Alligator Gar

[Ths71 472]

When I was a kid we would go to Wright Patman Lake when they were letting water out of the spillway.
Guys would be lined up on both sides snagging them with treble hooks as they came down the spillway.


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[El Diablo 4232]

On ‎1‎/‎25‎/‎2020 at 2:14 PM, Bill Brasky said:

also, I do not recommend trying to cook or eat freshwater eel.   nasty.   

I never tried eating fresh caught eel but have thought for years that it would be good. Friend in San Marcos would catch them at night every so often. That got me curious so I did some checking on the Google machine and best I can tell they're very closely related to the Unagi eel. Their lifecycle is crazy interesting and is still in good part a mystery to marine biologists. The ugly bastages can live to be 150.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11819]

2 hours ago, El Diablo said:

I never tried eating fresh caught eel but have thought for years that it would be good. Friend in San Marcos would catch them at night every so often. That got me curious so I did some checking on the Google machine and best I can tell they're very closely related to the Unagi eel. Their lifecycle is crazy interesting and is still in good part a mystery to marine biologists. The ugly bastages can live to be 150.

The American freshwater eel actually migrates all the way from the Sargasso Sea.

https://www.fws.gov/northeast/newsroom/pdf/Americaneel9.26.11.2.pdf

[Kyrie Eleison 9312]

ate it plenty of times...very much like Pescado's recipe above.  it's not bad at all.

AG's fight like a mofo...they'll occasionally clear the water when they jump.  it's a bad ass fish.  biggest one i caught was at the Taylor's Bayou outfall by JD Murphries State Park.  about 5 feet long.  my old man hooked on at the mouth of the Neches where it flows into Sabine lake that was a legit dinosaur...easily 6+ feet.  we cut that loose...too much of a pain the ass to clean.

there's a place here in Waco...Cajun place, owners are from Lafayette, that's actually legit...that has it on the menu.  it's gotdamn good.

nowadays i hate killing them...they're becoming more and more rare.  they're worth keeping around.

Edited January 28, 2020 by Kyrie Eleison

[El Diablo 4232]

2 hours ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

The American freshwater eel actually migrates all the way from the Sargasso Sea.

https://www.fws.gov/northeast/newsroom/pdf/Americaneel9.26.11.2.pdf

Yep, and depending on the current the same eel larvae can end up in European rivers. It takes them the better part of a year to get there and they don't even start to become eel-like until the salinity begins to change near shore. That's the "glass eel" stage and then they turn into little eels once in the bays and estuaries, "elvers". Can live in the rivers for decades before nature calls and they return to the Sargasso to breed and die. Circle of life shit.

[ss13 1832]

Quote

A Texas teenager hauled in an impressive alligator gar earlier this month, and it wasn’t his first imposing catch.

Jack Pytel, an 18-year-old from Needville, told McClatchy News he was at a friend’s ranch on the Brazos River on Feb. 1 fishing for catfish, when he hooked a giant alligator gar. This one gave him a 30-minute fight and he pulled it onto land with the help of his friends, he said.

The alligator gar was 7 feet, 7 inches tall and weighed a massive 190 pounds, Pytel added.

Pytel previously caught a 90-pounder and a 150-pound gar in 2018, according to the Houston Chronicle. He told McClatchy News it’s a combination of using the right gear, including big hooks and the right bait, that has allowed him to haul in the large gars.

“And knowing when and where to fish where the big ones are,” he added. He says he finds the gar by noticing them get oxygen near the surface of the water.

He usually releases his catches, but Pytel gave this one to a friend’s dad because he “really wanted them to eat,” he said.

 

 

[Jim Thompson 22]

I hope they ate that big boy. That's a lot of meat.