Bowfishing for Gar

[William Warren]

#2764

Found this forum with some pics of how to dress gar. That meat looks pretty good. Anybody on here ever try any gar?

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/5089069/1

[Psychmonky]

#12622

They have a “tenderloin” running down both sides of their spine. It’s above the ribs. The only time I’ve eaten gar I watched a guy lay it on it’s belly and then split down it’s backbone with a HATCHET! He then cubed the “backstrap” into half-dollar sized chunks and breaded and deep fried. Some of the best fish I’ve ever had.

Scott

[Stephen Graf]

#13035

I went gar fishing on the Roanoke river this past spring. My boy shot several as did I.

Using a tin snip to open the skin and a fillet knife to remove the “backstraps” I was able to clean about 5 fish in less than an hour.

I had heard that gar is some of the best eating, and judging by the meat I can believe it. But before cooking it I did a little research on contamination.

Being that gar are at the top of the food chain, they tend to have exceedingly high concentrations of heavy metals and pcb’s. Up to a 1000 times the concentration of other fish tested in the same polluted waters.

So with a heavy heart, I tossed the fish in the woods.

[William Warren]

#13185

Wow! 1000 times the other fish tested! It is unfortunate that all of our predator fish fall in this category of having the highest levels. Fish that feed mainly on weeds or insects tend to have the lowest levels.
Steve, was there any indication of where the gar comes from having any impact on toxicity levels? Was the Roanoke more polluted than say, the Trent River?
The WRC usually posts recommendations on consumption but last time I looked at it I did not notice if gar was on the list. Sounds like it needs to be.

[Stephen Graf]

#14160

The WRC doesn’t actually do the testing. They get some other NC agency to do it (I can look back and figure it out if you want). But the bottom line is, they test carp and catfish. Carp feeding at the top, catfish at the bottom of the water column. So they “estimate” what the game fish might be from these readings… Not real comforting…

We were fishing down near the coast off highway 64. I forget the name of the town, but there was a big paper plant right on the river. There were 3 branches of the river that came together there called “three sisters”. Paper plants are a big source of water pollution. There were no notices posted on the public dock we used to launch the boat. But when I looked at the WRC website, it has the same warning for all the rivers, kids and pregnant women – no consumption, everybody else – 1 meal every 30 days. No thanks, I’ll pass.

Gar are such long lived fish that they have many many seasons to get polluted. The bigger the fish, the older they are. The ones we took were between 11 and 15 lbs and I estimated they were all over 6 years old. I understand that they commonly live up to 30 years in the wild…

[William Warren]

#15462

Yes, not very comforting. I cut back my intake of wild fish once they began posting those warnings. I don’t fish as much either. I guess it took some of the usefulness out of it.
I agree that long lived fish like gar and grinnel would have more time to become polluted. Both at the top of the food chain and feeding on plankton eaters who pick up the dissolved heavy metal absorbed by plankton. Disappointing information indeed.

Sounds like you were in Plymouth where the Weyerhauser plant can be seen from the water front. I visited there for the first time this fall with my wife. We were enroute to the Scuppernong River Festival in Columbia and then on to the Outer Banks.
I immediately wanted to come back and try the fishing. Besides bowfishing, there is the shad and striper run in the spring.

BTW, while in Columbia I observed blue crabs climbing out of the water onto anything they could get onto and bluegill and small bass gulping air at the surface. There were alot of dead ones around too. Obviously oxygen depletion. But what caused it I wonder. Recent turnover of the river water? Or too many nutrients in the water? I’ve thought I might contact the river keeper to see what they say.

[Stephen Graf]

#16454

The river keeper… now that has a nice sound to it. Is that a state organization, or a volunteer group?

Plymouth, you are right. The river is beautiful, and prehistoric in feel.

[William Warren]

#16518

Steve Graf wrote: The river keeper… now that has a nice sound to it. Is that a state organization, or a volunteer group?

Plymouth, you are right. The river is beautiful, and prehistoric in feel.

River Keeper groups generally are grassroots advocacy groups that actively lobby for better conditions on the river they advocate for. I was wondering if there was such a thing for thr Roanoke. A Google search turned up nothing like the Neuse River Foundation. Maybe that sort of thing has not taken hold in the NE part of the state. The NRF has done much to clean up the Neuse and press for the removal of dams that are no longer used. We now have sea run stripers coming up the Neuse again.

[William Warren]

#16545

Searched again. It’s the Roanoke River Partners.
http://www.roanokeriverpartners.org/
Does not appear to be as active politically as the NRF. Their list of partners will offer a clue. It’s purpose seems more focused on maintaining the paddling community’s use of the river and the local economic benefit of that.

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