Sept. 2007 - Volume 68, Issue 9
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About Alligator Gar
Alligator gar are among the largest freshwater fish in North America. They can reach 10 feet in length, though 5 to 8 feet long is a more common size for adults. An adult can weigh between 100 to 300 pounds. The largest known Missouri gar mount is located in the Hornersville Duck Club. This 8-foot, 3-inch behemoth weighed 228 pounds.
A thick coat of bony scales make alligator gar better protected than any other fish species. Adult alligator gar can be distinguished from other adult gar species by the double row of teeth they have in their upper jaw.
Commonly known as “gator gar,” these fish occupy slowmoving backwater sloughs and rivers looking for large prey.
While every fish is a potential meal, gar usually eat whatever is most common. Studies show that gar mainly eat shad, buffalo and drum. Surprisingly few sport fish make their way into a gar’s stomach.
Gar hunt by ambush. They float along, still as a log, until a tasty morsel gets close. They then sling their head to one side and slam their jaws down on the prey.
Occasionally, gar surface to gulp air. Fisheries biologists call this breathing behavior “breaking.” It allows gar to survive low oxygen levels in the water.
Seventy-seven-year-old Richard Woods grew up on the Black River in Butler County and remembers seeing gar up to 8 feet long rolling on the surface.
“Alligator gar would move up in the spring and hang around in the river holes,” Woods says. “We watched two of them that moved into our swimming hole. We’d jump off of a leaning tree into that water time after time. It’s a wonder we never hit either of them. And they never attacked.”
The History of Gar
Native tribes were first to harvest gar. They worked the tough scales into arrow points and breastplates. They fashioned the ribs into needles.
Early farmers stretched gar skin over their plows. The result was a tool armored like a shield. The skins were also used for covering pictures, making purses and decorating fancy boxes.
About This Article
Author
A.J. HENDERSHOTT lives with his wife, Cheryl, and children, Cheyenne and Hunter, in rural Cape Girardeau County. When not hiking, hunting or sketching, he crafts wooden longbows. A.J. is an Outreach and Education supervisor with the Conservation Department and holds wetlands in high regard.
PHIL HELFRICH spends his free time looking for the place where blues, jazz and ozark streams converge. Preliminary data suggests the intersection is dependent on a change in latitude.
Photographer
Photographer DAVID STONNER, shown working on aerial photographs of the Mingo Basin in southeast Missouri, joined the Department of Conservation in May 2007. He lives in Jefferson City with his wife, Angela, and one year-old daughter, Maggie. David enjoys weekends sailing on Stockton Lake and angling for fish anywhere he can cast a dry fly.
