When the redbuds bloom

Sylvrfalcn said:
Nice pics Hollow :thumbup:

Kis, I've never seen a muskie, except on TV, but us southern folk have a different kind of "inland shark" called an alligator gar.

hugegar.jpg



Here's two sets of bluegrass lyrics that seem to fit in the same pocket :D

I've been a fisherman all my life
and all I've got is a Barlow knife
Barlow handle and a Barlow blade
Best durn knife that ever was made

Going up Cripple Creek, going in a run
Going up Cripple Creek, to have a little fun
Roll my britches legs to my knees
Wade old Cripple Creek where I please

Sarge
Click to expand...

Holy Crap! That's the Mother of all Gars!!!!!:eek: :eek:
 
I know this might be a silly question, but has anyone ever been attacked by one of those?! That thing could gulp down a 2 year old without much trouble I'd imagine!:eek:
 
Not a silly question at all Rob, but thankfully no, they aren't known to attack humans. Still, if you're fishing in water where you know there's gar, it's a bad idea to dangle your hand or foot in the water. :eek: :D

Sarge
 
They are full of very tiny bones Munk, and the only people I've heard of who ate them are my people, Cajuns. They scrape the meat off the bones and make gar balls. Think of hush puppies. Pretty dayum good too.

Edit. My dad and I used to go shooting at this old mill in Louisianna. There was a bridge over a gully there and we used to stand up there and shoot the turtles and gar with a .22. Its pretty neat. The gar don't move much, and just hang out near the surface, then when you shoot them the whole place is stirred up with flashes of silver and mud everywhere. Gar get big and shooting a big one was quite a comotion.
 
Thanks Andy.
Seems to me a number of carnivore fish have small bones or are otherwise difficult to prepare and eat. I wonder if Mother Nature intended that.



munk
 
Sylvrfalcn said:
At least in Texas, it's sure sign that it's time to go fishing. The black bass are going on the beds and feeding in the shallows, and the white bass'll be running in the Colorado River. Fishing is something I've loved since childhood, but it's something I sorted of drifted away from. Well sir, by golly, I'm drifting back. Got myself a shiny new fishing license, and tonight I'll be overhauling my rods and reels and sorting out my tackle box. I'm excited, can you tell? Much of my outdoor education was acquired out hunting and fishing with my dad and uncles. Catching fish is just a bonus to a beautiful morning on a quiet lake, watching the mists burn off as birds sing a joyful greeting to the sun. Heck, even ordered myself a brand new Barlow knife, a country boy can't go fishing, squirrel hunting, or such without one. :D

RU02.jpg


There's even an old bluegrass song about it, goes something like this;
"I've been a fisherman all my life
and all I've got is a Barlow knife.
Barlow handle and a Barlow blade.
Best durn knife that ever was made."

That there's good stuff. :thumbup: :D

Sarge
Click to expand...
On Christmas, 1949, my older brother was given the very first Swiss Army Knife that I ever saw. He passed his Barlow knife along to me. I had just turned 7 about 3 weeks before and was deemed of an appropriate age to begin to learn about the care of and for a knife. I have carried a pocket knife ever since and, although that Barlow is long since lost, I have a couple at home for my grandsons.
 
Munk,

(This is from my days as a bio major. I am no expert (didn't even graduate)and could be corrected on many of these points.)

Not too often do we eat carnivores. This is because we can't get energy as efficiently from them as we can from herbivores. The energy in an ecosystem, any ecosystem, comes from the sun. Plants use that energy to make their foods (sugar), and thusly trap it here on our planet. That conversion is not perfect (but way better than any man made solar cell for effiency), and some of the energy is lost/converted to heat.

So you can see here the purest form of energy we can eat is a plant. Once removed from that is an animal that eats plants, then would come the animal that eats those animals. See what I mean. Energy cannot be created only transformed, so plants are the most energy packed food on the earth. (Give your kids a couple of apples and watch them go.) Cajuns will eat anything, and did so to keep themselves from starving, hence gar, crawfish, blackbirds, oppossum, snake, etc are all common fare.

ps...Black birds are deliscious.
 
Another stupid question about Gar...

Here in Alaska we use whack-bonks to club most salmon and halibut below the 70 pound range. Once they start getting larger it's fairly common to shoot 'em.

do y'all shoot or club the Gar when ya' land 'em?


the only real toothy inland fish we have here are Northern Pike. They're not native here, but idiots imported them from the lower 48 in alot of areas where they've really cleaned out the Trout and Dolly. Fish and Game are pretty generous when it comes to Pike. Generally speaking there's not alot of rules when it comes to fishing for them. legal to bowfish for them, no limit, etc. Hard to believe God gave any critter teeth that razor sharp.
 
The times we cought gar we were fishing for crappie. We just threw them on the bank and cut our line.
 
FullerH said:
On Christmas, 1949, my older brother was given the very first Swiss Army Knife that I ever saw. He passed his Barlow knife along to me. I had just turned 7 about 3 weeks before and was deemed of an appropriate age to begin to learn about the care of and for a knife. I have carried a pocket knife ever since and, although that Barlow is long since lost, I have a couple at home for my grandsons.
Click to expand...

Here's a grin for you, from left to right: Kabar, Boker, Col. Coon, Kabar, Western, and Western.

attachment.php


The Boker's the only one I tote around and use, the rest of 'em have "stories". Take that Western on the far right for example, I've had it for thirty three years. I was kind of rough on stuff as a teenager, busted one of the handle slabs, so I took some hickory from a busted axe handle and whittled new ones. :D

Sarge

p.s.: check out the high tech finish on that hickory handle, singed with a candle flame and rubbed with bacon grease
 

Attachments

  • Picture 157.jpg
    Picture 157.jpg
    45.4 KB · Views: 31
Nice collection of barlows Sarge. Got the new one yet? I like looking up barlow on ebay every once in a while. Cool knives.
 
Andy, it's not cost effective to eat carnivores, but I really don't think there's much difference in nutritional value between a pound of Cougar and a pound of Cow, is there?

Poor people have always eaten what was available. I remember from reading people like Jesse Stuart when I was a boy, that possum, porcupine, and cougar were all et in Appalachia and other rural places in the US.

munk
 
Munk, Pound for pound of meat you may be right, but there is a reason that there are huge populations of herbivores vs small populations of carnivores. I do think there would be significant nutritional differences between the meats. Efficiency dictates a necessary difference. A person would feel just as full, but our world isn't 100% eficient and there is only one source of energy and one significant method to convert it.
 
munk said:
Andy, it's not cost effective to eat carnivores, but I really don't think there's much difference in nutritional value between a pound of Cougar and a pound of Cow, is there?

Poor people have always eaten what was available. I remember from reading people like Jesse Stuart when I was a boy, that possum, porcupine, and cougar were all et in Appalachia and other rural places in the US.

munk
Click to expand...

Possum ain't bad cooked up with some sweet taters, but raccoon, man if that ain't cooked right it's greasier than bear meat.:barf:

Speaking of them critters Munk, have your "night raiders" been holing up for the winter? Come spring I'm sure you'll have an ambush laid for 'em. ;)

Sarge
 
mmmmm....bear meat.....

One mans greasy rack of ribs is another mans juicy rack of ribs...

Gotta take the time to get a blackie this year....(or at least some darn thing to fill the freezer! store bought meat freakin' sucks!!!)

I remember opossum being real fatty and greasy too. Hard to believe coons could be worse!:eek:

eh...yet another Georgia critter I don't miss here in Alaska...
 
Runs with Scissors- you're not the first I've heard compliment bear meat, though what the bear has eaten during which season matters.

Silver Falcon; My good neighbors finally caught the Racoon in a trap. They liberated the animal from it's earthly ties and sent it to the Great Coon in the Sky.


My neighbor Johnny says there aren't any Coons on his side of our little town. I'm not sure why that is. There was a Cougar-killed deer carcass I found in the hills right behind the school house. How likely is it that Cougars could have eaten all the local Racoons?

munk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top