Eating Longnose or Spotted gar

[Man]

My son really wants to catch and cook a gar...so we are headed tomorrow to do just that. I have eaten alligator gar and love it. More than likely we will hook into a nice size spotted or longnose though. For those that have actually ate them....Do those eat the same?
We will just fry the backstrap.

[muzzlebrake]

I have heard spots are good like gator gar but longnose are not. I have never tried either.

[bigchiefj]

I cut the "backstraps" out of a longnose gar and fried it. I didn't like it. The meat has a bad tasting fat in it kind of like alligator tail.

[Lone_Wolf]

Several years ago my neighbor had a fishfry and I helped clean a longnose gar and they fried up the back straps. Was pretty funky.

[gatorgar]

I prefer longnose over the others. They eat more live pretty as opposed to gator or spotted who eat anything that fits in their mouths.
Spotted gar are the hardest to clean. Small size and harder scales make them a pain.
These are 2 longnose (30-35") and one spotted (39"). Fed 8 of us.

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[Stick bow]

I will only eat the 2-4 foot ones after that I don’t miss with them. I like them fried with Cajun seasoning.

[okrattler]

We cut the back straps out of some spotted gar and tried it. We deep fat fried it and it had a good taste but it was gritty. Like some bites had sand in it. It was good except for that.

[Man]

Thanks for all your replies. Guesseing I will just go for it and share my eating experience tomorrow evening.

[Low Fence]

I cooked a spotted once. It stunk the kitchen up so bad I couldn’t eat it. Shot out of lake Fork, if that makes a difference or not.

[TexOddball]

Does everyone go soak their fillets in the septic tank or something? Gar is great, it’s one of the best freshwater fish swimming. Hit it with some Tony C’s, roll in the cornmeal, and fry it up!

Some of y’all was raised on vanilla wafers and 1% milk, and it shows!

Use some pruning shears or tin snips to cut straight down the middle of the back, cut the loins out just like cutting the backstraps out of a deer.

[TexaRican]

Timely thread. We watched a beautiful spotted one circling the boat dock yesterday almost like he was waiting for a handout. Really though about trying to snag or net him and my daughter asked if they are good to eat. Didn't know so didn't try for him.

[JACK750]

Look up a recipe for gar balls and thank me later. Like a crab cake but better.

[twosixteens]

Haven’t had them in a while but when I was a kid a looong time a go we had friends on the other side of the tracks who would smoke them. Took tin snips cut the bell open pulled guts then cut the top of the hide open cut from the bottom up to the head but not through the spine hung em head up in the smoker. When finished pull the head off and peel the hide most of the meat stayed attached to the hide was pretty good.

[Homer75]

Does everyone go soak their fillets in the septic tank or something? Gar is great, it’s one of the best freshwater fish swimming. Hit it with some Tony C’s, roll in the cornmeal, and fry it up!

Some of y’all was raised on vanilla wafers and 1% milk, and it shows!

Use some pruning shears or tin snips to cut straight down the middle of the back, cut the loins out just like cutting the backstraps out of a deer.

I love me some vanilla wafers!!!

[BURTONboy]

Made them once. Soaked half in mustard and the other half in louisiana hot sauce for about 6 hrs. Pulled them out and straight into flour and then hot grease. I thought they turned out pretty dang good. You could taste both the mustard and the hot sauce so they had a unique flavor between the two.


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