Alligator Gar Interesting fish, I think.

Don't let your kids or dogs swim where they live!!

I've seen gar fish before in Illinois. Don't know if they were the same biggest maybe 3 foot. They sure weren't that big!

Plinker

When I was younger, I used to fish below Lake Livingston Dam in East Texas in my 17' Grumman canoe, mainly for white bass and stripers. There are some mighty big gar below that dam too. They would swim up along the top of the water, kinda like sharks, then when they'd see my craft, they'd dive in a frenzy, creating big waves and rocking my canoe and scaring me. It's my understanding that gars are mainly scavengers, don't eat healthy fish or other animals. I've eaten smoked gar from Louisiana, it actually tasted good.

Many types of Gar. Different eating habits. Most are predators to a great degree. Alligator gars feed on all species of fish and whatever else they can handle, including alligators of some size.

The gars that rocked my canoe below Lake Livingston were most likely alligator gars. Short wide snouts, heavy bodies, about 6' long, like those in ichthyology lab. When I was a kid growing up in Houston, the flood control people decided to pave the sides of Braes Bayou which flows through town. Back then (1950s) it was a pretty wild bayou, no subdivisions yet. When the engineers dammed up parts of the bayou and the water began to subside in pools, the stagnate pools would be teaming with all kinds of fish, turtles and snakes, and the occasional gator (there are more of them now than back then). I helped a friend carry home an alligator gar that was about 4-5' long. All the two of us could handle. His mother really thanked me for my help! I'll never forget the slime and the stench either.

All species of freshwater gar in the U.S. are edible,the roe
of all gar is poisonous to both humans and animals.

The Seminole Indians of Florida seem to prefer gar over other fish,they quite often roast them in coals and pick the meat off the bones.

WC