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Interesting info about the diet of garfish
Posted on 4/1/18 at 10:09 pm
Posted on 4/1/18 at 10:09 pm
I was fishing a backwater river with grass flats today and there were hundreds of gar scattered around spawning. Like many people I have always considered them a nuisance with the idea they should be killed but the more I read I realize I was wrong.
LINK
quote:
One factor that feeds the gator gar’s “nuisance” reputation is the widespread belief that it eats up the game fish that license-buying anglers prefer to catch. Results of diet studies suggest that’s not the case.
Last year, TPWD biologists analyzed the stomach contents of 392 gator gar collected at Falcon Lake on the Texas/Mexico border and found carp, tilapia and shad. Game fish made up 20 percent of what the gar had consumed, with largemouth bass accounting for only 8 percent. Studies at six other Texas reservoirs, dating back to 1970, showed even smaller percentages of bass in the gars’ diet, and there’s no evidence that the big fish are having a significant impact on bass populations.
Terre notes that many of the state’s best bass lakes — Falcon, Choke Canyon, Sam Rayburn and Toledo Bend — have robust populations of alligator gar. “These fish have coexisted for eons,” he points out. “We can and do have great fishing for largemouth bass and alligator gar in the same place at the same time.”
LINK
This post was edited on 4/1/18 at 10:10 pm
6
Posted on 4/1/18 at 10:10 pm to weagle99
Alligator gar live a long time and take decades to reach trophy size. A 7-foot fish could be 40 years old. The world record, caught in Mississippi in 2011, measured 8 fee 5 inches and weighed 327 pounds. TPWD researchers examined ear bones from that fish and estimated its age at 95 years.
It takes 10 years, on average, for gator gar to reach breeding age. They require certain conditions for successful spawning, and those conditions don’t come around every year. Researchers did age analysis on more than 100 specimens from the Trinity River and used the data to estimate the shape of that population. Fish in the sample ranged from 2 to 47 years old, but there were gaps in the age distribution.
“Results suggest that no reproduction occurred in 17 of the past 47 years,” reports Dan Daugherty, a research biologist at TPWD’s Heart of the Hills Fisheries Science Center.
It takes 10 years, on average, for gator gar to reach breeding age. They require certain conditions for successful spawning, and those conditions don’t come around every year. Researchers did age analysis on more than 100 specimens from the Trinity River and used the data to estimate the shape of that population. Fish in the sample ranged from 2 to 47 years old, but there were gaps in the age distribution.
“Results suggest that no reproduction occurred in 17 of the past 47 years,” reports Dan Daugherty, a research biologist at TPWD’s Heart of the Hills Fisheries Science Center.
Posted on 4/1/18 at 10:18 pm to weagle99
Gator gar are one of the coolest animals in the south. A true dinosaur of the past. Back in the day I'd kill them as fast as any other gar or trash fish but now I just let them be. I will say that most people mis-identify short-nose and spotted gar to be alligator gar. This leads to the belief that gator gar are numerous when they really aren't.
Posted on 4/2/18 at 5:00 am to weagle99
I've been saying this for years. Stop killing gar fish.
Posted on 4/2/18 at 5:04 am to weagle99
quote:
They require certain conditions for successful spawning, and those conditions don’t come around every year.
I know how they feel, it's the same at my house.
Posted on 4/2/18 at 5:10 am to weagle99
If anyone remembers the "River Monsters" episode on the alligator gar, Mark Spitzer was one of Jeremy's guests. He has a book, "Season of the Gar". Fantastic read about the alligator gar.
They are truly an amazing fish, and perhaps just as poorly misunderstood as any of our snakes, coyotes, wolves, or any other predators.
They are truly an amazing fish, and perhaps just as poorly misunderstood as any of our snakes, coyotes, wolves, or any other predators.
Posted on 4/2/18 at 5:33 am to weagle99
So the study confirms that Alligator Gar do eat lot of bass!
Posted on 4/2/18 at 6:09 am to omegaman66
Gar is also very good eating. Boiled in seasoning it makes a great crab meat like flakey flesh good to make patties boulettes or used as stuffing for mushrooms and such. Cut it is good fried. cut in steaks it is good oln the pit basted with butter and seasonings and cut into strips and smoked it is very good. Think fish jerky. Back in the no meat on fridays mama used smoked gar instead of sausage or tasso If ya know how they are easy to fillet and well worth the effort.
Posted on 4/2/18 at 6:24 am to omegaman66
quote:
So the study confirms that Alligator Gar do eat lot of bass!
so. if they aren't an invasive species you shouldn't be killing them simply because they eat what you like to fish for. If they were overpopulated then ok....but they aren't.
Posted on 4/2/18 at 6:34 am to weagle99
I only recently discovered that gar is some of the best fish you'll ever eat too.
It's a firm white meat with a pork texture. You can lieterally treat it as pork and it is amazing!
It's a firm white meat with a pork texture. You can lieterally treat it as pork and it is amazing!
Posted on 4/2/18 at 7:25 am to omegaman66
They are sit and wait predators. They will eat whatever comes there way. They aren't selectively passing up a bass to eat a carp or a shad.
Almost every fish will eat a bass if thy can get it down their throat. Bream, white perch, other bass. Doesn't mean we need to kill every one of them. Would be a dull world if all there was swimming around was bass
Almost every fish will eat a bass if thy can get it down their throat. Bream, white perch, other bass. Doesn't mean we need to kill every one of them. Would be a dull world if all there was swimming around was bass
Posted on 4/2/18 at 7:52 am to Quatre Pot
I baked some gar and it tasted like pork when it was hot. As soon as the meat cooled off, the pork like taste went south. It turned into a bad type of bubble gum texture. Could have been something I did. I never tried to cook it again.
Posted on 4/2/18 at 7:53 am to omegaman66
quote:
So the study confirms that Alligator Gar do eat lot of bass!
8% of their diet, probably no more than bass do as a percent of their diet.
Posted on 4/2/18 at 7:58 am to upgrade
anyone that ever fished for them knows this...
Posted on 4/2/18 at 8:00 am to Quatre Pot
quote:
I only recently discovered that gar is some of the best fish you'll ever eat too
Same here. I had a gar roast that a coonass from Kaplan browned and cooked in a brown gravy and it was absolutely amazing. Then we went to the Garfish Rodeo one year and ate it fried and made into fried gar balls and it was also amazing.
Just a little FYI, you can buy gar roasts at Chez Francois Seafood in Lafayette for $3/pound if you want to try some out.
I brought some to the deer camp one weekend and sliced into steaks and grilled it. Everyone who always believed gar was a trash fish were impressed.
Posted on 4/2/18 at 8:10 am to REB BEER
Ain’t nothin wrong with gar balls if you know what you’re doing.
Posted on 4/2/18 at 8:14 am to weagle99
A lot of recent studies are showing that bow fishing is putting a large dent in the population, especially the big ones.
Posted on 4/2/18 at 8:14 am to Cowboyfan89
quote:
They are truly an amazing fish, and perhaps just as poorly misunderstood as any of our snakes, coyotes, wolves, or any other predators.
Good post, it takes a dumb person to go around shooting coyotes b/c they are worried bout their turkeys and deer. I hunt and fish myself, I would never shoot a coyote as I enjoy hearing and seeing them. I also have an IQ above 12. Plenty of them where I hunt, and definitely plenty of deer and turkeys also.
Posted on 4/2/18 at 8:21 am to windshieldman
No carp or Talapia where I fish for them to eat so I guess they are eating Crappie and bass.
So now everyone is on the gar love train.
So now everyone is on the gar love train.
Posted on 4/2/18 at 8:40 am to Ron Cheramie
quote:
Would be a dull world if all there was swimming around was bass
i wish more people had this attitude. this also applies to snakes, coyotes, bears, etc.
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