Up North they have Muskies, Down South ...

[LOGDOG]

...We have Alligator Gar. Check out this big old girl:

http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/33939/texas+fisherman+prevails+in+epic+battle+with+enormous+alligator+gar/

One of the many reasons I opt not to swim in the lakes or rivers down here. Along with Alligators, Alligator Snapping Turtles, Cottonmouths, etc...... 

[Mooseherder]

Ditto!

[pineywoods]

I have seen a couple that size that came out of the ouachita river in north Louisiana. They are aptly named, look exactly like an 8 foot gator that forgot his shoes.

[Cypressstump]

That a lot of good eating right there!  As a kid, my great uncle fished for them very sucessfully in Lake Maurepas, had some huge ones caught and cleaned.

I'm not worried about the Gar much, as they tend to mind thier own business pretty much, but them ol' loggerheads and snapping turtles give me trouble sometimes while mucking around on the bottom pulling sinker logs in 40ft of minus visibility murk.

[LOGDOG]

I've got a loggerhead turtle living in my bayou by my bridge. He's as big around as a big garbage can cover ..the big ones. He's really something to look at. My neighbors brother has a 14 foot john boat. He said he was out checking trot lines and a big ole gar came alongside his boat. He said the gar was about as long as his boat. I've seen lots of 6 footers in the Red River and the Ouachita ...Sabine River too. I hear the meat is delicious but I've never tried it.

[Cypressstump]

Them big turtles are old. !  This past spring before I pulled out my catfish hoopnets, I caught a ancient Loggerhead, but he had drowned before I ran my nets, floated the net and someone helped them selves to the catfish by cutting the net to pieces fetching out the fish   :-[

I do not know how that turtle got into that 3ft hoopnet. He was roughly 80lbs I estimated. I put the turtle on the bank so i could come back for the shell and skull later,,, and someone got that too ! That loggerhead was 3ft across and 12-14 inches deep.

Years and years ago, I surveyed the Tunica Swamp around Angola Prison for a company I worked for. Up in the hills there was an old white wooden store that had all sorts of super old B&W pictures on the walls along with a lot of old antiques. One picture was of two men with a double mule team and wagon. Inside the wagon was a garfish that nearly filled the wagon bed, and the tail of the fish was almost on the ground, with its head up on the back of the seat back. The story I was told by the owner was that the old timers used to stalk the ponds and lakeshores after the Mississippi river flood had gone down, and harpoon the gar that would be lazily sunning right under the surface. It was said that gar was over 12 feet long.

[treefarmer87]

they sure are fun to fish for and put up a fight 8) we have some in the james river here they dont get that big though. the biggest one i have seen was about 4 or 5 foot.

[Magicman]

I have eaten Gar, but it really was not intended.  We were trotlining for catfish and the gar was the only thing that hooked up. Since we only brought bread, potatoes, cornmeal, and cooking oil, it got cooked.   ;D

[LOGDOG]

How was it?

[treefarmer87]

are they really boney?

[Cypressstump]

Gar meat is very tastey, kinda  like Bubba said in Forest Gump ,, BBQ'd, fried,baked,grilled,smoked,, you get the picture. Very white meat, and a larger grain texture than catfish or bass.  I use a modifed hacket to skin them. Split them down the back and fillet out each of the backstraps, they make for a nice round boneless chunk of meat about 3/4 the length of the Gar.

[Magicman]

Yup, we hulled it out and then just "steaked" it from head to tail.  I do not recall ever having a campsite meal that was not good.   ;D 

[ely]

that is a nice one.