huge fish caught

[thunderw]

Lake Sam Rayburn alligator gar
"This was killed on Lake Sam Rayburn, Texas a few weeks ago. It is a pending Sam Rayburn Lake Record and BAA World Record Alligator Gar...8'2", 244.5 lbs. and 44.75" girth."

video of its capture: http://media.putfile.com/Giant-Gator-Gar


http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b367/thunderw21/fish.jpg

[Hellfish]

Gars are awesome fish. Didn't know that they got this big, though. Daaaamn. Stay out of the water in Texas.

[MakeWar87]

Thats cruel

[Hellfish]

I think it's healthy. A gar that big can only unbalance the lake it lived it. Sometimes monsters shouldn't exist. But still... cool as sheeyit.

[Adumb]

Holy **** :|

[Chuckie]

Would someone like to enlighten me as to what the hell that thing is? It looks like something out of a bad science fiction movie. Are they common down south? I sure as hell haven't seen one of them in NY, although I wouldn't rule anything out.

[Stormy]

It looks like something you could catch in some river in the south, for sure.

[Chuckie]

It looks like something you could catch in some river in the south, for sure.

Or something swimming around in a NYC sewer system.

[Stormy]

Yeah, it is one heck of an ugly fish though.

[cut]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/76/Alligator_gar.jpg

this ones bigger (10ft)

also


The current world record alligator gar weighed 279 pounds and was caught in the Rio Grande (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Grande) River in 1951

[scrybe]

Damn, ye aI wouldn't want to be swimming in the same water as that thing.

[TuNeRsHaRk]

that thing looks like it could swallow a 12 year old whole

[Chuckie]

I'd $hit myself even if I saw a tiny one of those things swimming around.

[Stormy]

It looks prehistoric.

[faithless]

Gar info http://floridafisheries.com/fishes/gar.html

[Chuckie]

I'm going to have trouble sleeping tonight. I always thought lakes were safe to swim in....

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/5757/garcostarica12oq.jpg

[usa320]

gar aint got **** on sturgeon.

[sir-chimp]

gar aint got **** on sturgeon.


like a sturgeon for the very first time, like aaaa sturgeon for the very first time AYYYY!

[Violet Fashion by Mindy]

Man the garfish we get here generally dont get any bigger then around 30cm.

[Hellfish]

http://floridafisheries.com/fishes/gar.html#alligator

This is the link for the Alligator Gar, the nasty looking one above. They are indeed one of the oldest fish species known and one of the few armored fish left in the world.

http://iobis.org/images/ILAlligatorGar.jpg

http://www.byerly.org/intrest/alligator_gar.jpg




Fish of nightmaresWith rows of razor-sharp teeth, the hulking, prehistoric
alligator gar is a fear-inducing freshwater version of 'Jaws'
By Keith "Catfish" Sutton
Special to ESPN Outdoors

http://espn.go.com/winnercomm/outdoors/general/i/P2_g_col_sutton_garmouth.jpgThe business end of a 190-pound alligator gar.

It was the meanest looking animal I've ever seen. Sharp, inch-long teeth studded its broad alligator-like jaws. Its mouth was twisted into a malevolent smirk. Dark eyes big as half dollars turned in their sockets, following my movements."Come closer so I can eat you, boy," it seemed to be thinking.
It was perhaps eight feet long. Rope bound its snout, but I still didn't feel safe. Two bullet holes punctuated the top of its massive head, yet still the brute lived.
I had not touched the fish, but I knew the scales armoring its body were hard as stone.
A man was chopping at the monster's back with a hatchet, and with each blow he struck, sparks flew.
"He'll go 200 pounds, easy," said Garfield Stacy, the commercial fisherman who had captured the giant in east Arkansas' St. Francis River.
"Used to be a lot of big ones, but them days are gone. Gator gar this size are scarce as 5-pound crappie."
“ A man was chopping at the monster's back with a hatchet, and with each blow he struck, sparks flew. ” The alligator gar lay atop a board between two sawhorses, and Garfield was cutting the ivory-like scales from a narrow strip down its back.
"Don't reckon we'll see another one this size for a long time," he said, working the thick shell away from the meat. "And as far as I'm concerned, good riddance."

Days of Yore
I never did see another gar that big. I fished the St. Francis River for many years after that day in the mid-1960s, but the big gator gar seem to have disappeared.
Courtesy of eAngler.com
http://espn.go.com/winnercomm/outdoors/general/i/P2_f_enc_alligatorgarDR.jpgAlligator gar

I used to be glad they were gone. When I'd swim the river with my teenage buddies, the wicked eyes of Garfield's monster followed me.Many nights I've dreamed of that beast. I've felt its teeth sinking into my leg, and I've looked into those dark eyes as it pulled me to the bottom to eat me.
In size, alligator gar surpass all North American fishes except white sturgeon. I have a 1931 photograph of a supposed 356-pounder, 8 feet, 5 inches long, taken from Arkansas's Horseshoe Lake.
A specimen from Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, was documented at 9 feet, 8.5 inches and 302 pounds. The world rod-and-reel record, a 279-pounder, came from the Rio Grande River, Texas, in 1951.
“ We usually caught six to 12 each day, all over 100 pounds. ”
— John Fox, gator gar guide, 1954-1958 In the 1950s, sport fishermen flocked to east Arkansas' big rivers to pursue alligator gar.
"We usually caught six to 12 each day, all over 100 pounds," says John Fox of Ocklawaha, Florida, who guided gator gar anglers on the L'Anguille, St. Francis, White and Mississippi rivers from 1954 through 1958. "The biggest I caught weighed 220 pounds."
Fox witnessed several dangerous encounters with these leviathans.
"We used wooden boats in those days," he says. "And these fish often jumped 8 to 10 feet straight up when hooked. I always told clients to be careful one didn't jump in the boat, because it could knock the sides out with its thrashing tail.
"You could get seriously injured, too. A game warden fishing with us one day let one jump in the boat. It tore the side of the boat out, and it broke his leg!"



Accounts from old Mississippi River Valley newspapers often recount gar attacks. In the May 7, 1884 edition of the "Arkansas Gazette," an article states, "While a boy named Perry was fishing in Shoal Creek, Logan county, a gar fish caught his right leg, which was hanging over the side of the boat in the water, and pulled him overboard. His companions rescued him, but not before the leg was terribly lacerated."
The "New Orleans Times-Picayne" on January 22, 1922, carried an article in which the writer tried to prove the alligator gar is more dangerous to humans than is the "Man-Eater Shark." Many instances were given of persons being killed or injured by these fish. Percy Viosca, Jr., in an account related by Alfred Weed in 1923, explains that most so-called attacks happened when people were feeding offal to the gar, then held their hands or feet in the water. In those days, most culinary operations — the preparation of fishes and game for the pot, and the washing of kitchen utensils — were carried out on docks due to the lack of running water. Semi-tame alligator gar gathered to eat the offal thrown overboard. Then the inevitable happened. Persons soiled with blood and fish fragments dipped their hands to wash them, and the gar seized them. A hand caught between a big gar's teeth could not be pulled back without being badly mutilated, and a large fish with a good hold could pull a person overboard, as sometimes happened. “ While a boy named Perry was fishing in Shoal Creek, Logan county, a gar fish caught his right leg, which was hanging over the side of the boat, and pulled him overboard. His companions rescued him, but not before the leg was terribly lacerated ”
— Account from the May 7, 1884 edition of the "Arkansas Gazette" But do these huge gar actually attack swimmers? E.W. Gudger, an ichthyologist with the American Museum of Natural History, said in a 1942 article that he did not believe so. "All my attempts to verify these (attacks) have resulted in failures," he wrote. He discusses two alleged attacks in Arkansas determined to be caused by the swimmers colliding with underwater objects. Two colleagues of Gudger "both wrote they have gone swimming in waters inhabited by hundreds of these big fish, without being attacked." One had even seen men swimming waters having both fish offal and gar in abundance, and there were no attacks. Gudger concluded his article by saying, "When hungry, (the alligator gar) will undoubtedly grasp a hand or a foot dipped in the water near him. That he will deliberately stalk and attack a human being as a tiger does, I do not believe." Last summer, I saw a gator gar roll while bathing in the Arkansas River during a campout. It was easily six feet long, over 100 pounds. It surfaced briefly, its thick alligator-like snout protruding above the water. For an instant, I thought it looked at me. My bath ended then and there. That night, I awoke from a nightmare. Sweat poured off my body. I was shaking. I reached down into my sleeping bag and touched my legs. Thank God. They were intact. I tried to go back to sleep but I could still see the churlish smile of that giant fish as it pulled me to the bottom to eat me.
You can own these as pets, BTW. They're available in most pet stores. :)

[sir-chimp]

Makes me want to go and read the Once and Future King again.

[MakeWar87]

it reminds me of a coelacanth:

It would be nicer to see them should a human being as opposed to killing a rare fish.

[MakeWar87]

it reminds me of a coelacanth:

It would be nicer to see them shoot a human being as opposed to killing a rare fish.

[operaattori]

I think this big fish should had been release back.

[szr]

Nice fish. We get Longnose Gar up here. They're truely ancient animals. They've been around for over 100 million years...

[Roaming East]

cant wait to see someone pull up a super grouper

[torN]

holy shyt!

D: that thing is massive! Gives me second thoughts about swimming in lakes, and i dont live in the USA!

bloody hell.

[Laconian]

I use to catch gar & mudfish (bowfin-another prehistoric nasty looking fish) in the Florida Everglades when bass fishing, but none were even close to that size. That thing is huge, it would have eaten my kayak, they are nothing but teeth & bad attitude..

[Stormy]

http://www.strangezoo.com/images/content/110574.jpg

http://www.dumbphotos.com/images/Wow/284-bigcatfish.jpg

http://www.strangezoo.com/images/content/110573.jpg

[mobius06]

great pics guys, great pics :)

[shinraiden]

They've got 2 compound bows, a halibut grade long gaf hook, and line/rod/reel that didn't splinter to bits on set. All on a busted old bass boat. They sure as heck weren't trawling for crappie. :)

[Seraphim]

Nice fish. We get Longnose Gar up here. They're truely ancient animals. They've been around for over 100 million years...
Thats unpossible, earth is only 7 thousand years old. p-)

[MakeWar87]

If you want rare fish go to indonesia they find some ancient fish out there, After south africa indonesia was the first place to actually record a coelacath being caught they date back to the earlieast fish ever found and everbosy thought they were extinct until recently.

[Saranof]

I even hate swimming in the lakes round here cos' of the pike that snap are your feet, and their like 30 cm at max..

[Caesar]

It looks like the fish is closer to the camera than the guy thus making it bigger than it is in reality.

[Hellfish]

8'2" is still big, no matter what the photograph perspective is.

[Hullebullen]

8'2" is still big, no matter what the photograph perspective is.
:lol:
this strikes me as funny...guess I'm in a immature mood today...