Monster Fish / Alligator Gar / National Geo. Channel July 19 at 10 pm ET

[fishpharmer]

Alligator Gar are native to Mississippi so I have a special interest in these critters.  If you get a chance, watch the show about these true "monster fish", the Alligator Gar.  Nine pm Central Time.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/monster-fish/4766/Overview

Gator Gar, I know you will tune in ;)  Ely is a gator gar man too.

Here is a link with some info about the gator gar
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/gallery/Descript/AlligatorGar/AlligatorGar.html
The picture of the fish and fisherman at the bottom of the page is from MS.

I would love to hear some feed back as well.

[Magicman]

My late Brother and I went on a catfishing trip and only took potatoes, cooking oil, and bread.  We would fry catfish.  Problem was, all that we caught was one garfish.

Yup, we finally hulled that sucker out, chopped it into steaks, and had supper.  Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.   digin_2

[fishpharmer]

Was it as good as they say it is : ?

[Magicman]

I'm sure that we probably had Ketchup, so with enough of that plus being hungry, I do remember that it was good.  I also remember that the skeeters almost ate US up that night.   

[ely]

i watched a show on pbs this weekend i think it was. anyway it was showing the hatchings and shipping of the fry. they also showed how they fed and attempted to care for the small fish. they told about how they had to be very watchful and keep sorting the fry according to size in order to minimize the cannibalism as best they could. it looked to be a duanting task with those large tanks of gator gar they had.

[fishpharmer]

I was busy working and only got to see the last half.  Everything I saw was filmed in TX and on the Trinity River.  Did anyone see the beginning?

[ely]

i seen the whole thing. you can still look at in online as of this am. it was on msn dot com. and i bet you can get it off nat geo website too.
they started out in lusanna. catching and tagging the gator gar. my biggest problem with shows like this is the terms that the folks throw around and the phrases they use. like" depleted resources" and "destroyed habitat"  they almost always tie those phrases in with the word sportsmen or fishermen.

in my study of the gator gar, anytime that you mess with the fish they will regurgitate the food they have injested. doesnt matter if you catch them in a net or on a jug or on a rod and reel or shoot them with an arrow. i have seen vidieo of these fish that were shot with an arrow and pulled imediatly into a boat. they puked more sandbass out than most people could catch in an afternoon.

i have skinned and butchered more gator gar here in oklahoma than anyone in my area, that i know of. and i have never found one yet with anything in the stomache.

i would like to learn more about the process of aging these fish. none of the ways they do it are very consistent with each other.

[Banjo picker]

I missed this ...If it airs again how about someone posting here or shoot me a pm...Tim