# OMG....327# Alligator Gar!



## Mini 14 (Feb 22, 2011)

FoxNews.com - Record-Crushing 327-Pound &#39;Dinosaur Fish&#39; Caught

They taste like crap, but even a 5# gar has teeth that will rip you to shreds! We catch them all the time, but nothing anywhere near this big!


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## Madeline (Feb 22, 2011)

That is one u-g-l-y fish, Mini.  Are they an invasive species?


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## Mini 14 (Feb 22, 2011)

Madeline said:


> That is one u-g-l-y fish, Mini.  Are they an invasive species?



Not really Maddy. Mostly found in rivers, but in some of the deeper lakes here as well. They're common here, and always have been.

But that is a HUGE one. Biggest one I've ever caught was about 40#. I can't imagine trying to wrestle that thing into a boat, with his teeth showing and 327# of muscle flailing about.


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## Madeline (Feb 22, 2011)

It is an amazing story.  I can't imagine how he did it, unless he had a winch.


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## Zoom-boing (Feb 22, 2011)




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## Missourian (Feb 22, 2011)

Mini 14 said:


> FoxNews.com - Record-Crushing 327-Pound 'Dinosaur Fish' Caught
> 
> *They taste like crap*, but even a 5# gar has teeth that will rip you to shreds! We catch them all the time, but nothing anywhere near this big!




You've never tried Gar patties!

They are delicious.

Gar Patties Recipe
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## Meister (Feb 23, 2011)

FYI.....some of the first arrowpoints used by Native Americans were the boney scales of the Gar.


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## Ropey (Feb 24, 2011)

Meister said:


> FYI.....some of the first arrowpoints used by Native Americans were the boney scales of the Gar.



Ugly looking fishy. Good that some part of its body is useful.


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## God Guns Beer (Mar 15, 2011)

I agree, gar paties or fried gar balls <insert random testicle joke here> are very good eating.


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## AllieBaba (Mar 15, 2011)

Patties and fried gar balls?

I'm not even going there.

But are they sort of like the fish version of beans and franks?


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## waltky (Jul 29, 2017)

Granny says she used to wrassle alligator gar as a kid...




*Living Fossil Returns to Illinois Waters*
_July 29, 2017  — The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is reintroducing a living fossil into its waterways. The alligator gar is a fish so old, it’s thought to have evolved during the Early Cretaceous period, more than a 100 million years ago._


> Alligator gar are the second largest freshwater fish in North America. Illinois fisheries biologist Randy Sauer says they disappeared from the state's waterways in the 1990s, although they continued to thrive in southern U.S. rivers.  "We want to restore the ecosystem because it is important to have top predators to balance the species below them in order to keep check on some more abundant species," he said.
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## Crixus (Aug 3, 2017)

Mini 14 said:


> FoxNews.com - Record-Crushing 327-Pound &#39;Dinosaur Fish&#39; Caught
> 
> They taste like crap, but even a 5# gar has teeth that will rip you to shreds! We catch them all the time, but nothing anywhere near this big!




Tell you what, if you want to have some real fun, like crap your pants laughing or pull your hair out crying give fly fishing for gay a shot. Around here they hang out right on top of the water in the summer. I have luck hooking up using a 2" white and red piece of click tied up in a fly like thing. Very fun. Way more fun then trout. It's like a bare knuckle brawl.  Bow fishing for them is the preferred method of take here.


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