300+lb aligator gar

[Evil D]

Did you guys see this beast?

http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/...alligator+gar/

[darkstar29]

That thing is amazing! And here I've been proud of an 9lb bass all these years..
I've seen people catch Long Nose Gar out of the Ohio river near Belpre, but I've never seen an alligator gar in person.. But I do watch River Monsters.. And I'm always hunting for a big 'un..

I just can't imagine having something like that on the end of the line.. Rod or Bow fishing.
WOW!

[Evil D]

Yeah..the biggest thing i've ever seen pulled in with a rod in person is a ~60lb blue cat, and that thing was incredible once it got on land..it was as a good 5 feet long and as big around as me. That gar could literally take your arm off. My grandfather caught a long nose gar out of the Little Miami River which runs into the Ohio, and it was about 4 feet long but it was skinny like an eel.

[Azwaiian]

Wow! I wonder if taste good...

[tonydahose]

and here i thought you were the one to catch it i have seen those on river monsters too. its funny, i wont eat fish, i have no desire to go fishing, and i am completely drawn to river monsters and watch every show

[Mojo51]

I've always wanted to bag an alligator gar by bow or rod and real. That's bada$$!

[JAfromMN]

Well that makes my 10pound walleye I caught and was so proud of look like bait.

I got to try fishing for something like that one day.

[rodloos]

Alligator gar are cool fish. A friend I sometimes go kayaking with used to guide bow-hunting for gar. Nowadays he catches them by rod-and-reel, takes a snip of their fin for TPWD to do a DNA study with, and lets them go.

On one camping trip with him on the Brazos River, he caught one that was 74", and he called that one a "small-to-medium" size. Very impressive mouth on those fish!

Some of my friends do eat long-nose gar, they say if you cut the "backstrap" out and slice it into thin strips and fry it up fresh, folks think they are eating shrimp.

[BigBill5953]

I catch fish that size one handed all the time when I go noodiling!

[DrChimRichalds]

Wow, my hat is off to that guy!

[The Mastiff]

Alligator gar are cool fish.

I agree. I've got to know a few as captive aquarium fish. They look like stupid monsters but are quite intelligent and react to their owners in their own way. They typically don't bother their tankmates too much and could in fact be harried by the little fin nipping types. I never hand fed one due to the teeth like I did my chichlids. I got sliced open bad enough by them.

They typically dogpaddle near the surface being lazy and when they see someone who has fed them before they will beg, and become sort of animated. I caught small- large insects to give to the gars and they loved it. Out of a whole storefull of people at a part time job I worked one would recognize me every time I was near and try to get my attention.

As nice as they were to me I doubt I'd want to go swimming with one the size of the one in the picture. I doubt it would target a full size human on purpose. They are intelligent enough to recognize we'd be too big to eat but they might make a mistake in the muddy water they seem to like.

Joe