Baby Gator Gar On The Trinity River

FlowerOfLife

FlowerOfLife

Joined
Jan 16, 2014
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[video=youtube;giVLrtj0eac]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giVLrtj0eac&list=UU3uKdwg7hdwupgYT0M4koUg[/video]

landing a little 20 pound gar on the trinity river with my daughter, we had about 10 runs for the day on cut carp with tons of dropped baits unfortunaetlywhile letting them run..still had a good time fishing with my kiddo and we avoided the rains for the most part.

my BATAC makes an appearance on film :)



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Beautiful fish! It's great that you get to share that experience with your daughter. It looks like she was having a good time, and was comfortable on the river by that toothy beast...oh how my boys could learn from her, ha ha.
 
Clean, Scale and Pressure cook, run through a grinder bones and all, use like canned Tuna, add flour or crumbs to make into fish cakes.
 
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allot of people eat the gar, personally i have been trying to promote catch and release in Texas for gar, i feel their native range is far too small and they grow too slow to be harvested the way they are..there are even gar guides shooting them with bows and "releasing" them :(
1 am 99% of the times a catch and release fisherman and have no intention of hurting a gar. In fact next year i may start a catch and release gar guide service.
alliagtor gar have been misunderstood and prosecuted by humans(even TPW murdered them for years(Texas Parks and Wildlife) this last century to the point where even the maximum size they reach has been greatly reduced..the funny thing is gar are actually really bait specific, i dont think you could get a gar to bite you if you tried honestly..they are actually pretty good tempered, and their armor gives them a sense of security, and lack of fear..without humans thy would have no natural predators once they grow big enough to not be eaten by alligator..

funny enough i have found the more i carry the BATAC the lighter and smaller it feels..when i first got the thing it felt huge now its pretty normal..makes a cold steel recon scout seem light lol
 
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FlowerOfLife said:
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allot of people eat the gar, personally i have been trying to promote catch and release in Texas for gar, i feel their native range is far too small and they grow too slow to be harvested the way they are..there are even gar guides shooting them with bows and "releasing" them :(
1 am 99% of the times a catch and release fisherman and have no intention of hurting a gar. In fact next year i may start a catch and release gar guide service.
alliagtor gar have been misunderstood and prosecuted by humans(even TPW murdered them for years(Texas Parks and Wildlife) this last century to the point where even the maximum size they reach has been greatly reduced..the funny thing is gar are actually really bait specific, i dont think you could get a gar to bite you if you tried honestly..they are actually pretty good tempered, and their armor gives them a sense of security, and lack of fear..without humans thy would have no natural predators once they grow big enough to not be eaten by alligator..

funny enough i have found the more i carry the BATAC the lighter and smaller it feels..when i first got the thing it felt huge now its pretty normal..makes a cold steel recon scout seem light lol
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That's really cool man, I admit I was happy you threw him back , but if it were a salmon ..yum:)
 
That is a decent looking little fishy. Looks like it was a bit of a fighter.
 
FlowerOfLife said:
+
allot of people eat the gar, personally i have been trying to promote catch and release in Texas for gar, i feel their native range is far too small and they grow too slow to be harvested the way they are..there are even gar guides shooting them with bows and "releasing" them :(
1 am 99% of the times a catch and release fisherman and have no intention of hurting a gar. In fact next year i may start a catch and release gar guide service.
alliagtor gar have been misunderstood and prosecuted by humans(even TPW murdered them for years(Texas Parks and Wildlife) this last century to the point where even the maximum size they reach has been greatly reduced..the funny thing is gar are actually really bait specific, i dont think you could get a gar to bite you if you tried honestly..they are actually pretty good tempered, and their armor gives them a sense of security, and lack of fear..without humans thy would have no natural predators once they grow big enough to not be eaten by alligator..

funny enough i have found the more i carry the BATAC the lighter and smaller it feels..when i first got the thing it felt huge now its pretty normal..makes a cold steel recon scout seem light lol
Click to expand...

I was thinking they were protected in Texas. We still have them here but they are very rare. Longnose Gar are plentiful here,never here of anyone eating them.
 
there is a limit of one gar per person per day in Texas. currently they are classified as protected i believe, before 2009 there were no limits
the problem is not people taking a single gar to go eat(i dont think), the problem is the gar guides who use bows and dont observe the limits because they are "releasing" the fish..they are shooting multiple fish a day and killing them, waste of game is a crime in Texas..personally i find it pretty sick
maybe i have just killed and caught enough animals and fish in my life to see how wrong it was to take another creature life for sport and fun..
though some of it is ignorance, i hear people say things like they are invasive species, thats why they kill them even though this is their native range since the cretaceous period..
they are some of the neatest fish in the united states, just as neat as tarpon and arapaima all top level cretaceous period survivors, i am very happy to be living within driving distance of their favorite rivers..
 
Yeah if they don't live after the release then its not a release. They should change it to one fish per person per day with a bow no matter if you release it or not.
 
im pretty sure thats implied, it just that the gar guides dont care, they wouldn't have much of a trip if you shoot one in 30 minutes then call it a day i guess..i passed one gar guide near palastine tx who said they had shot 11 of them that day..i have also seen the gar discarded at the boat ramps, my understanding is they spoil faster than other fish..
there are people doing it right Capt kirk Kirkland has caught, tagged, and released over 3,000 gar, when targeted with rod and reel and small bronze treble hooks(so they rust in days if you have to clip the wire) the survivability rate is extremely high, i know he has recaught 13 of his tagged fish this year..
 
Hell yeah you can eat them!!!

They are PLENTIFUL here in louisiana, I've caught them on everything from earth worms , crank baits, spinners, but I find I get more on chunked mullet than any other fresh chopped fish. There is one, I can only estimate to be between 6-8', that torments me every time I go to one particular spot. Pretty sure I've hooked him 2x but lost him each time. Their teeth cut the best of line and you need liters and stout hooks for them......and a WHOLE lot of patience.

Just the other weekend was a. Garfish Rodeo in a nearby town. Top 10 weighed in at almost 800lbs
 
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