# Alligator Gar



## mistout2 (Nov 7, 2008)

Do ya,ll see em or catch em here?


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## countryjwh (Nov 20, 2007)

i have caught some in the mobile delta. more fish gar than alligator gars. i have seen some studs though this year. i saw one that would go over 50 easy sitting in the shallows hunting this year.


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## specslayer (Oct 9, 2007)

there was a post a long time ago of someone catching one at the 3 mile bridge and i hooked one at garcon pt bridge once but didnt get a hook set....ill try to find the pic of the one at 3 mile.....found it


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## mjfishin (Oct 4, 2007)

Had one tag along on Esambia last month


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## asago (Nov 11, 2008)

Those fish are hella fun on a rope fly - gets tangled in their teeth. I messed up many a boat and almost lost a finger on many of those guys.


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## Xiphius (Oct 10, 2007)

None of the pics are Alligator gar. The Alligator Gar is being considered for listing by the FWC


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## BuckWild (Oct 2, 2007)

those are longnose gar.


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## reelthrill (Oct 3, 2007)

There are alligator gar up yellow river. Those pics look like long nose gar.


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## Ultralite (Oct 1, 2007)




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## P-cola_Native (Feb 5, 2008)

> *Xiphius (2/4/2009)*None of the pics are Alligator gar. The Alligator Gar is being considered for listing by the FWC


It's already illegal to posses one in Florida. I've seen some monsters that people have shot bow fishing in blackwater and thought it was kind of a waste. I'm not going to kill something that old that isn't even good to eat.


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## BananaTom (Feb 16, 2008)

[

It's already illegal to posses one in Florida. I've seen some monsters that people have shot bow fishing in blackwater and thought it was kind of a waste. I'm not going to kill something that old that isn't even good to eat.[/quote]

*The cajuns make awesome gar balls with them. I do not know how, I just know how to eat those gar balls.*


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## SolarFlare (Oct 3, 2007)

I catch a few Longnose Garthroughout the year, some in Blackwater and some in the Sound down towards Opal Beach which puzzles me, but I see them regularly in that area.

I also saw a small Gar last week at a point on Blackwater, just sitting there till I rolled over him.

In the Spring I have caught a few in the 25lb range on redfish jigs with Gulp Jerkbaits in the upper Bay systems.


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## konz (Oct 1, 2007)

We've caught a few of the longnose gar. Some were at the base of 3 mile.......some at Simpson pier in Pace and I saw a huge one swim through my lights out at bob sykes! Thing was an easy 4 foot!


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## Xiphius (Oct 10, 2007)

From the FWC

Longnose, Alligator, & Spotted Gar










Alligators are quite rare and we have been with a few of the States fishery biologists in our big rivers and upper bays and have not seen one. We even had to look for them proir to the demolition of the main piers associated with the old I-10 bridge...


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## TURTLE (May 22, 2008)

> *Ultralite (2/4/2009)*


This maybe a stupid question , but is that a real picture or photoshop, cause thats the biggest damn gar I have eva seen? It looks like the Loch ness monster.


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## Ultralite (Oct 1, 2007)

> *TURTLE (2/4/2009)*
> 
> 
> > *Ultralite (2/4/2009)*
> ...


it is real...this was a discussion from another forum and it appears photobucket did some moving of the pictures...i had that one downloaded when it was first posted a few years ago...

http://outdoorsbest.zeroforum.com/zerothread?id=424812

ahhh...here it is...from snopes...

http://www.snopes.com/photos/hunting/alligatorgar.asp


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## jigslinger (Sep 30, 2007)

A friend of mine that lives in Texas shoots them and takes them to a fish market and trades them for shrimp. People do eat them. He's got a boat that's set up especially for bowhunting them at night.


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## Shiznik (Feb 24, 2008)

The restaurant that used to be on Us Highway 331 S in freeport named Reddick's Family Restaurant used to have one hanging on their wall that I want to say was just a couple of pounds shy of setting the record for an Aliigator Gar and it was caught over here in Choctawhatchee River. I have to say that whoever it was that tax'ed that thing, didn't do a very good job because after it hanging in there a year or two, it started to smell, and my wife and I refused to eat at the table that was underneath it.


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## Bryan Bennett (Dec 29, 2007)

Apparently there are some bigalligator garin the Mobile/Perdido estuary system. At one time many line class records were set in the Fish River. As a matter of fact, a former neighbor of mine had set several of those records on 4 and 6 pound line. I've seen a few over 100 pounds easy cruise by the State Pier in Gulf Shores, especially in the spring of the year. We surmised they had somehow entered the Gulf via Perdido Pass from the ICW. They can tolerate a wide range of salinities, it would seem. I wouldn't say they are common anywhere now because the big ones are targeted by the bow fishers and it takes decades for them to get dinosaur-big.


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

Believe it or not, I have caught 2 of them around 4 feet in length at alabama point while trying to net shrimp. I always bring a rod with me and one night about 3 years ago me and a few other guys were netting shrimp along the wall when we saw something along the edges of the rocks that looked pretty damn big. Someone had said it looked like a sturgeon but as it got closer you could clearly see the flat mouth and the shape of the tail. I didn't have anything rigged for that of course so I took a very small dead bluefish and just stuck it on a gotcha plug and lobbed it at it. He ate that thing immediately, and unlike the alligator gars we use to catch in thebay growing up, this one didn't fight at all. It was missing one eye and had all these disgusting sores on it so I unhooked it quickly and carefully and set it free. About 2 nights later i caught another one in much the same manner as the previous one but a little bit smaller. We used to catch them up to around 6 feet in length in Mobile bay when we were kids.


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## on the rocks (Oct 1, 2007)

i just came up from the dock and while i was trout fishing, right under one of my lights, up pops what i would say was a fitty pounder...freakin huge...no wonder the trout shut down...



mike

aka: Mr. Ultralite


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## skinny water (May 28, 2008)

The mobile delta was full of them 20 years ago. As teenagers we would fish for them with heavy tackle at night around the mobile bayway cut mullet and small live bream were the best bait. the biggest one we ever got to the boat we a little over 7 feet long we did not have any way to check wait. All gar were released did not want them in the boat.


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## Jighead (Feb 11, 2009)

I thought I had seen some monster gar in the Warrior River (central AL.). Then, I visited fish river in December. Wow! A schoolcame by the boatand the average was 5 foot and had to be 30 inches in girth.


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## Saltfisher (Mar 26, 2009)

Those Gars looks awesome. I wanna catch one


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## Dylan (Apr 15, 2008)

I caught 2 in the net at Bob Sikes about a month ago..It was getting dark and I saw something , so I threw..2 gar..


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## usaf medic (May 29, 2008)

Gar balls. 

take a plain wood handle shovel and put it in the ground with the handle up.

put the gar ontop of it shoving the handle in his mouth push it hard till its supporting his weight( it will be in his stomach)

take a hack saw and cut a 1 inch cut an inch from the tail perpindicular to the spine. 

take EMT shears and cut the skin down to the head.

then get a sharp knife and cut the loins on each side of the backbone. you will have 2 that look just like pork loins.

then cut the loins into 2 inch steaks, and get a table spoon and smash the meat out of the honey comb like connective tissue.

take the loose meat and mix with instant mashed potatoe mix with seasoning ( tony's or cajunhot/ salty)

make them into balls or patties. deep fry the balls or pat the patties with flour and put them in a skillet with a stick of butter. 

careful guys this will use every bowl you have and is not very clean. your wives will tell you never make that big of a mess again but they will love the " balls"

ps i come from a ******** (cajun) family


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## TURTLE (May 22, 2008)

> *specslayer (2/3/2009)*there was a post a long time ago of someone catching one at the 3 mile bridge and i hooked one at garcon pt bridge once but didnt get a hook set....ill try to find the pic of the one at 3 mile.....found it


We saw a couple at Garcon pt bridge last saturday about this size, they were not eating anything we were useing.


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## AUradar (Oct 1, 2007)

> *TURTLE (5/13/2009)*
> 
> 
> > *specslayer (2/3/2009)*
> ...


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## Juschill (Apr 30, 2009)

There's plenty of them over in Escambia bay, especially the more brackish waters near the river and Simpson River. Caught a cast net full of small (16-20") gars the other day off of Mulat bridge. Saw a school of fish and threw on them thinking they may be mullet. The scales/armor is unlike any other and they are very slimy when caught. Smell very strong also. I don't recommend throwing a cast net when they're nearby. They are horrible to get out of your net. The long noses get all tangled up and the teeth will tear you up.


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## roofordie (Sep 24, 2008)

I had a 4-5 footer break off at the canoe in the Simpson River. big ugly SOB. Glad it broke the line, to be honest. Once I saw him I knew I didnt want to put my hand anywhere near it.


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## CurtisJet (Jan 22, 2009)

I live in Missisippi and right now the MS River is above flood stage. That floods thousands of acres of swamp and farmland. The big Gar, Buffalo, Carp, Catfish, Goo, and other creatures all make their way up into the flooded areas to eat and I'm sure escape the current of the big river. Lots of guys go after them with everything from bows, to custom baits, to guns. It's cool to see those big beasts floating along in the backwater. We used to bowfish for them years ago and it was lots of fun. They're really difficult to kill, it's hard for me to believe they could be on any endangered list. I've seen them swim away after laying on the concrete for 4 hours! When I was a kid in '73 and '74 we used to wade out on the golf course when it would flood and try and hit them with sticks or golf clubs! I'm supposed to be going kayaking in the backwater with a buddy of mine on Wednesday, I've never been in the backwater in a kayak, but I'm hoping we'll find some cool stuff. I'll try to get some pictures for all you salties. I'm also hoping to maybe make it down to Gulf Shores for the weekend!


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## Dragnfly (Jan 25, 2008)

I was also going to say Escambia River, in fact years ago the state record came out of Escambia river. I havnt looked for them in a long time so I have no idea if theyre still there in size or numbers. They were very heavily bow fished for years.


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## bamaman08 (Dec 22, 2008)

Saw a huge alligator gar off white river in blue lake today. probably around 6 foot long with a huge head. He came to the surface around 10 feet in front of us.


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## CAJUN (Oct 2, 2007)

<P class=Body>according to the florida fishing regulations booklet it is illegal to possess alligator gar without a permit<P class=Body>"(NOTE: It is illegal to possess grass carp or alligator gar without a permit.)"<TABLE id=table8 width="100%" border=1><TBODY><TR><TD><P class=Body>







</TD><TD><P class=Body>Triploid grass carp are used for aquatic vegetation control and may not be stocked or harvested without a permit. They grow to over 40 pounds.</TD></TR><TR><TD><P class=Body>







</TD><TD><P class=Body>Alligator gar are found only in the panhandle rivers and grow to more than 120 pounds. Their gator like snout is distinct. Due to limited numbers, harvest is restricted.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


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