Signed. These "Fish" are Dinosaurs.

Even here on TFF I have never seen so many armchair fisheries biologists in one place and time! Just give me, a fisheries biologist, a chance and I'll straighten out the Houston Texans all the way to the Super Bowl! By george I know what they need better'n anybody and I would do it easy as pie in a heartbeat.

Oh yeah, I basically know nothing at all about football other'n I like to go to the game and watch it on tv.

The Alligator Gar, as with all the other species of plants, animals, and other things...plays a role in the ecology that most fishermen will never understand, and to be good fishermen they don't need to. Just like to be a good fisheries biologist I really do not need to be a geat fisherman, and am not (although it is still an aspiration of mine, I practice all I can get away with).

What I beleive needs to happen here is that the species, its place in the ecology, and the economic impacts of those things be studied in depth. It would be good to know more about the biology, ecology and economic potential (especially as a sportfish/ecotourism opportunity) of the species before either wiping them out or propogating them to the demise of others.

In the meantime I would err on the side of conservation and place some restrictions upon both the means of capture and size/creel limits with respect to this species.

Just guessing now, conjecture, and based upon anecdotal evidence and experience.....the alligator gar will become a much sought after, high value species with respct to angling for sport. As a means to economic impact, this will be larger than that from any commercial or non-commercial harvest of the species for food or other use. As such, the species will become designated a "sport fish" and be protected as well as exploited to the maximum sustainable economic potential.

Now a bit of my own observations about the species.....

I have been around them my entire progfessional life. I have a 6 footer I caught in one of my canals in a tank in my fish holding facility. I know, I am not s'posed to keep pets, my bean counter says they cost me too much in facility space and other resources, anyhow I got a bigun in there and have had for six months. Fortunately it doesn't eat a lot when its cold....

But it does like to eat a lot when it warms up. I have fed it many things and it has eaten them all so far. It has no problem eating ANY of the following in its tank....goldfish, tilapia, koi (up to 20 inches), sunfish, channel and blue catfish, other gar fish (mostly spotted), and bass. Now I hate to say it, but that fish has a definite preferrence for bass. It'll eat them up before starting on the others. I don't believe for a moment that has anything to do with what the fish would prefer to eat in another setting, likely whatever is most abundant.

But the big gar does play an important role in the ecology of all the fishes in a system as what is knonw as a "keystone predator". It may be that the presence of such, especially in lakes with large populations of very large gizzard shad, is actually BENEFICIAL to the largemouth bass population in that system (lake).

how about we get rid of all the introduced fish species in texas then? Including florida lmb, stripers and hybrids? Gar were here before you, me and anyone else on this forum. Lets go back to only fishing for the native species and well all be fishing for gar, drum and buffalo.

there are already enough licences an regulations in our great state until there is a shortage of these predators that eat everything that will fit in thier mouth i wouldnt lose sleep the bow fishermen buy licences an register thier boats motors an trailers an since nobody thinks that there is a shortage. can you imagine what it would be like if some werent taken out for 5 or six yrs thier are bigger problems to worry about than gar .like getting a handle on golden algae that kills tons of fish in our lakes an has shut down a lot of our hatcheries that spawn our fish .

The gar might not eat other gamefish, but I have seen landlocked backwaters get overrun with gar that pretty much wipe out the baitfish.

So what happens when you have no more bluegill and shad for the gamefish to forage on?

So while the gar aren't directly impacting game fish populations, they do have a negative impact on thier populations by consuming their food source.

I also think this is a very complicated issue. Many of these landlocked areas will have lower oxygen levels during the summer heat, and the gamefish have a harder time of surviving. The gars will thrive and live off of the weakened fish, but a large percentage of the gamefish would probably would have died regardless if the gars ate them or not.

I think in bigger river systems and large lakes, they probably don't have a huge impact. But I have seen them overpopulate and take over countless smaller ponds.

If I was trying to manage a private pond or small lake, I would remove EVERY one I caught. I don't think they are an issue on the bigger river systems and the landlocked areas will recover when the areas re-flood again.

gar is good eats is all i will say

Ha! You think a big gar will not eat a game fish?? Ask the guys at Bass Pro. They put a 7' Gator gar in a tank with other game fish while it's tank was being readied. The first thing it did was eat an 8+ pound large mouth!!

Gar in the Trinity are starving because they have eaten up their food supply. They are now resorting to cannibalism. Bow fishermen have found many gar with torn scales, broken backs and gar teeth impaled in their sides and scales.

Choke Canyon used to be a great bass, catfish and sand bass lake. Then the gator gar had several great spawns and now the lake rarely produces good stringers of game fish.

BTW - Texas Parks and Wildlife tried to kill off ALL the gar in the 50's and 60's. They sent a fleet of shocker boats into the major rivers and killed millions!!

Now you want to make them a game fish??!??! They have their place in the ecosystem, but not as a game fish.

Flame away, but you better check your facts first!

Adult Alligator Gar are apex predators, is eating bass and catfish really a surprise? lol.

can you catch catfish on a spinnerbait consistantly? so is that not a game fish either? you can actually catch alligator gar on top water lures

and what i mean by that is you can catch them on lures like you do with bass

ever river or lake system needs an apex predator to stabilize the other species just because you prefer one species over another doesnt mean you should carelessly kill them, and the reason they tried to wipe them out was because they were accused of attacking people when there was no proof it was the gar

Gar really do like bass...

Since I've got eyes in my head, I'm sure gar eat bass. Lots of them too. I love to fish for bass and love to catch big ones. I've got no use for gar, but I can't see wiping out a whole specie of beautiful animals just because I can't use them. I think the large ones should be protected.

exactly theres no reason to kill a species of fish just because certain people dont eat them or use them thats immoral and dumb, and im pretty sure gar would only eat bass if there is a low food supply they mainly eat shad i know this because when i would go fishing at a spillway wherever yoy see gar come up for air seconds later shad in that area would start jumping out of the water

+2

Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites - William Ruckelshaus

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect - Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac