and I think that you had to remove a blood line or something. Anyone ever try a gar?

I have had gar before. It is a great tasting fish, however you have to eat it HOT because when it cools down the piece in your mouth gets bigger and bigger the longer you chew.

FL