For those who have never seen such a thing...

On Tue, 6 Apr 2010 09:37:00 -0700 (PDT), Jack wrote:

On Apr 6, 9:19*am, wrote:
On Tue, 6 Apr 2010 05:31:06 -0700 (PDT), Conan The Librarian
wrote:

On Apr 6, 6:59 am, wrote:
http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/news/...ors-marvel-mas...

Upclose head shot of a different gar:

http://www.mdwfp.com/ImageUploads%5C...%20web%202.JPG

And neither of these are record-class - they're certainly large, but as the guy
says in the article, there are larger ones swimming around. Gives a whole
'nuther meaning to "rolling on the river...." (for those that aren't familiar
with these, they "roll" on the surface).

And no, AFAIK, you can't fly fish for these, unless you'd consider flinging a
chicken wired to grappling hook-sized treble with a stick of fencepipe "fly
fishing." These things eat the things that eat the things for which one would
normally fly fish down here...

* Don't know if would work for alligator gar, but for their smaller
brethren:http://www.flyfishga.com/gar.htm

Interesting. *I guess I should have figured that if folks will "fly fish" for
female marlin, they'll "flyfish" for anything that swims. *And FWIW, alligator
gar start out small, too, so I guess you could "flyfish" as above for the small
ones. *IME, to use the "rope fly" as in the link on the large gar, you'd likely
need a coupla-three feet or more of mooring hawser and a key ring to make the
fly, but ???. *And a 6" piece of bite tippet (or any of the rest of the
mentioned gear) wouldn't suffice. *IMO, this is bordering on not being
"flyfishing" anymore, but rather, using a fly rod and reel as a
quasi-baitcasting rig...hey, to each their own...

I've seen larger fish taken by gar and my grandfather had a story about seeing a
small pig swimming across a river getting taken by an alligator gar - it's been
years since I've heard it, so I don't remember all of the details, but I can say
that, IMO, casting a "fly" the size and weight of even a piglet would not be
"flyfishing" - again, that's why there's chocolate and vanilla.

TC,
R





* * *Chuck Vance- Hide quoted text -

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Any history of a human being attcked by one of these gar??

If you mean in the traditional "gar bites man" sense, I've never heard of a
_factual_, documented case anywhere, however I don't know about the entire range
and population - I'd guess that it would be the same, but ???. There have been
stories about it around here (from New Orleans to Mobile) - the old "my cousin's
friend's brother's co-worker told him..." kind of thing, but AFAIK, any actual
injuries that were sustaining were determined to be actual gators rather than
alligator gars. But rumors like that are plentiful down here - I know a fair
number of people who are absolutely convinced that dozens of people are attacked
and eaten by sharks every year on the US Gulf Coast (say, Galveston to Tampa,
esp. from about Biloxi to about Destin) and that every third person who gets
within 100 yards of a Mexican beach is eaten immediately ala a scene out of
"Jaws." And every shark seen by most non-salt fishers and kids becomes a Great
White (or "Tigershark") at least 25 feet long with a mouth that could chomp a
Hatteras in half (most are probably blacktips, bulls and sharpnose about 3-5
feet long). While there is an _occasional_ unprovoked attack, it is rare, and
serious injury/death even moreso.

But if you mean the less-traditional "can these things hurt you if you grab
'em?" sense, then yeah - you don't want these things flopping around on the
floor/deck of a boat and I'm sure that plenty of folks who have caught them have
wound up wishing they hadn't, too. I don't personally know of any stories
involving alligator gar and serious injury, though.

Again _AFAIK_, they have no interest in humans that have no interest in them,
but many of the areas in which the gar would be, people aren't likely to be
recreationally swimming anyway.

TC,
R