Re: NANFA-L-- Re: Catching juvenile Gar

dlmcneely-in-lunet.edu
Wed, 20 Jul 2005 10:39:37 -0500

Baby gars are not hard to catch if you work in the right habitat, and
use suitable tactics. Generally, large creeks or small rivers, with
backwaters amenable to seining, are fine. Vegetated water or water
with lots of sticks and branches may have small gars. Surround the
habitat with a seine deep enough to reach the bottom, and kick the
vegetation or debris, driving fishes from it into the seine pocket,
then lift the seine by the lead line - ie, reach down into the water to
grasp the line and lift without opening the pocket. I seldom find more
than one or two baby gars in a single seine hall. BTW, they make very
interesting aquarium fish for their behavior. Four-inch longnose gar
from stained water tend to be black or dark brown, with a gold lateral
stripe. Beautiful.

So far as releasing fish back into the same locality, in most
jurisdictions, that is, properly so, not legal. Check the list
archives for extensive discussions, and check with the wildlife
department in your state.

Dave

David L. McNeely, Ph.D., Professor of Biology
Langston University; P.O. Box 1500
Langston, OK 73050; email: dlmcneely-in-lunet.edu
telephone: (405) 466-6025; fax: 405) 466-3307
home page http://www.lunet.edu/mcneely/index.htm

"Where are we going?" "I don't know, are we there yet?"
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