GIANT GAR!
Does that title intrigue you? Okay, all you lurkers out there, this one will draw you out and you won’t be able to hold back your comments!
Because he has reached celebrity status by being featured in a newspaper and in an online video doing what he does best–stalking, catching, clubbing, cleaning, and selling alligator gar fish, it is high time I publish some of the outstanding photos of this wetland dweller (not to be confused with a swamp dweller).
It’s not an expose` with shirtless photos to get your blood flowing keep you coming back! But believe me when I say you will enjoy this photo story. If you’re really good with your comments and questions, I might even post the URL to the video!
For now, I’ll post a series of photos from the first morning of LilSis’s bayou visit when he called us to come take pictures of his big gar fish.
WARNING! Some of these might be too graphic!
He told LilSis this alligator gar weighed about 125 pounds, and then he told her he had about 500 pounds of gar meat he would like her to haul to her hometown fish market for him, saying, “Dey pay real good for gar meat up dere!”
Uh, in her new SUV? Think again, Fabio.
TO BE CONTINUED . . .
I’m the first to comment!!!! Woohoo! I had no idea what I was going to comment now, lol.
That pan ‘o crabs is making my mouth water – it’s almost lunchtime!
Cypress knees – what memories!!! I think it’s illegal to cut them now, but when I was a kid in the late 50’s my father would go into the Florida panhandle swamps and cut some cypress knees. He’d polish them up and sell them because they were a very popular decorative items during that time. There were plenty of cypress knees displayed on bookcases and coffee tables!!
That fish is huge!! I would give more than $150 for those crabs. By the time they reach us up in Illinois they’re probably 4 times that price!
– Suzanne, the Farmer’s Wife
Lookin good ‘Bayou Fabio’! Bout time he showed his face.
I am one of your lurkers — & enjoy your blog — I am in Ohio — & so most of what you write about is an education for me…
What is swamp dwellers!!
dena
Hi Dena! Welcome to the bayou and I hope you chime in more often! I majorly edited this post, so you’ll have to wait for the continuation to learn what swamp dwellers are!!!
I hear some sumo monster swimps is available on the GI so I’ll be making the trip thursday or friday am.
My brother made several as in dozens of cypress knee clocks back in the 80’s.
Got to get these dang tstorms out of way for the journey south.
Blu I would venture to say those were cypress “slab” clocks and not cypress knee. Of course, you are much smarter than I and always know what you’re talking about! Even when I don’t!!
fig jam was my guess.
Would that be fig preserves or the mock strawberry fig?
When I saw that Gar, my first thought was…That’s a lot of Gar Balls! Bw, do you cook Gar Balls? I don’t think I’ve had any since my mom passed away in 1979. Oh, they were good eating.
I remember Cypress knee lamps from my childhood. Even now, when Christmas rolls around, you’ll always find “Old World Santas” made from knees. I used to think they were over priced since they were “Just painted”. Then I found out they have to be boiled, de-barked, & sanded before painting. My favorite “knee art “is carved Gnomes. I may carve one someday.
P.S. I had some mock strawberry preserves on toast yesterday for breakfast.
Steffi – I do not cook garfish balls, nor have I even eaten one. It’s strange, but that is not a common item down here. Further north, though, it surely is. About the cypress knees. Did you notice the paper towel holder on the table? It had a stripped cypress knee on it, which had a clear coat on it. Unique.
WOW! I had no idea gars got that big. Awesome pictures…I also enjoyed the previous gator sighting pics.
HOLY CRAP!!!
Oh now I remember…we have those alligator gar in Grand Lake and when your flying around on a jet ski they jump and scare the pee out of you (good thing your already wet, lol). I love to catch them and watch them put up a fight. My Granddaddy always smoked them though, we never fried them but I’m not sure why.
That’s a big joker! I’ll stick with the shrimp, thank you very much! 🙂
Well they were sliced and diced before I saw them whole but they were bigger to littler in same general shape. Are the strawberries getting ripe yet?
I’ll be no show at paddlepalooza it looks like. Too much weather between here and there and weather there not looking perfect. April is a different story though.
Fresh strawberries on the farms around here now. I’ve got a refrigerator full! Starting this coming weekend, flats will be available. It’s time to make strawberry jam – at least for those who do such things. I’m not a jam maker myself, but I can put away the fresh ones. Strawberry pie!
It always scared me to catch a gar…way too many teeth! But that bad boy would have me walk on water….all the way back to the dock!!!!! wow. now thats a big gar
That’s a small alligator gar. Yesterday, May 8, 09, my brother in law killed a 7.5′ 185 lb alligator gar here in north east texas about 20 miles from the Louisiana line near Shreveport. Oh, he shot it with his bow in Sabine River that runs along the Louisiana/Texas border.
Hi Randy and welcome to the bayou. 7.5 feet is a mighty big fish! This gar fisherman has brought in bigger, but the photo I took were not blog worthy!!! Some of my readers have never seen a gar, much less one this big! I know right where the Sabine River is. Thanks for sharing!
BW
my husband and i want to get into commercial gar fishing.any info on the matter would be greatly appreciated. you can reach us at 601-695-9199.
I’m getting to this late since I’m way behind in time zones. I really like seeing how this is done and someday would like to taste some gar. Looking forward to the next installment.
This was an old post that I had unpublished for a while and just republished it today. But what you really need to see is today’s REAL post!! Check it out!
Wow, Dat’s One Big Fish!
I loved remembering this post, and the one I wrote. I’m glad you re-posted it, because Kim just saw mine! She hadn’t seen the Christmas ornaments made from gar scales and such, so I could give her a tip about that, too, in plenty of time if she wants to add such to her shop inventory.
I didn’t intentionally re-post this! I had a moment of panic last week when folks started copying and pasting my photos of Rickey on Facebook without my permission, and I inadvertently unpublished this post, when I realized what I had done, I had to make it public again, and I guess it came up like a new post. Sorry.