Gar!

[jdmidwest]

Waited around till afternoon so it would be nice and hot on my little honey hole for Gar. It is a nice little river with all of my favorite fish with the exception of trout. First hole by the bridge produced 2 nice smallies on a popper. It was a nice surprise. A third, larger than the other two, followed both in and never would take a fly.

Then came the hard part. This stream has about 1/4 mile of slick bedrock to traverse to get to the next hole. I slipped and slided upstream till I found some gravel and carried on. It was hot. At first I thought I was seeing things, a teepee in the field along the river. Must have been the Visqueen tribe looking at the construction of the teepee. Visions of Pocahontas swimming nude in the river above kept me going to my favorite gar spot on the river.

A few more holes with no fish and I came to my spot. I was already late, the river was being shaded by trees, but the gar were still on top. I tied on a white bunny strip fly and caught this one on the second cast. Tempted a few more and left a fly in a nice one. Then they retreated back down to the bottom of the hole.

I swiched flies and started catching smallies and green sunfish. One cast produced a shiner minnow that erupted in a cloud of scales on the way in. A nice smallie of about 18" nailed him. He did the same when I was bringing in a small longear sunfish. I fished the hole till the fish quit biting. Pocahontas never did make it, two ladies several years my senior did show up on a 4 wheeler.

On the way back, I found a spot that produced several nice google eye but nothing else to brag about. Made it thru the bedrock unscathed, and never was attacked by the natives. All in all, a good afternoon.

[Feathers and Fins]

Nice Gar, dam I love cathing them on a fly

[junkman]

When you catch as many as I have in the last few months, you don't want to see another for a long time. Actually caught my largest a month ago. Didn't weigh it but it was over 4 1/2 feet long. It would have put up a good fight on a fly.

[Haris122]

They sure do give a good account of themselves when being reeled in, don't they.

[Feathers and Fins]

Junk they are dam fine table fair just a pain in the butt to cook. I have cajun friends that will fight you over gar and they dont care what type of gar.

[LetsGoToTheRiver]

Anybody have good instructions on how to clean and cook a gar? We caught several on jug lines at truman this weekend. We let em go but am interested in cooking some up. Thanks!

[Wayne SW/MO]

To clean them the people I knew who did used metal shears to cut the length of the belly and then they skinned them.

We use to catch them of bait casters or spinning rods with white poly rope combed out and a piece of red yarn tied to the front. We melted the end of the rope and then flattened it, punched a hole through it and hooked a snap to it. The hardest part of using one of these it to avoid setting the hook that isn't there and tearing it out of their mouth. You just hesitate a few seconds to let them get it tangled in their teeth and then start reeling. Grand Lake used to be a great spot in the heat of the summer for catching them.

[Feathers and Fins]

I use sheet metal sheers. Cut down both sides of the back bone then from the top down to the belly take your fillet knife and fillet it from top to bottom. One of the best ways to cook them is to buy cedar planks.

Soak the plank in water for 4 hours, After the soak place sliced apple on the plank and and the fish on that and baste in olive oil. Add salt pepper and your other favorite spices and cook at 400 for about 1 hour and remove.... You can substitute the apple for other things Orange and Key Lime are also excellant choices.

If more people knew how good they were we would surely have less of them that much is for certain.

[creekin bassnerd]

Anybody have good instructions on how to clean and cook a gar? We caught several on jug lines at truman this weekend. We let em go but am interested in cooking some up. Thanks!

Ive cleaned and cooked 2 gar before. They were both very tasty. Last time I did like wayne and used metal shears to cut thru the tough skin. Gar have a good chunk of meat on both sides of the back bone above the rib cage that extends the length of the fish. Similar to cutting the back strap out of a deer, I just cut those 2 strip filets out and its a good amount of boneless meat. Just fry em up like you would any fish and enjoy.

[jdmidwest]

I just toss them back.