Under Pool 4~ A Gar’s Eye View

Steve Vick the previous manager of Everts Fishing Resort was the inspiration of todays visit to the bottom of Pool 4. A number of years ago Steve stumbled on the “sleeping” Gar and after seeing the other Marcum videos, suggested I try to capture a few of them.

With Jesse Krook as pilot, we found them right away.

I wish I could post all the facts about these strange looking fish, but all I know for sure it’s that they like minnows and their mouths are bony and very hard to catch with a standard fish hook. Not impossible, but hard.

The last two photo have a few sheephead in them and one Lake Sturgeon moosing around on the bottom.

Lucky we didn’t bring our fishing poles along and Jesse would still have me out there casting for those eater size sheepies!

Thanks again for coming along Jesse! One of these days we’ll have to actually wet a line.

Excellent camera work Bk , you have great hidden talent!

Cool

Awesome pics Brian !!!

Wow Nice pictures of the gar..

BK, your camera does such a great job not to mention the guy holding it. Back in ancient times before I knew better we used to call them damn gars because they stole so much bait off our trot lines. We called them that so long, my wife thought that was their actual name.

These days I shudder to think how much bait we wasted and how much fun we missed by using trot lines. We probably could have caught ten times as many fish with hook and line.

Thats awsome BK. Do you ever see any fishin poles or anything else that people have lost to the bottom?

Really nice job Brian.

Those are some cool pics, BK. When I used to fish private pits all the time, we caught quite a few gar. If you’re crappie fishing and using minnows, look out for them. They also like anything shiny. I’ve seen people who actually target them, and one of the most popular ways to do it is use a frayed piece of nylon rope; it gets wrapped up in their teeth and almost makes it impossible for them to get out of it.

Thanks for allowing me to be the pilot

Where’s the video?

Quote:

---

Do you ever see any fishin poles or anything else that people have lost to the bottom?

---

Anchors are the most frequent find…and from the sounds of the customers at Everts lately, the most frequent loss.

Jesse, Saturday night the FW had here eye on the Bungalow. I’m lucky I was able to pull a few stills off.

hey brian,
they are a weird fish. we mostly get them fowl hooked but last night we ended up with 2 small ones one on a ring worm and one on a blade both hooked in the mouth did they really want to eat then or just luck they were hooked in the mouth??

Cool pics BK….

Hmmmm maybe a Gar excursion coming in the future Brian? I know they eat them down south…

Kind of off track here but has anyone ever ate gar and if so how was it prepared? Those a some very cool pics Brian, we caught a bunch on the Des Moines river one year and they are hard to hook but put up a great fight when we connected.

Ed

Quote:

---

hey brian,

they are a weird fish. we mostly get them fowl hooked but last night we ended up with 2 small ones one on a ring worm and one on a blade both hooked in the mouth did they really want to eat then or just luck they were hooked in the mouth??

---

I can see why they get foul hooked.

I would GUESS they wanted your ringworm. The reason I say that is because there are some active fish and none appear to be laying with there mouth open.

I know nothing about gar except they are very cool looking. They spawn in the spring. We see them in slack water in summer chasing river minnows…and when they feed aggressively there’s generally a good channel cat bite just down stream of them.

I was surprised as anyone to see them laying on top of each other.

I do think there’s two types of gar pictured. Longnose and Shortnose, but I don’t have a clue which is which.

“Except for the first few weeks of their existence (when they eat copepods and waterfleas), longnose gar are definitely piscivores (fish-eaters). Gar feed at the surface on smaller fish, insect larvae, and crayfish. Adult size: 130cm. The Minnesota state record is 7.6 kg (16 lbs 12 oz). Female longnose gars grow faster, reach larger sizes, and have a longer life span than the males. Longnose gar can live for a long time. Twenty years is not unusual, and the record is 32! Female longnose gar can be mature at 4 years old, males at 3. ”

Minnesota Records

Gar, Shortnose 4 lbs-9.6 oz Length/Girth 34.6 / 10

Gar, Longnose 16 lbs-12 oz Length/Girth 53 / 16.5

I’m thinking there could be a record Longnose in those photos.

Quote:

---

Kind of off track here but has anyone ever ate gar and if so how was it prepared? Those a some very cool pics Brian, we caught a bunch on the Des Moines river one year and they are hard to hook but put up a great fight when we connected. Have never talked to anyone that has tried them but will hopfuly be cooking BK a plate of them in the near future.

Ed

---

Great pictures
I know that spot The one where all the anchors are

…and truck keys!

Quote:

---

eater size sheepies!

---

wait ….what?

Great job as usual BK…were you using the Marcum 825C again? and what kind of recorder?

Cool fish and ggreat pix. Thanks for sharing BK.

Quote:

---

Great job as usual BK…were you using the Marcum 825C again? and what kind of recorder?

---

825c it was! The video is in the works…just waiting for the romantic music to be processed.

I’m still using a Cannon ZR-65 that records on DV (tape). Bob Moore, James and Fishhead#### just bought a digital camera that take SD cards. I haven’t used one yet, but it looks like the way to go. No motors to move the tape in the camera is the obvious benefit along with plugging in the card instead of capturing the video of the tape (time saver).

I’m not sure what the name of that camera is, so I’ll defer that to them.

Here in pool 11 there are a few guys that target gars. Some use a homemade rope lure that gets tangled in their teeth no hook. They also use cut bait and live minnows with a small hook. Their mouth is narrow and bony so its hard to get a good hookset on them. I have done some gar fishing and its a blast.
They are hard to clean but very good to eat. I use a tin snips to cut through the shell, then fillet around the shell. Once you get the shell removed, fillet them like any fish. They only have a backbone and ribcage bone, no Y-bones. The meat is white and mild tasting after it is fried. It has more of the texture of a pork chop than most other fish.
I have eaten it many times and it is very good.
Last Aug. we had one take a live bluegill when night fishing for flatheads. This fish was a monster and may have been a Wi. state record if we had gotten him in the boat. We had him right up to the boat and he did a barrel roll and the hook came out.
Daveho