Vern, your alligator gar post got me looking.........

[BobinMIZZU]

and at 327 lb. those guys probably had a world record. The largest I can find record of is 303 lb.

Wikipedia info shows them getting as long as 12 ft. Also read of an eyewitness report of a big gar biting a 5 ft. alligator in two and eating it. Wonder if they ever develop a taste for humans??

These things are incredibly tough. Their scales are like armor. I've actually had sharp arrows bounce back off them on a direct hit. A couple of times I've shot some good sized ones that had prop marks on them. Stuck a 30 lb one once that didn't fight very hard. When I got him in his tail fin had been cut off completely by a prop.

Also ran across this picture from 1910. This one was approx. 10' long. Doesn't appear to be near as heavy as the one from Oklahoma though. That sucker was well fed!

 

[Brian(upstateNY)]

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[Vernon in Virginia~Formerly Alaska]

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[Art SC]

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[Art SC]

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Three quarters of a TON!!!


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[attachment 24348 IdahoSturgeon.jpg]

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[Art SC]

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[Art SC]

In Cajun, garfish has a couple of other popular names other than just lunch and supper - le poisson arm

 

[Vernon in Virginia~Formerly Alaska]

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[Ed SW Fla]

What you do is to take the fillet or strip of meat and flavor it with your favorite seasonings, maranade, etc ...

Use splinters from a split oak or hickory plank to attach the meat to the plank. It's best to build a campfire out of hickory or oak but charcoal will do just fine too. This cooking method is called "planking" and is a very popular cooking method for campers.

When a really hot fire is going, place the planks with the meat mounted to the plank (s) near to the fire but not so close that the planks would catch on fire ... let the indirect heat from the fire do the cooking. You may want to baste the meat with your seasoning from time to time if the meat starts looking dry. Cook until the meat obtains a slight golden brown color.

Pull the planks away from the fire and remove the meat from the planks. Throw the meat away and eat the plank!

 

[Vernon in Virginia~Formerly Alaska]

[attachment 24353 Alligator20Snapper20S21.jpg]

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[Ed SW Fla]

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[Vernon in Virginia~Formerly Alaska]

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[Craig in Alabama]

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[Brandon/ny]

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[DC/Id]

We were bass fishing from our boat in the Snake River about 5 miles up stream from Brownlee dam. It was hot in the middle of the day so we went up into a cove on the Idaho side and she went for a little swim. Just as she got back into the boat a sturgeon almost as long as the boat and about 3 feet wide swam under us just under the water.

She has NEVER swam in that place again.

I have hooked some real monsters in that river. Not only sturgeons but some Channel Cats live in the depths that will go close to a hundred pounds. There are places in Brownlee resivour where the water is 200 feet deep, who knows what is down there!! DC

 

[mike(swWash)]

They aren't even legal to keep here unless they're between 42-60". I've hooked and released several in the 6-8' size range, even hooked and saw a couple bigger on the end of my line come to the surface before I simply clamped down on the drag and broke off my line, no sense spending an hour or 2 chasing a fish you can't take home and eat. There's nothing like seeing a 10' torpedo come shooting straight up and come clean out of the water by a couple feet, but it's those really rare ones that are in the 12'+ size range that can only get about 1/2 their body out, looking like a submarine doing an emergancy surface, that really looks impressive.....and scary.
There's only a couple divers in the world that will go down and work on the dams on the lower Columbia because of the size of some of the ones that are trapped in the reservores. They're big enough to ruin your day if it really takes a liking to you.....Mmmmmmm tastes like chicken.........

 

[Vernon in Virginia~Formerly Alaska]

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[Art SC]

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[mike(swWash)]

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[Vernon in Virginia~Formerly Alaska]

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