By David Graham

Article Posted: October, 2004

Summertime, in the blazing heat of the day when air temperatures reach blistering heights are usually times to hang the rods up and hang out by the fan for the average fisherman. Popular game fish head for cooler deeper water but one fish is unfazed by the intense heat. Summertime is gar time for those daring enough to take the toothy beasts on. I can still hear it in my head “Ja here what David’s been doing? I heard he’s been fishing for gar! Honest to god I think the guys gone crazy!” They’re right; I am crazy, crazy for gar. What I wonder is why I am the only one sometimes! The gar is the prototype for a challenging sport fish. Big mean and toothy, arguably the most difficult fish in freshwater to drive a hook into. A prehistoric monster that has swam our waters for over 100,000,000 years. That number its self is hard enough for a person to even comprehend! They have been at the top of the food chain in our waters since the age of Dinosaurs, but how is a fish with such qualities derided by the fishing community?

For most anglers, the first encounter with a gar they have is seeing the serpent like fish break the surface for a gulp of air often mistakenly thinking the gar are feeding. When temperatures drop and oxygen levels decrease gar do not need to search for cooler waters but instead they have a unique feature that allows them to actually take gulps of air from the surface. The gar’s swim bladder serves as a lung. They will lay motionless often during the heat of the summer just under the surface before surfacing for air. This capability is one of many features that have aided the gar in living for so long. Another unique feature of the gar is its armor like scaling. Seemingly impenetrable, the gar has very few natural enemies. Also the row of the gar is toxic to all animals other than other fish; this could fend off any animal that decides to feed on the eggs of a gar or a gar full of eggs. Gar make for an awesome challenge on rod and reel. Putting up tremendous aerial trick shows, the leaps of a gar rival some of saltwater game fish’s greatest leapers. They will make valiant efforts to avoid capture and do anything it takes to get free, which they usually do. Knowing they are using methods to escape dinosaurs during the battle on rod and reel is a very eerie feeling. Anglers looking for challenge don’t have to look much farther than the gar. They are one of the most fun species to sight fish for, and are difficult to hook.

Spawning occurs between the months of January and March most often, but can go on to late May. When gar spawn, many gar can be found near the edges of the bank frequenting the surface for gulps of air. One female will lead a group of 5 to 10 smaller males around and adhesive eggs are deposited, the males then vibrate and release sperm on the eggs. The eggs are not guarded by either of the sexes. Newly hatched gar have a suction cup like organ on the tip of the snout which helps them anchor down to rocks and aquatic plants. The suction cup like organ soon disappears and many small toothpick like baby gar can be seen at the surface cruising around. Young gar grow quickly and are very voracious in their feeding. It does not take long before they are attempting to eat fish larger than themselves.

There are five species of gar in the United States, they are: the Longnose Gar, Shortnose Gar, Alligator gar, Spotted gar, and the Florida Gar, Alligator Gar being the largest of the five. Gar range throughout the eastern United States for the most part, some are confined to certain areas. Each gar has distinguishable features from the other that make them unique.


The Florida Gar have the smallest range of all of the gars. They are confined to only Florida and a very small percentage range into Georgia and the lower tips of South Carolina. Florida gar are the smallest of the five gar species. They are a short broad snouted species, averaging around 30 inches in length. Their body is covered with spots and blotches, looking quite similar to the spotted gar. Their snout is lined with rows of spaced out teeth. Florida gar are often found in sluggish creeks and backwaters gulping air from the surface. Florida Gar can be caught with small inline spinners or minnows on medium to light spinning gear.


The Shortnose Gar is another of the smaller species of gar. They are more often found in creeks and rivers than open bodies of water like lakes. The Shortnose Gar looks like a tiny replica of the Alligator Gar besides the fact that alligator gar have 2 rows of teeth. Shortnose Gar range throughout the Midwestern states of North America. Shortnose Gar are commonly olive green to silver in coloration with few spots at the caudle end. They average 30 inches in length. Shortnose Gar are most often caught on small spinners, cut bait, and live bait with light to medium weight spinning gear.


The Spotted Gar is a small sturdy species of gar. They, like the Shortnose and Florida Gar, have a short broad snout. Spotted Gar resemble Shortnose Gar with an abundance of spots. The can be found in rivers, creeks, and backwaters of the Midwestern states, distribution spreads as far east as Georgia and certain parts of Florida, and as far west as Texas. The spotted Gar has an appealing pattern making them a unique fish to catch and photo friendly. They can be taken on cut bait, live bait, and small spinners.


The Longnose Gar are the second largest species of gar growing up to 55 inches in length. They are the most abundant species of all of the gar ranging all the way across the Eastern United States and as far west as New Mexico. The Longnose Gar is very similar to the Shortnose Gar in coloration but looks like a stretched out version of the Shortnose. Longnose Gar are generally olive green with few spots near the caudle end, but can also come in a silvery coloration with many spots. With a considerably longer and skinnier snout than its 4 other cousins, the Longnose Gar is much more difficult to hook. The Longnose Gar also has a large amount of teeth per square inch in their jaws. The Longnose Gar can be found in river systems, creeks, open lakes, and backwaters alike.


Without a doubt the undisputed king of all gar is the mighty Alligator Gar. A true monster, it is the second largest freshwater fish that swims in our waters, second only to the white sturgeon. Alligator Gar can grow up to 10 feet long and little over 300 pounds. The Alligator Gar’s appearance has lead many people to make up easily believable stories of giant gar that have attacked and eaten dogs and people. Though it is extremely rare, cases have been documented of feet bitten while dangling from docks and boats, though only minor scratches resulted from it. The distribution of the Alligator Gar has slowly been in decline over the years. Habitat destruction, urbanization, commercial fishing, and other means of invading on the gar, and over harvesting have put a damper on their life styles. Alligator Gar once ranged throughout the Southeastern United States, but have since declined to where they are only apparently secure in 2 states, Texas and Louisiana. They are thought to be a major consumer of popular game fish while in reality they primarily feed on shad/herring and carp. Alligator Gar can be found in river systems, and mouths of rivers. The Alligator Gar is silvery to olive green in coloration with small black speckles on the back. The Alligator Gar has a broad snout and is the only of the gar species to have two rows of spaced out teeth.


Some may ask, what is the point of catching a gar when you can’t eat them? Well there are two answers to the question, one is, you CAN eat gar. The problem with eating gar is the difficulty of cleaning them. There are many recipes over the internet made by fisherman who have actually tried gar. Another answer is fishing is not entirely about the quality of the taste, but the quality of the fight. The experience and the rush one gets from targeting gar soon eliminates any previous hatred towards the fish. The gar plays an important role in its niche. There are 100,000,000 years of evidence that show gar do not affect the proficiency of today’s popular game fish. The gar sees bass and bream as new comers to the world, but bass and bream have easily been able to evolve and thrive in great numbers while sharing the same waters as the gar, thus showing gar do not decrease their populations. People say gar compete with the bass and other popular predatorily game fish in its ecosystem and this is true. However, competition between species is not a negative thing, but actually the co-existing species benefit each other by restraining one from dominating an entire area. When one fish dominates an area that dominate species will only hurt its self and inevitably stunt the growth rates.

So next time you run across one of these fish take a deep look at where the fish has come from. Think about what these fish have been through over the millions of years they have swam our waters. When you take a look into their deep dark prehistoric eyes you better have a strong will, they will only stare back at you angrily wondering “why is this newbie holding me?”

David Graham is a avid rough fish angler and can be reached at the www.roughfish.com forums

All content is expressed solely by David Graham, through his experience. All photos and words are his.