Worse then Jaws...Dont go wade fishing in texas.

[TheWobble]

Reading the Jaws brought back this memory..

Since I was about 9 years old every weekend, and every day during the summer My dad would drop Me and  friend a two off at Coleto creek (the creek not the lake) and we would fish all day and get picked up later.  Coleto has what is called "stained" water, giving it a tea like look and a visablilty of about 1.5 to 2 feet, it was and still is EXCELLENT bass fishing, for those who would wade through it (and sometimes swim) I have caught 2 Bass their that I have on my wall and have caught as many as 65 in one day (most small but still fun), anywho, we would carry these rolled up ropes with a metal spike on the end called "Stringers" when we caught a fish we wanted to keep we would put in on the stringer, the practical use for a stringer was to tie it to a limb near the water and let the fish swim around and pick them up later, but since we were usually at LEAST knee deep in water we just tied it off to our belt loops, and drug the fish along with us.. well one day me and my friend rick were tooling along and had caught a few keepers and had 2 or 3 fish on our stringer each.  We were about halfway up the creek to the dam from the Highway 59 bridge. bout 2.5 miles up the creek, we were in water that was about chest high. We were standing there working a tree that I had cut down and tossed into the water a week before, we were using jigs which requires much patence and skill or you will miss the strike.  

After a few miniutes i see rick kinda stumble backwards like he lost balence, i asked what he was doing and he said "fish acting up"  a few seconds later i saw him REALLY pop backwards and he said "KNOCK IT OFF"  I said "whasent me!"  then At the same time we both looked back and we saw a boil about 6 ft in diamater.  We both were instantly frozen..then he started getting pulled again, very slowly (like an idiot) he began to pull in his 10 ft stringer in to see what the deal was, as it got closer it looked like there was a big wad of moss or something hung on the stringer, this was commin because the fish ofter swam into weeds and crap, but as it go closer the "weed" suddenly cam off and swam between us.  It was the biggest Gar I have EVER seen! (and ive seen alot) it had to be at least 7ft long!  There are 2 different speces of gar in south Texas "Longnose" and "Alligator" gar, the longnose is not known to grow much past 4 ft but a few 6 footers have been caught, alligator gar get MUCH bigger, the exact limit to the size in not fully known so this was for sure an alligator gar, In case you've never seen one here are a few pics.

   
   
   
   
 
Its hard to see in these pictures but they have needle like teeth that can be up to 2 inches long

Needless to say me and my buddy pooled some money and bought a frigging boat!  about a month later I was catfishing and caught one that was about 5 ft long and around 100 pounds, as we sat there looking at it in the water waiting for it to tire rick said  "The Fish coulda put that thing in its mouth"  (We came to call the giant we saw "THE FISH")

To this day every time i get into the water in coleto I still keep an eye out for THE FISH.

[This message has been edited by TheWobble (edited 02-10-2001).]

[Jimdandy]

COOL! I'd love to try to catch one.

I live on the Columbia River in Washington State. We have Sturgeon that get BIG in the river. My Grandpa caught some back in the late 40's and early 50's that he had to land with his jeep! There are picture of the old timers from the 1880's bringing them in with mule teams. They live to be 200 years old. There an ancient breed of fish kinda like a catfish/shark. They don't have a dorsal fin like a shark but they don't have any bones. They only have cartilage. They are the BEST eating fish. Oh man smoke them! Ummm. You hear every now and then about someone hooking a BIG one. They are a bottom feeder like a catfish. Divers have seen them around the dams during inspections that could swallow them and that's no joke! I bet those gar are one hell of a fight. I reeled in a 50lb Salmon off the Yakima river this year. They were spawning so it wasn't very good eating. Man was it a fight though. I had it on the line for 45 mins. There is great Bass, Crappie and Walleye fishing all around this area too. Oh and trout. That's a great story. I wouldn't want one of those getting pissed at me.

[Suave1]

Lepisosteus Spatula

Been on this earth for over 65 million years, can breath air, been known to eat fowl and small mammals . Habitat ranges from Costa Rica to Missouri . Has a skeletal feature that is unique among the fishes, it has a joint at the back of it's head that allows it to raise it's snout above the surface of the water and gulp air . The world record alligator gar which is in that first photo, was 7.5 feet long and weighed approx. 300 lbs . Although I've always been suspicious of that photo because the fish in it looks twice as big for some reason .

I used to have a pet spotted gar, they are rarely seen in pet stores but they are legal to sell .

[Jimdandy]

Cool info Suave1. Bad fish.  

[Eagler]

I don't think they are good to eat so why are the yahoos killing them... Catch and release, that's how it done. Don't need to kill it to prove your manhood........

Eagler

[TheWobble]

Eagle, for one thing they eat Bass, and other prize game fish, but the main reason the get killed most of the tims is because in order to hook one you have to let it almost swallow the bait, its very hard to hook that bone plate jaw, i often use a flyrod and a piece of fraid nylon rope and their teeth get snagged in it.

Suave1, i wish the bottom pic would show, it is the biggest one i could EVER imagine, its not the offical world record but it looks to be about 10ft long, its in black and white and this old black feller is sitting right next to it, looks to be taken in the late thirties. 7

[TheWobble]

On a side note, I always have practiced catch and release, even with catfish.  Gar are kinda hard to release, for 1 thing bring a live and zesty fish that is over 4 feet long and has razor sharp teeth into a boat is to say the least kinda scary, most people wack or shoot them before they even tough them, i try and release the smaller ones but the true giants i sometimes catch the only option is to cut the leader.  Cutting the leader is a disagreeable thing to do because all my gar-fishing gear is hand fabricated by me, the materials are expensive and making them is time consuming and cannot be done in the field.  

BTW despite what you read gar ARE edible, they are just very boney like carp (makig them hard to clean) and they have to be cooked properly or they taste AWFUL.  Me and my friends would often go to the poor part of town and sell them to people who swear that if cooked right they taste as good as catfish.

[Gadfly]

Wade fishing in the Chandeleuer islands off the coast of Mississippi, 'bout waist deep for the big Redfish and sow Speckled trout.  You use a 30' stringer and it ain't tied too tight either.  Had a hammerhead, at least 10' long(it looked 20) snatch a nice stringer, and small ones are a constant pain.  Got a nasty roadrash from one that brushed me once, and of course the sting rays get BIG(got a nice little scar on my ankle from a baby one).

They have alligator gars there;  they are much uglier and bigger, but they are harmless.

[TheWobble]

I think a while back a few waders in Choke Canyon, got SEVERLY injured by large gar because the fish they had on stringers were right next to their body and the gar got them.  

Even if they just "nip" ya you are losing ALOT of flesh and meat.

[Jigster]

Ever since a polywog catfish stripped the flesh off my thumb I decided not to practice catch and release with them anymore. A 50 pounder is capable of biting your arm off and has a head like a cow  

ugly ugly UGLY and they ain't worth eating.

[Frosty1]

Its clearly obvious that they are overmodeled.

------------------
===>Frosty
====>Exposure2k.com
=====>Frosty@exposure2k.com

[Jimdandy]

   

Originally posted by TheWobble:
BTW despite what you read gar ARE edible, they are just very boney like carp (makig them hard to clean) and they have to be cooked properly or they taste AWFUL.  Me and my friends would often go to the poor part of town and sell them to people who swear that if cooked right they taste as good as catfish.

I had a step grandmother that would cook carp and eat them. She loved them. She was an old time southern cook. She made the most FANTASTIC gravy. Oh man she was a good cook. Everything she made was excellent. I don't know how she did it but the carp tasted great. Oh man there was nothing better than her catfish and a big old hunk of her corn bread. Ummmmm. I miss her. Grandma Flossy. With a name like Flossy you KNOW she was a good cook.    

[This message has been edited by Jimdandy (edited 02-11-2001).]

[TheWobble]

Yea Jim I hear ya, ive got one the "sweet tooth brand" grandmas, ya know the kind with the 2 giant freezers full of every type of candy and Ice cream there is, before I could drive there was nothing better than haveing my dad drop me off ar grandma's at 5:00am on his way to the plant, then spendin the whole day out on the old rickity dock fishin in the stock tank with my first fishin pole and a tuppaware box of shrimp, then after a few hours grandma would come walkin out on the dock with a ice cold bottle of coke and some cookies for me, then after I ate I would roam the farm with my BB gun shootin cans and grackles.  I miss it so much, life is so complicated now, ya cant just enjoy it anymore, I miss my childhood.

[Spatula]

 

Originally posted by Suave1:
Lepisosteus Spatula

Awww come on, it doesnt look anything like me (well not after my nose job   )

This is me:
 

[This message has been edited by Spatula (edited 02-11-2001).]

[TheWobble]

SPAT.....
we are talking about grandmas now, what was your grandma? a soup spoon??  

[This message has been edited by TheWobble (edited 02-11-2001).]