What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

What the hell fish is this? (1 Viewer)

Surfing Imgur ...just saw this and it has no notes. What the hell kind of fish is this and where does it live so I can stay far away from it?

http://imgur.com/r/WTF/6cizrBw
Looks like an alligator gar (sp?)
Yerp.

Caught one in Chef Menteur one time (not nearly that big).

Pulled it on the bank, and it was actually breathing. Like an animal. Took forever to get it safely unhooked and then like 40 minutes later put it in back in the water and it swam away.

Prehistoric beast really.

 
How is the eatin' on that thang? Taste good?
I think we eat everything down here but I don't recall anyone ever serving that up.

There are supposed to be monsters of these in the Miss. River.
I see them canoeing the cahaba all the time In the deeper parts. Usually only up to three feet or so. In deep water they can get huge. No one I know fishes for them. You could basically scoop them into the boat in some parts.

 
I believe they are really boney and definitely are prehistoric. I've seen hundreds of them caught in pools off the Mississippi.

 
How is the eatin' on that thang? Taste good?
I think we eat everything down here but I don't recall anyone ever serving that up.

There are supposed to be monsters of these in the Miss. River.
Do they let you just dynamite these ####ers? They need to be wiped from the face of the earf.
My college roommate was from some hick town and one of the "fun" things they used to do was going to the river and shooting gar. Like I put in my previous post, they will school up and they have to come up to the surface to breathe I believe.
 
They have gills, they are 'fish', they do not need to come to the surface for air, but they have been known to last a long time out of water.

 
The only person I've ever known that's eaten one, would pickle it in a jar for 6 months. They claimed it tasted ok

 
They have gills, they are 'fish', they do not need to come to the surface for air, but they have been known to last a long time out of water.
I guess they are feeding when they come to the surface like carp then? I remember as a kid walking the creek that feeds into the Missouri River and they would get caught in small pools of water. I stupidly tossed my Zara Spook into one and the gar immediately ate it. I wasn't going to mess with it so I just cut the line.

 
Alligator Gar. Pretty common fish. Probably in most rivers and big lakes.
Pretty sure the "big lakes" in the U.S. don't have any of those. :no:
I've seen them caught at Lake Lanier in Georgia as well as Table Rock and Bull Shoals. They were nowhere this big though.
Never heard of those lakes, pretty sure they aren't big. ;)
They aren't Great Lakes for sure. Still really big though
 
They have gills, they are 'fish', they do not need to come to the surface for air, but they have been known to last a long time out of water.
I guess they are feeding when they come to the surface like carp then?I remember as a kid walking the creek that feeds into the Missouri River and they would get caught in small pools of water. I stupidly tossed my Zara Spook into one and the gar immediately ate it. I wasn't going to mess with it so I just cut the line.
I couldn't say.. Sounds like they were being feed if they were schooling up at the surface. My aunt feeds fish on our peer at the lake all the time and the fish have become accustomed to being feed there, so they will school up at the surface to eat the pellets she throws them..

 
Alligator Gar. Pretty common fish. Probably in most rivers and big lakes.
Pretty sure the "big lakes" in the U.S. don't have any of those. :no:
Caught them in both lake erie and lake ontario

Hard as hell to catch,both ive had on was completely me snagging them from the shoreline by sight fishing
You have your gars confused.

Alligator gar are found in the lower Mississippi River Valley and Gulf Coast states of the Southern United States and Mexico as far south as Veracruz, encompassing the following US states: Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Florida, and Georgia.[4] They have also been known historically to come as far north as central Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio, Iowa, and west-central Illinois, where the most northerly verified catch was at Meredosia, Illinois, in 1922 and an 8.5 ft (2.6 m) specimen, now preserved, was caught at nearby Beardstown.[5] Specimens at locations further south in Illinois have been verified as recently as 1976, with the Illinois Academy of Sciences verifying a total of 122 captures to that date.[5]
Great Lakes gars

 
got one of these in the deadly animal draft when ! "accidentally" ip banned me for the last few rounds.

 
How is the eatin' on that thang? Taste good?
I think we eat everything down here but I don't recall anyone ever serving that up.

There are supposed to be monsters of these in the Miss. River.
You don't eat them. Bony and pretty bloody. They are actually pretty tough to hook as the mouths are very bony.

Paddling around a canal in a pirogue these things scare the #### out of you as they tend to hang out in the middle of the canal and then explode the water as they swim away. Luckily they really don't want anything to do with humans and I've never heard of a gar attack.

The one in the image is a freakin' beast, though. That is about as big as they get.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Was doing some fishing at a small local lake when I noticed some kids looking at something in the back of a pickup.

Me: What did you catch?

Kid: A big northern.

Me: Cool, can I take a look?

Kid: Sure

Me: It's a gar

Kid: It's a northern (it's a gar).

Me: No it's not.

Kid: Yes it is.

Me: Cool, have fun eating it.

Northern is delicious, gar is not. Little punk. Get off my lawn. :rant:

 
Alligator Gar. Pretty common fish. Probably in most rivers and big lakes.
Pretty sure the "big lakes" in the U.S. don't have any of those. :no:
I've seen them caught at Lake Lanier in Georgia as well as Table Rock and Bull Shoals. They were nowhere this big though.
Never heard of those lakes, pretty sure they aren't big. ;)
We have them in Lake Okeechobee. Not a small lake.

 
I've caught quite a few of these things (mostly in the 1-5lb range) and I hate catching them. They'll eat anything. I've caught them on artificial bass lures as well as live bait. People that are actually fishing for gar will often use frayed nylon rope as bait (the rope strands tangle in the fish's teeth). They are slimy, they stink badly and those sharp teeth will #### you up if you aren't careful unhooking them.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back in high school, I worked at a marina on the Missouri River. We had a few ducks that hung around the place (people would feed them popcorn, etc) At one point during the summer, the ducks wouldn't go into the water. After a few days, someone saw one of these gars swimming around in the shallows.

 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top