Spotted Gar

Well this is a first for me, and I couldn't be more exited. I've tried everything under the sun to try and catch/snag one of these for years now. Never put in to much work buy anytime I seen one fishing, ill give it a go. Today I was bass fishing off the bank on my lunch break at work. Fishing along a bridge where the bait fish where being pushed into. I quickly noticed gar where all over the place busting on the bait fish. Any time I saw a gar I would throw my spook past it and walk it over the top of it, everytime they would instantly notice and follow it for a while, or try and grab it. After about 10 different gar tried grabbing it with no success this guy swam up under the spook and rested the top of his mouth on the bottom of the lure. I said what the heck and gave it a good hard jerk and bam! Snagged him right under his mouth! Talk about a fight. Threw him up on the bank and gave him a good hard knock right between the eyes :smash:

That's one for my fishing bucket list. Im happy :super:
Cant wait to eat him tonight!

Nice fish :tu: would love to catch one.

I've caught several small ones


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Very cool man, congrats !!

Won't forget my first gar , was a long nose, they are cool fish. I've caught just a few spotted gar too. Tough to hook but fun to catch.


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How did you cook it? How was it???

TNLynn":2wapkrhc said:

How did you cook it? How was it???

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Well I don't know yet, Im going to fry him up tonight. I wanted to let the meat sit in a saltwater brine for a few night to try and pull most of the blood out.

Ill be honest I'm very leery of it. The meat seams very tinder and flakey, but the weird thing about it is in between each layer or "flake" there is connective tissue like you find in deer meat. Not sure what to expect. Also one of the filet's had small red worm attached to it. I've been debating weather or not its edible due to the worm, but I figure 2 nights of saltwater brine in the fridge and hot grease ought to kill any bacteria left. What are your guys thoughts on this?

other than that this fish was truly prehistoric. The armor plating was very neat, and very hard to cut through. Also the fish was slimier than any other fish I've handled, stunk too.

TheDuke'sBack":1kxivkzm said:

TNLynn":1kxivkzm said:

How did you cook it? How was it???

Click to expand...

Well I don't know yet, Im going to fry him up tonight. I wanted to let the meat sit in a saltwater brine for a few night to try and pull most of the blood out.

Ill be honest I'm very leery of it. The meat seams very tinder and flakey, but the weird thing about it is in between each layer or "flake" there is connective tissue like you find in deer meat. Not sure what to expect. Also one of the filet's had small red worm attached to it. I've been debating weather or not its edible due to the worm, but I figure 2 nights of saltwater brine in the fridge and hot grease ought to kill any bacteria left. What are your guys thoughts on this?

other than that this fish was truly prehistoric. The armor plating was very neat, and very hard to cut through. Also the fish was slimier than any other fish I've handled, stunk too.

Click to expand...

Lets see: Soak to get blood out for two days, connective tissue, red worms, slimy and stunk. Dude I'll loan you a buck or two for a decent meal if you need it.

Dbllunger":1e0ft9k4 said:

TheDuke'sBack":1e0ft9k4 said:

TNLynn":1e0ft9k4 said:

How did you cook it? How was it???

Click to expand...

Well I don't know yet, Im going to fry him up tonight. I wanted to let the meat sit in a saltwater brine for a few night to try and pull most of the blood out.

Ill be honest I'm very leery of it. The meat seams very tinder and flakey, but the weird thing about it is in between each layer or "flake" there is connective tissue like you find in deer meat. Not sure what to expect. Also one of the filet's had small red worm attached to it. I've been debating weather or not its edible due to the worm, but I figure 2 nights of saltwater brine in the fridge and hot grease ought to kill any bacteria left. What are your guys thoughts on this?

other than that this fish was truly prehistoric. The armor plating was very neat, and very hard to cut through. Also the fish was slimier than any other fish I've handled, stunk too.

Click to expand...

Lets see: Soak to get blood out for two days, connective tissue, red worms, slimy and stunk. Dude I'll loan you a buck or two for a decent meal if you need it.

Click to expand...

Thanks man thats very kind of you lol.

I always try and soak my fish for at least 24 hours in salt water to draw the blood out, But the connective tissue..yeah thats new to me. The meat "looks" good but thats just looks. The worms are new to me as well but doing some reading, its pretty common but still has me wondering.

I have this thing where I like to try everything at least once, needless to say I've ate some strange things in my day. Just recently I ate freshwater drum for the first time. Tasted like seafood, like a funny tasting lobster or scallop. I dont think I would eat it again but It was by no means a nasty fish, if you like lobster you would probably love it. Meat was nice big white filet's very firm, not flaky at all. Heck we've even pressure cooked a carp lol

A lot of people enjoy gar. You basically get two "backstraps". I've had it others have fixed and it was good. I've also had longnose that I tried to fix and it won't no good at all. Well, not that it wasn't good, just that it had no flavor. If your expecting meat like most fish, your gonna be disappointed. I kinda compare it to froglegs or maybe even cobia.
I hate to tell you this but everyone I know that eats it will tell you to keep the meat dry. NEVER soak the meat in any thing. It will turn soggy and mushy and basically should be thrown in the trash. Maybe yours turns out......maybe not...

Well it wasnt bad at all, pretty good actually. I fried it in cornmeal so Im not really sure what I would compare the taste too. It tasted like fish of course but the flavor was very mild, maybe similar to frog legs like you stated its just been years since I've ate frog legs so I cant really picture exactly what it taste like.

I will say that the meat wasn't very firm, but it wasn't anything to throw the meat out over. Im going to try and catch another one this afternoon and eat it tonight to see if it changes the flavor a bit witch I'm sure it will. Over all Im pleased, If any of you guys like trying new things give it a shot I dont think you will be disappointed.

I caught a few longnose gar last year and fried them up it tasted just like catfish to me. I caught it with a 8 inch long peice of white rope. All you do is get a piece of rope tie a not on one end then unravel it to where all the strands are all seperated. Tie the knot end to your fishing line with a small weight and fish it the same way you would a plastic worm. If you find an area with gar in it it's really like shooting fish in a barrel they will strike that rope and it immediately gets tangled in there teeth then you just reel them in. Not much of a fight but a really cool fish to catch in my opinion.

TheDuke'sBack":2wk7ztgs said:

Well it wasnt bad at all, pretty good actually. I fried it in cornmeal so Im not really sure what I would compare the taste too. It tasted like fish of course but the flavor was very mild, maybe similar to frog legs like you stated its just been years since I've ate frog legs so I cant really picture exactly what it taste like.

I will say that the meat wasn't very firm, but it wasn't anything to throw the meat out over. Im going to try and catch another one this afternoon and eat it tonight to see if it changes the flavor a bit witch I'm sure it will. Over all Im pleased, If any of you guys like trying new things give it a shot I dont think you will be disappointed.

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That's great. When you clean your next ones, rinse them off, then pat them dry and put n a ziploc on ice.

Easy way to catch them is with a 1/4 in diameter 6 in piece of cotton rope..tie some mono line in the middle around the rope and fray the last 3 ins so it flows in the water and secure it to the line with what ever knot you like with no hook....find the one you want to catch and throw it past them in front of them and work it back to you...usually by the third cast they cant stand it and bite, teeth get tangled in the frayed part.... not good if you plan on releasing them though....

well just got back from the spot. I had a gar about twice the size as the one I caught get off about half way in, and one about half the size of the one I caught get off as well. Both of them jumped out of the water non stop.

i know some folks that can it and they say you can't tell it from canned salmon. never tried it myself.
soaking fish ruins it imo.