If you've ever eaten Stuffed Crab, in the shell.......you have probably eaten gar.

Back-in-the-Day, we sold the really big ones 5'-7' to restaurants that ground up the gar meat, added in the required 10% crab meat and called it Stuffed Crab on the Half Shell. Tourists gobbled them up.

Personally, I like a 5-8 lb. gar roast from a 4'-6' fish, stuffed with garlic, simmered down in a roux in a black iron pot and served over rice.

If you want fried gar, just skin them out, fillet long big and thick slabs..........then re-fillet the slabs to cut the tendons. Soak them in an egg, cream and cayenne pepper solution for about 30 minutes and roll them in Zatarain's New Orleans Fish Fry batter . Fry them in hot peanut oil until they float and tell everybody they're eating catfish.........


sa va,
netmaker

Ha! Seen this photo months ago. It was sent to me from my cousin in Louisiana and description said it was caught in a Lake in Southern Louisiana somewhere. So I suppose many may have capitalized on the impressive nature of this beautiful fish and shared their fishy stories about it.

Daniel

I live in central Louisiana and people continuously disappoint me. Idiots will kill anything. My nephew caught a 119 pound flathead cat (aka Opelousas cat) and kept it. Who wants to eat such an old fish? The meat is not good. A monster like that would be better off contributing to the genepool and being fat. A real blow to the species if you ask me. People also love to kill ancient alligator snapping turtles (which can weigh more than 300 lbs and live over a century). If I EVER encountered or caught one, I would play with it, admire it, take some pictures with it, and send it back unharmed. People like the spiked shells and they fetch a lot of money, but really... these living fossils deserve respect and we should be proud to have them living among us. It is extremely rare to find a huge turtle or fish. The wildlife and fisheries here is partly to blame because they allow these big creatures (fish and turtles) to be caught. There should be a restriction against taking these obvious survivors. Softshell turtles are very uncommon now, but people are allowed to take them. If someone is going to hunt one down, you can bet that it is going to be an old-timer with detailed and specific knowledge of where to go. Here in Louisiana, we have ridiculous restrictions regarding the taking of small fish under a certain length. This is ass-backwards... the large fish should be protected. If people are catching to eat, the small fish are the palatable ones and they are not even a fraction as valuable to the species as a whole when compared to the really old giants. This is one thing that I would like to see changed in my lifetime.

If you've ever eaten Stuffed Crab, in the shell.......you have probably eaten gar.

Back-in-the-Day, we sold the really big ones 5'-7' to restaurants that ground up the gar meat, added in the required 10% crab meat and called it Stuffed Crab on the Half Shell. Tourists gobbled them up.

Personally, I like a 5-8 lb. gar roast from a 4'-6' fish, stuffed with garlic, simmered down in a roux in a black iron pot and served over rice.

If you want fried gar, just skin them out, fillet long big and thick slabs..........then re-fillet the slabs to cut the tendons. Soak them in an egg, cream and cayenne pepper solution for about 30 minutes and roll them in Zatarain's New Orleans Fish Fry batter . Fry them in hot peanut oil until they float and tell everybody they're eating catfish.........


sa va,
netmaker

Gar balls (boulettes mixed with green onions, seasoning) and shrimp in a red gravy cooked in a blackpot served over rice is one of my top favorite foods.

You are so right about the killing off the big fish and turtles. I saw the light so to speak years back and gave up commercial net building .

The last big gar i caught in a gill net measured a tad over 8' and was probably 275lbs. or so. I just cut the web away from his snout and watched him swim away. I have no idea to this day what made me do it but it was the last time i put those nets in the water.

Now its just research and sampling gear.

.....and those boulettes work good on chopique mashed up with boiled potatoes and fried.......

sa va,
nm

You are so right about the killing off the big fish and turtles. I saw the light so to speak years back and gave up commercial net building .

The last big gar i caught in a gill net measured a tad over 8' and was probably 275lbs. or so. I just cut the web away from his snout and watched him swim away. I have no idea to this day what made me do it but it was the last time i put those nets in the water.

Now its just research and sampling gear.

.....and those boulettes work good on chopique mashed up with boiled potatoes and fried.......

sa va,
nm

I respect and envy your ability to make nets and commercial fish. Not long ago (50 years maybe), your skill and past trade was essential to our well being here in Cajun Country. Years back, I used to run some hoopnets and slat catfish boxes in the Red and Atchafalaya. Being on the big rivers all day everyday getting face to face with the inhabitants of our majestic waterways is good for the soul. It is inevitable that things will go wrong (usually boat related things), but that is where the ability to improvise comes into play
I'm sure you know that all to well.

It seems that you have adapted your trade to one that is beneficial to our aquatic fauna. That is excellent!
About your story and your change of heart: hearing that makes me feel hope. It is inspiring and I commend you. You are a wise and good person for what you have done.

BTW - I am sure that you used to catch a lot of gaspergoux (goux or goo. freshwater drum)
Those "trash fish" along with gar are my favorite freshwater fish to eat. The meat is a little firmer, not fishy tasting, and will hold up to vigorous cooking. We celebrate every time we catch one on a yo-yo. We fillet them like any other fish, but instead of removing the skin on the outside, we scale it and leave the skin intact with the meat. Pop it in a pot skin side down with chopped celery, onion, garlic, seasoning, etc.. and put the lid on. It makes a wonderful white gravy and the skin becomes gelatinous and gooey. The texture is amazing! That there gravy dat it makes has to be one of the best things ever put on rice. None of our friends will eat it with us. They have never tried it, but insist that it is
"bad." HA!

I remember someone telling me that their father kills every gar he catches/lays hands on... for no reason really except maybe he thinks they're ugly or competing with 'real' gamefish.

Yep. People do that. They break their beaks on the side of the boat or with pliers and throw them back in the water. I would get booted from the NANFA forum if I used the words that I am thinking of to describe $*** like this.

Yep. People do that. They break their beaks on the side of the boat or with pliers and throw them back in the water. I would get booted from the NANFA forum if I used the words that I am thinking of to describe $*** like this.

Likely not be booted with me as an Admin..... I have some very colorful names also....

A friend and I go gar fishing on the Mississippi here. Everyone that tries it is hooked, pun intended. Everyone who has tried fried gar thinks it is good to great.

I have to agree totally with the letting the big old fish go to spawn. The best genetic stock is in these specimans, and they are the worst tasting. Young fish are the best to eat.

A big longnose where we fish is 50 inch and above. We generally keep mid 30's to eat, since smaller ones are not worth cleaning. Shortnose just don't get big enough to consider, but are fun to catch too.

Likely not be booted with me as an Admin..... I have some very colorful names also....

30 years back I saw a couple of fellows shooting some big gar near an inlet to Lake Pontchartrain. I heard later that day that one of them was hit by a richochet (.22).
oh well.............. they don't call them " armored fish " for nothing.

Back to work.


nm

"About your story and your change of heart: hearing that makes me feel hope. It is inspiring and I commend you. You are a wise and good person for what you have done. ...."

Just making a living like everybody else, nothing special about me at all ........just making a living. ..........

nm

Down here at the Ochlocknee River where I live you can catch all the gar you want and these suckers ain't small. I guess no one really cares about them down here...heck some folks don't even know how to fish for them but man they fight. Of course I let mine go as well...

F.Y.I. The Ochlocknee River has no Alligator Gar. You are probably talking about longnose gar or spotted gar. Alligator Gar range in florida is basically Choctawhatchee east with some reports in Apalachicola.

F.Y.I. The Ochlocknee River has no Alligator Gar. You are probably talking about longnose gar or spotted gar. Alligator Gar range in florida is basically Choctawhatchee east with some reports in Apalachicola.

The Ochlocknee actually has both Spotted (Lepisosteus oculatus) and Florida Gar (L. platyrhinchus). It is one of the rare occasions they both are in the same watershed.

But yeah no Gators and lots of big Longnosed in there.

A friend and I go gar fishing on the Mississippi here. Everyone that tries it is hooked, pun intended. Everyone who has tried fried gar thinks it is good to great.

I have to agree totally with the letting the big old fish go to spawn. The best genetic stock is in these specimans, and they are the worst tasting. Young fish are the best to eat.

A big longnose where we fish is 50 inch and above. We generally keep mid 30's to eat, since smaller ones are not worth cleaning. Shortnose just don't get big enough to consider, but are fun to catch too.

It's good to know that I have allies here .

Question about your profile picture: Is that a choupique in an aquarium? Is that one that you caught and are raising (or raised)? I have NEVER been able to acquire one under 3 pounds or so. Any pointers?

Likely not be booted with me as an Admin..... I have some very colorful names also....

Good to know.

This is just a little something that we used to do.

Can't say its fool proof and there may be something better.

Its just FYI.


sa va,
Greg

You should be able to find pods of young in the Atchafalaya basin north of Lake Verret area. It might be too late now for that. Traps set near culverts often work.

That is one of mine, and I did raise him from a baby found in a flooded ditch that was drying up. He eats pelleted food well, and has made nests the last two years. My favorite fish really.

You should be able to find pods of young in the Atchafalaya basin north of Lake Verret area. It might be too late now for that. Traps set near culverts often work.

That is one of mine, and I did raise him from a baby found in a flooded ditch that was drying up. He eats pelleted food well, and has made nests the last two years. My favorite fish really.

Right after I get this "baseball" cut off my thyroid I intend to take a few days and go find me a few fish.

Pretty fish you have there in the picture. As for Lake Verret, you are right, there used to be tons of gar in there this time of year. I haven't been there in 10 years though.

sa va,

greg