Posted on 09/23/2009 10:23:32 AM PDT by JoeProBono
North America's largest freshwater fish, the predatory alligator gar, is now protected to preserve its numbers, as Kevin Connolly discovered on a fishing trip in Texas.
We are at the top of the food chain - the most dangerous predators on the lazy Navidad River, where it crawls stealthily around the town of Lolita, Texas, as though hoping to amble on unnoticed to the Gulf of Mexico.
By local standards, I must admit we did not really look the part.
The alligators that slumbered in the quiet creeks and pools around us bristled with a quiet sense of menace, and even the buzzards wheeling and gliding into the pale, bright September skies looked well organised by comparison.
It was mainly my fault.
Told that we were going fishing for the alligator gar, I had assumed we would be using rod and line and had, therefore, dressed in business clothes so that I could head on to an appointment with a politician in a nearby town afterwards.
Fish-eat-fish world
It turns out that the alligator gar - ugly but effective champion predator of freshwater Texas - is hunted not with the simple rod, which I used the last time I went fishing 40 years ago, but with a bow and arrow.....
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
A long time ago, I caught one of those and curious about what it tasted like, I kept it. I practically needed a chainsaw to clean the thing.
We have these gar in the Lake of the Ozarks but I’ve never seen one quite this big.
I don’t get it, you don’t eat Gar, so now what do they do with it? That’s a big corpse to let lie around and rot, and after that do they go to the bar and act like they are tuff? Seems silly, let the monsters grow really big, cover those two guys in bacon grease and let them go for a swim, then will see if they are girly men or not ...
"Can you eat Gar?? Absolutely! Gar are actually DELICIOUS!"
Fishing for prehistoric quarry
I believe that the white sturgeon is larger, unless they've found gars that weigh 3/4 ton and grow 20' long. If so, I'm not swimming in fresh water anymore.
I saw the story of this guy on “Hooked”.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.