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Offline Questor

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Alligator Gar?
« on: July 28, 2009, 09:35:54 AM »
Have you ever seen an alligator gar? Pretty darned impressive critters. Do they live in your state?

My old buddy went snorkeling and came face to face with one. It scared him so bad he never went snorkeling again.
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Online Dee

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2009, 09:37:38 AM »
Yep! The Red River and Lake Texhoma is full of them. I ain't skeered though. ;D
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Offline SHOOTALL

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2009, 09:43:59 AM »
Yep . have caught some 3 ft long and have seen longer . Once while fishing on the bridge over Oregon Inlet there were hundreds of them swimming under the bridge . We hooked several on casting lures . We have caught them on minnows in rivers also .
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Offline mechanic

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2009, 09:53:54 AM »
The Chattahoochee here at home is full of them.  Most folks never see one, they just feel a slight tug on their line, then their hook is gone.  If you fish for cats, and use a steel leader, on occasion you'll luck up and hook one.  The biggest I have ever seen was about 6' long.  My grandpa caught it in a fish basket baited with chicken guts.
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Online Dee

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2009, 09:58:14 AM »
Yep! Your right about the steel leaders. If you don't use'em you'll likely never get one to the bank. We shoot'em here with bows in the spring pre-spawn. The big ones will tow a canoe or flat bottom boat at a pretty good clip if you hit'em very far back with the arrow.
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Offline streak

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2009, 10:19:19 AM »
Like Dee,
When I was living in Louisiana, use to shoot alligator gar and other types of gar with the bow&arrow. The biggest one I ever saw was at the mouth of a river that feeds into the GOM. We were fishing for Specks off of a platform built from the shore out into the river with seal beams set up to shine down into the river to attract insects and naturally the fish! I happened to look down into the river at the right time and saw this alligator gar cruisin' by almost out of the water and that thing had to be 9-10 feet long! :o :o
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Offline lrs

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2009, 10:51:26 AM »
About 10 years ago, I was on a canoe trip down the trinity river in East Tx.
A large gator gar, swimming on the surface, swam right by the canoe.
I poked him in the head with my canoe paddle, and you would have thought we hit an underwater mine.
I was drenched, the canoe damn near turned over. 
I was just in awe of the power of that fish.
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Offline rex6666

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #7 on: July 28, 2009, 10:56:03 AM »
Have caught them on the coast of LA. back up the rivers.
we had lots of needle nose gar in Red River, some alligator, never heard
of them attacking any one.
On the Rio Grande they have Gar rodeos they catch them 10-12' long
200-300lbs. don't use hooks they frey out nylon rope, die it different colors
use it like a lure it gets tangled in their teeth. what a show ;D
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Offline zacharoo

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #8 on: August 02, 2009, 03:44:44 PM »
My father loved to fish them. Mama could cook them stuffed like a pork roast in a cast iron pot with a brown gravy. Man was that good. Daddy has been gone six years now. It has been at least ten since I ate a gar. Cleaned and fried fresh they are great too.

Zacharoo
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Offline Oldshooter

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #9 on: August 02, 2009, 05:10:10 PM »
I've eaten the "backstrap" ground and made into a ball and fried! It rivals crab cakes.

I was raised aroundwaters where they thrive and have never heard of a human being attacked though a large one could hurt you in a close encounter by shear size and weight.
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Offline zacharoo

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #10 on: August 02, 2009, 11:30:06 PM »
Hi old shooter!  I knew the real cajun would come out when the right food showed up. Gar fish patties are a real delicacie.  Most states call it a trash fish but a CAJUN KNOWS WHAT IS GOOD EATING! Hi from New Iberia!

Zacharoo
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Offline Oldshooter

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #11 on: August 02, 2009, 11:59:59 PM »
Yep, Like crawfish, we ate gar before it was cool, cause that is what there was !   ;)

Good to hear from you Zacharoo!
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Offline ihuntbucks

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #12 on: August 03, 2009, 08:37:39 AM »
Where I live in Alabama,the Coosa River is full of them.I use fish off the Alabama Power fishing pier back of Logan Martin Dam.With the turbines on,you could see them everywhere trying to catch Shad.While everybody else was fishing for cat,drum and stripe in the ruff water,I was bow fishing for the gar.But you know everytime I would shoot one and drag him up and throw him on the platform;I'd have the platform all to myself.Everybody else would run up the bank off the platform.Must have something to do with the "business" end of the gar.For some reason I always shoot 'em in the tail and they were "wide-open" when they hit land.My God,I miss the look in those folks face ;D ;D ;D........Rick
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Offline zacharoo

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #13 on: August 03, 2009, 10:45:13 AM »
What would you do with them after you caught it. They are hard to clean but they are worth the work. They are almost all meat with lage bones.

Zacharoo
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Online Dee

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #14 on: August 04, 2009, 04:01:57 AM »
Quote from: zacharoo on August 02, 2009, 11:30:06 PM
Hi old shooter!  I knew the real cajun would come out when the right food showed up. Gar fish patties are a real delicacie.  Most states call it a trash fish but a CAJUN KNOWS WHAT IS GOOD EATING! Hi from New Iberia!

Zacharoo

If it's illegal to hunt or catch, a Cajun will eat it. If no one else will touch it, and or, are afraid of it. A Cajun will eat it. AND! They usually figure out how to make it taste good too. ;)
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Offline zacharoo

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #15 on: August 04, 2009, 04:40:42 AM »
Back at you Dee when you are raised hard you live hard.  We were not rich or proserous. But we ate good and learned to love what we had. IN GOD'S COUNTRY (SOUTH LOUISIANA).

Zacharoo
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Offline zacharoo

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #16 on: August 04, 2009, 05:22:04 AM »
Like my old uncle used to say. If you get hungry God will supply the meat and your MAMA will make the gravy!!!!

Zacharoo
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Offline Oldshooter

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #17 on: August 04, 2009, 05:34:15 AM »
I used to say the way to get rid of Mosquitos in Louisiana would be to make em Illegal to hunt!
Now i dont say that anymore, I'm thinking more on the lines of making cell phone drivers Illegal to hunt!  ;)

Dee, Sometimes we agree 100%

When I was a kid we ate what was available, Gar, Crawfish, and "Grosbeck" were among those things and one of them was illegal then as now! a Grosbeck is a big bird that l;ives in big trees in Louisiana that has a big beak, and is illegal to hunt and is very good to eat! not that i would know!  ::)
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Online Dee

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #18 on: August 04, 2009, 08:31:06 AM »
Shoot guys I started out life in a two room house with a tin roof, and no plumbing except a well and a bucket. My grandpa, and father still did part of the farming with a team of horses (Slim & Shorty r.i.p.). We killed hogs in the fall, butchered our own beef, and ate out of the garden.
I will eat what ever necessary if hungry, but the truth is, we were never hungry. Poor as church mice, but never hungry. A squirrel or rabbit detoured 4 miles around our place, as they knew if they were at one of our suppers, they were on the menu.
We seined crawfish in the creeks and mud holes, and built fish traps and baskets.
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Offline mechanic

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #19 on: August 04, 2009, 11:13:09 AM »
Quote from: Dee on August 04, 2009, 08:31:06 AM
Shoot guys I started out life in a two room house with a tin roof, and no plumbing except a well and a bucket. My grandpa, and father still did part of the farming with a team of horses (Slim & Shorty r.i.p.). We killed hogs in the fall, butchered our own beef, and ate out of the garden.
I will eat what ever necessary if hungry, but the truth is, we were never hungry. Poor as church mice, but never hungry. A squirrel or rabbit detoured 4 miles around our place, as they knew if they were at one of our suppers, they were on the menu.
We seined crawfish in the creeks and mud holes, and built fish traps and baskets.

We might of been neighbors and not known it.......
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Online Dee

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #20 on: August 04, 2009, 12:45:38 PM »
Coulda been mechanic. Black dirt roads, no phones, and sometimes no electricity in the fifties. Grandpa had an ole car you had to push to start, and dad had a paint horse that he could ride the 6 miles into town if the roads were too muddy, and he needed to go.
There were peddlers that came by on Saturdays if the roads were dry, and the ole Baptist Church was across the creek within walkin distance. Hard times, but happy times.
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Offline mechanic

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #21 on: August 04, 2009, 01:40:05 PM »
Sometimes, Dee I wish I could go back to those times.  Harder work, but less stress.  Little money, but few bills.  Somehow I think it all evened out.  My grandpa built his house by taking the mule to the woods and dragging logs to a saw mill.  He even made most of his own nails at the forge.  As a matter of fact, he made everything out of what was at hand.  And he would eat just about anything as well.  I remember he would call my Mama in the spring and have her bring me and my BB gun out to kill robins.  He thought they were a delicacy.  A possum better not happen by, nor a coon.  Fishing was not leisure but necessary.  He made fish baskets from woven willow limbs, and would have had a fit if someone had told him it was not legal. Whatever kind of fish that got caught got eaten.  Gathering food was always legal to him.  We took the mules to town one day and on the way back he pulled into a stranger's driveway, got out and got water in a bucket for the mules.  When he was born, (1888), water belonged to everyone, and you would never refuse someone water.  I could go on, but this is off topic and someone elses post......thanks for the memories.

Ben
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Offline zacharoo

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #22 on: August 04, 2009, 03:28:33 PM »
God bless you guys sounds like we were all in the same boat. I long for those old(EASY TIMES). We were young didn't have so didn't crave for it. Family was everything and if you were like me. The only time you realized there were people better of than us was when we went to school. Then they really weren't either. I long for seeing my Daddy walking in from the field. I can still smell that old prince albert tobacco from his pipe! Must go now have a tear stuck in my eye. But thanks for you guys bringing it out!!!

Zacharoo
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Offline kix

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #23 on: August 11, 2009, 05:31:40 PM »
  One time,just about 45 yrs. ago.,a buddy and I were cruising in his dad's jon boat at Lake Mathis,Tx.(now Lake Corpus Christi)and up ahead we saw some ripple on the flat calm lake.We headed right for it and actually hit a gar that must have been at least 7 ft.I was sitting in the bow and saw it clearly before it slapped the boat with it's tail;the impact threw me backwards between the seats! And I still remember cleaning the gar we caught on trot lines,what a pain but good eating.And yes,I remember the old days when "out of town" wasn't that far. We used to hunt ground squirrels,jackrabbits and doves that came to feed on the grain and milo that fell off the railway cars;now that whole area is a huge industrial park. But times change.  Kix
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Online Dee

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #24 on: August 12, 2009, 01:27:11 AM »
Yes times do change, but before the "Triple H" is out of office we may be back to scrounging in the woods for supper.
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Offline Oldshooter

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #25 on: August 12, 2009, 04:58:52 AM »
Quote
"Triple H"

OK i'LL BITE
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Online Dee

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #26 on: August 12, 2009, 05:04:49 AM »
Quote from: Oldshooter on August 12, 2009, 04:58:52 AM
Quote
"Triple H"

OK i'LL BITE

HIP HOP HITLER! Ain't my invention, I just shortened it to "Triple H". I think BHO would like it, don't you?
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Offline Oldshooter

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #27 on: August 12, 2009, 05:06:34 AM »
WOULDN'T BE ANY FUN IF HE DID!  ;)
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Offline zacharoo

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #28 on: August 15, 2009, 06:46:19 AM »
I DON'T LIKE  THE CHANGE SO FAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Online Dee

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Re: Alligator Gar?
« Reply #29 on: August 16, 2009, 02:27:56 AM »
I haven't liked it in about 17 or 18 years.
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