Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Gator Gar and Bowfin

Hey gus, new to the board. I am in the process of building a 5 acre lake on my property in the Arkansas Ozarks. I am going to stock it with gator gar and bowfin. Anybody got any ideas where I can get some small ones to put in the lake.
Thanks

The only way i could get some for my lake was to net and fish them out of a river by my house. they were from 5inches to 1 foot. The average growth was from 1ft. to 1.5ft in one year. One thing to do to make sure they grow is to have an healthy perch and shad population. If you want your gar to get big put gizzard shad. In the long run the gar will control your bowfin and anything else in your pond. You dont have to dred a pond with overpopulated big shad because a 4-pound gar can devour a 14inch shad. In about 2 years you should have some gar knocking on 20-pounds. I don't know if they spawn well in a pond that big but there should be nothing in there to eat them. I dont have much experience with bowfin but i heard they fair well.

Thanks. I am going to stock different species of gar. Surfing the web, I see that's there not a whole lot of information other than on the GASS site.
I have been told that there are several long nose on Bull Shoals Lake not very far from me. I am going to go gar fishing next week and see what's thats all about. Hopefully, I will be able to catch some big ones.
If there are big gar, this will give me a jump start on my gar population.

I like to catch them on a fly rod here in Alabama, I just use a 4 inch piece of 3/8" nylon rope tied on the end of the fly line and then comb out the end of it. When I see them on the surface a slow retrieve across the surface will always get a strike and their teeth get tangled in the nylon, works better than a hook and a blast on a fly rod. The ones I fish here on Smith Lake are about 7 pounds tops. Would love to go to south Alabama and tie into a 80 pounder!

Bob

The "BIG" ones are fun to catch. We will stock alligator gar, but they will be caught, catch and release. The really big ones are few and far between. We will have a lot of long nose and spotted gar as well as bowfin.
This fish are pretty tasty as well.

I think their meat is 10 times better than catfish. If i'm going to catch fish to keep in freshwater these are the ones. I recommend everyone release fish over 10 pounds because their are not that many big ones anymore. Also what most people hear about them destroying sportfish populations is wrong. The ones i have gutted have had only these fish in their stomachs: shad, perch, carp, buffalo and ducks.
Like i said before in another topic, these are the only fish that can control carp and buffalo fish.

Ducks! Thats awesome. I have read that when Aligator gar get large they commonly eat waterfowl but that is just awesome to hear that you actualy found one in it's stomach. How many times have you found that?
Hey there's an idea for your gar pond. You could plant wild rice or some other waterfowl forage to attract ducks. I don't know if that would really provide a consitant food supply for your gar but can you imagine anything cooler than seeing a 100+ LB aligator gar clear the water and scarf down a mallard. There just would be nothing cooler!

good luck with the gar pond
-Scott

P.S. I have a picture of the second biggest aligator gar ever caught(300+ LB). I'll post it up when I find it

We found the duck in a 198 pound brute. That would be sweet to see a huge gar come and ungulf a duck but imagine trying to keep fish for that animal to eat. You would have to restock every year with adult fish. I think the wild rice idea would be good because you would ducks all winter. Also i think you would have to stock the pond with large gizzard shad, 1 to 5 pound carp, and bluegill. I bet the big ones would even take a few herons! I would also try to catch large numbers of adult Bullfrogs and pitch them into the tank.

How bout you supply your gar pound with a healthy supply of small children? a good way to attract the children for forage would be to put up signs "swimming welcome". nothing cooler then seeing a 200 lbs brute snap into a lil kid :0! haaaaaaaaaa just kidding

How can i get a picture on here because i found the picture of the duck gar.

For instructions to post a picture on this site go to Questions and Observations and Topic: Posting Pictures, by Bob Koerber back in October 13 2002.

Sounds like a very interesting project. Does anyone know anything about the northern most range of Alligator Gar or their spawning habits?

can gator gar actualy remove a carp population or are you joking about restocking? They sound like the southern equivilant to muskies, only people will shoot you for joking about eating a musky.

Lol! So true! A guy posted a nice slot sized muskie photo on the FishOntario.com forum a few days ago, mentioning in the last sentence that he grilled it up. Within an hour there were almost 20 very angry replies, all ranting about the demise of the muskie populations in Ontario and unethical anglers. All about one fish! :rolleyes:

I still don't understand why anyone would spend all day trying to catch "the fish of a thousand casts", especialy when you can catch northerns over 40".

Alligator gar supposedly have made it as far as Missouri and Illinois. When I sampled fish out of Cape Girardau, MO, it had been a few years since one had been seen, but I remember reading that within the last year or so, someone had caught a large one around there.
Robert B