# gator gar in georgia



## castandblast

I read some post on here saying that some people have seen/shot/caught some gator gar in Georgia waters. Can anyone tell me what river systems they saw them at. Im not talking about big long noses, I mean alligator gar. Just wondering because according to UGA's fishery department, NO River systems in Georgia Waters have them. I am not asking spots. Just curious if the site is correct or not.  Thanks


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## Tarbaby 212

I have not seen any.


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## meleagris

No alligator gar in Georgia.  Probably just misidentification.


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## mwood1985

im thinking they shot some bigger long nose variety gar. ive never heard of a aligator gar in ga unless someone transplanted them. dont know why you would wanna do that though


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## Gabassmaster

Some in the hootch


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## castandblast

in the Hootch? you sure?


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## Gabassmaster

yeah man i live in carrollton and i go flathead fishen down at mackintosh reserve in whitesburg and ive caught a couple 4 foot long down there... i dont fish for them lol... im just down there cause they catch 40 pound plus flatheads there


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## runswithbeer

dont know the difference, but have seen some bigguns in the savannah and brier creek


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## castandblast

Gabassmaster said:


> yeah man i live in carrollton and i go flathead fishen down at mackintosh reserve in whitesburg and ive caught a couple 4 foot long down there... i dont fish for them lol... im just down there cause they catch 40 pound plus flatheads there



If you can catch one or show pics of it being there. I would love to see them. I went to West Ga in Carrollton and have seen lots of Long noses just no gators.


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## Gabassmaster

ill try and get some


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## markland

Have not heard of any in a long time, use to have some in Eufaula and Seminole, but that was many years ago and have not heard of anybody seeing or catching any in many years.  Tom Mann had 1 in his aquarium in Eufaula he took out of Lake Eufaula, but that was caught back in the 70's I believe.  Certainly possible to have some around, they are in FL and AL, but no reports in the last few years.


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## thompsonsz71

i know for a fact one was killed on lake wateree in south carolina about a month back! the story was in the augusta chronicle


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## castandblast

markland said:


> Have not heard of any in a long time, use to have some in Eufaula and Seminole, but that was many years ago and have not heard of anybody seeing or catching any in many years.  Tom Mann had 1 in his aquarium in Eufaula he took out of Lake Eufaula, but that was caught back in the 70's I believe.  Certainly possible to have some around, they are in FL and AL, but no reports in the last few years.



Thanks mark, I was thinking if they were any where it would be in Seminole or somewhere along the South Savannah River basisn. I was doing some research and kept getting conflicting data.

I knew there was a few in s.c too Thompson.

Im still keeping my eye for one in Allatoona, Weiss, Lanier, and Hartwell!!


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## markland

Have not heard of any in the Savannah river basin ever, but not to say they never have been.
You keep looking at those other lakes, but don't hold your breath!! 
Somebody said they shot 1 at Guntersville several years ago, but I nor anybody that knows the difference saw it so not sure that happened!
They are in KY now and if they do well, which they should with all the Asian carp to eat on if they can withstand the cold, they will travel down and could have them spread out over the TN river area, but that would take more years then I will probably ever be bowfishing!


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## SneekEE

You mean one like this...


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## castandblast

YES!!!! That is a Gator Gar! 

This is a Long Nose! A 3ft or better Long nose is still not a Gator Gar....


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## markland

Yep that's a good one, grow them like that down in TX where I got this one!


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## markland

You mean a long nose like this one!


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## meleagris

castandblast said:


> If you can catch one or show pics of it being there. I would love to see them. I went to West Ga in Carrollton and have seen lots of Long noses just no gators.



I would love to see a picture of one caught out of the ACF.  There may have been accounts of these critters in the lower ACF years ago but none have been documented in the last few decades. Check out this link for the ranges of alligator gar: http://www.fws.gov/arkansas-es/a_gar/agar_maps.html


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## LawnStalker

SneekEE, Where'd that monster come out of?

Definately not something to have your feet much less your toes dangling out in the cool water near! Looks like it could eat a steady diet of snapping turtles with no problem. 

Always a bigger fish I guess. Not much bigger I hope.


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## Hard Core

Most people's version of an alligator gar is a longnose. It is amazing how many "fisherman" honestly do not no the difference between the gar species and automatically assume anything over 2ft .long must be an alligator gar. If you are catching a fish you believe to be an alligator, gar look and see if it only has one row of teeth or two. Two rows are alligator gar teefs.


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## bullsprig1100

Just mind your fingers while checking..


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## decoyed

Gabassmaster said:


> yeah man i live in carrollton and i go flathead fishen down at mackintosh reserve in whitesburg and ive caught a couple 4 foot long down there... i dont fish for them lol... im just down there cause they catch 40 pound plus flatheads there



not Alligator gar you are seeing.  Long nose. BIG difference.  Some folks call every type of Gar "alligator gar".


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## castandblast

I'm glad we are educating some people on the differences between the species. Should we start a new thread going over the differences between common Carp and Grass Carp or Common carp and buffalo?


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## markland

I woud thing most people would know the difference betwee those since they are very different looking, but you never know!
I would imagine there are some people that do not know what a buffalo is or maybe a mirro carp or leather carp or all the differences between the sucker species, but they are easy to look up I guess?


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## emusmacker

I know this off topic but has anyone ever seen or shot any black gar on Russell or Clark Hill?  We went back in 2001 and killed several solid black long nose gar in russell and one that was 43 inches, the funny thing was is we saw them on both ends of the lake, haven't seen any more since then, but I haven't been bowfishing in years.


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## Hard Core

Emu, I have shot a good many black gar at Bartletts ferry. Thats the only place I ever saw them. I believe it is just a color problem in the genes. I have seen some longnose at Hartwell that looked like albino's also.


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## markland

Haven't shot a black longnose in many years, the ones I got were from Bartlett's Ferry/Lake Harding and Lake Eufaula but do not fish those lakes much anymore so not sure if they are still in there.  My biggest all black gar was 54in and came out of Eufaula.


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## Gabassmaster

decoyed said:


> not Alligator gar you are seeing.  Long nose. BIG difference.  Some folks call every type of Gar "alligator gar".





shoot there are also somthing called boa gar!!!! got eyes wider than a hemmer head faster than a wahoo and are more ferocious than a baracuda...


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## Michael

Yeah, they're are in Lake Placid


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## striper commander

I know of one coming out of blackshear.


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## NCHillbilly

emusmacker said:


> I know this off topic but has anyone ever seen or shot any black gar on Russell or Clark Hill?  We went back in 2001 and killed several solid black long nose gar in russell and one that was 43 inches, the funny thing was is we saw them on both ends of the lake, haven't seen any more since then, but I haven't been bowfishing in years.



You mean like this one?


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## NCHillbilly

Here's a few black ones:

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## emusmacker

Yep, where did those come from?


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## NCHillbilly

Clark's Hill.


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## gotta biggn

I saw one from the Withlacoochee near Lakeland GA back in the 80's. He looked way too big for the body of water. He as as big or bigger than the second pic on this thread.


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## thompsonsz71

I've seen quite a few up on the hill and on russell........


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## bowfisher1

tons of black gar in Russell,many in the 50 inch range.


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## NCHillbilly

Yeah, most of the black ones seem to be bigger females.


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## GAnaturalist

I have never seen a long nose bigger than this 5 footer. 

Milledgeville, GA


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## markland

I have had the argument with many people on longnose claiming they had seen or caught longnose gar 6ft and bigger but to be honest, they just don't exist.  I have seen a couple that were 62 and 64in but that is definitely the biggest I have ever seen or heard of actually existing and none has ever held up any truth or record of any longnose gar 6ft in length.  Have seen some hybrid gar in TX that were bigger, but of course those were not pure strain longnose gar.
Here's a 5ft alligator gar from LA.


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## castandblast

did you get you another one this year mark?


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## NCHillbilly

I've shot a couple that were a touch over 4 feet. Biggest one I've ever seen would have been awfully close to an honest five. I missed it, and so did my buddy. Hit that cove several more times that weekend, but never saw it again. The honest four-footers are few and far between in the places where I shoot. I'd sure like to see a six-footer, and I 'd love to see one of those big gator gar.


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## markland

Naw, shot that one at the last BAA Worlds down in LA, actually had another 1 that size in the pile and some in the 4-5ft range.  
Have shot a 60in gar out of Bartletts Ferry but shot my other 59in gar in OK and another 1 from Eufaula.  Have taken several in the mid to upper 50in range from the Chattahoochee river, Eufaula and believe it or not, Lake Oliver in Columbus.  
I did miss a gar in Sam Rayburn several years ago that looked like it weighed 70#, it looked like it swallowed a bunch of footballs and thought it was a longnose but I am sure now that it was a hybrid, noway it could have been a pure longnose gar.
Hillbilly, your closest place to shoot gator gar would be in LA but the biggest I have shot down there was 78in although there are some bigger around, they are just few and far between your best best for a truly monster sized gator gar would be in S TX.


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## EAGLE EYE 444

I just watched a TV program earlier this morning that was filmed at Lake Livingston in Texas.  The guy was using a spinning rod and reel with a heavy rod and caught an "Alligator Gar" that was measured on camera to be 86" long and weighed approximately 150 lbs.  When they finally got the fish alongside the boat, the guy used a rope to slide around the head and snout of this fish and then it took both of them to pull it into the boat.  There was a fishing biologist with them that tagged the fish and this guy had been doing research along with the two guys that were actually fishing.  It took both guys to hold the fish across them while it was being tagged and then they released it over the side of the boat.  They are doing research to establish populations in that lake and they hope to continue to have these giants for generations to come.  I believe that the biologist estimated the population to be approximately 40,000 of these fish in this lake.  They stated that many of these fish were very old just like the sturgeon fish that we hear a lot about.  After watching the program this morning, I know one thing for sure.......I would not want to swim or hang my feet into the water from a boat or dock in that lake.  The mouth and teeth were a scary sight.


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## markland

Yep we all carry snares on our boats to handle these fish in getting them in the boat as they do have a tendency to thrash around quite a bit and are very powerful, their scales are so tough it is hard to sink a gaff in the and very hard to control with just the gaff as well.
Alligator gar have been releases in several areas in KY as well and when they continue to grow and live they are sure to benefit from the ready suppyl of asian carp to their diet and we should see some monster fish come from those areas in years to come.


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## Georgia Hard Hunter

In the mid 70's in North Mississippi we would catch Alligator and long nose up to 4 ft. At certain times of the year they would spawn and swim up out of Sardis Lake up the Tallahatchie river, for what ever reason they would been seen swimming on the surface, we being the typical north Mississippi rednecks with very heavy catfish rods we would take large treble hooks sharpened razor sharp, heavy test line, and heavy weights and cast over them and snag them. Man it was like saltwater fishing or maybe like hooking on to a ski boat, we never landed anything bigger that 4 foot but we broke off many many times on much bigger fish.


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## Pointpuller

Thought yall might enjoy.
http://www.wapt.com/r/26887751/detail.html


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## Cottontail

Ive heard several people call them alligator gar i never really thought any diffrent till now when i see the pics.


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## Nastytater

I'm not sure if they were long nose,or gator gar...But I have saw a gar in Lake Lanier half as long as a 16' boat we were in.  Biggest fish in that Lake that I ever saw...When I looked down beside the boat,it kinda caught me by surprise,so I stepped back,and when i did,it took off and almost flipped me backwards out of our boat.  It was about as big around as a Basketball in the center...Didn't really see a long nose on it though...But later that morning,a couple of them surfaced further out in deeper water...You could tell how big they were from a long ways off...Absolute Monsters...If anybody cares to know exactly what spot that was in,it was the mouth of 4 mile creek where the sharp "S" bend is...There's a dock there with a bright outside light hanging over the waters...We was tied up to the dock.  Use to catch all kinds of strippers and crappie out of that honey hole.


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## okie32541

not sure what kind they are but if you were to look off the dock at Mud Cat Charlie's in Darien there are always gar there. ive never seen them over 3 feet or so.


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## milepost43

there was one on allatoona i mised that came up and was a good 5 foot cause it was right side the boat, he was in the channal in sweet water creek


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## pine nut

Nastytater said:


> I'm not sure if they were long nose,or gator gar...But I have saw a gar in Lake Lanier half as long as a 16' boat we were in.  Biggest fish in that Lake that I ever saw...When I looked down beside the boat,it kinda caught me by surprise,so I stepped back,and when i did,it took off and almost flipped me backwards out of our boat.  It was about as big around as a Basketball in the center...Didn't really see a long nose on it though...But later that morning,a couple of them surfaced further out in deeper water...You could tell how big they were from a long ways off...Absolute Monsters...If anybody cares to know exactly what spot that was in,it was the mouth of 4 mile creek where the sharp "S" bend is...There's a dock there with a bright outside light hanging over the waters...We was tied up to the dock.  Use to catch all kinds of strippers and crappie out of that honey hole.



I don't often tell folks about this because they won't believe it, but since you brought this up I will tell my story.  I remember it very well.  It was a warm June day in 1959, and the very first day I ever fished in lake Lanier.  I lived in Cornelia Ga and My dad and I and another man and his son made a foursome day of it with two boats.  My dad and I fished together until the afternoon and then the friends boy named Tony T. and I fished together in the evening.  We were in a twelve foot boat fishng the Chestatee bay area and on the west side of a small island.  Tony had his feet in the water off the bow and I was in the back near the transom.  We were drowning spring lizzards just drifting with the breeze.  I was staring down into the water and called his attention to what I though was a log in the water just beneath the boat.  I kid you not it was a bit longer than the boat.  Back then it was not uncommon to find logs suspended like that because Lanier was still filling up!  When Tony looked with me at it we both realized it was a gar and a d***** big one.  I had never seen one before and did not realize it was a fish until it swished it tail.  Its spots were about silver dollar sized and it's tail was about two feet top to bottom.  Tony weighed about 250 and he was scrambling to get his feet back in the boat!  He and his dad built that boat and I know the dimensions are correct at 12 feet.  The fish was longer!  I know the DNR says they don't get that big, but nobody told that one!  I had a book and still have it that shows a Mississippi gar pike that looked like what I saw and they are  long nose gar.  They were the only thing I had seen in a picture  that even resembled what I saw that day.  We had several hits on our lizzards that porpused on top and were gar, one might have pushed five feet and looked huge to us but trust me they were only bait to the one we saw earlier.  I caught the only fish boated that day by any of the four of us (a four pound bass) and lost the biggest bass I have ever hung after five jumps the hook tore out!  Easily a ten pounder!  One does not forget a day like that.  I never skunked my Dad besides that day that I remember.  The gar was  way bigger around than a basketball.   Tony, if you read this you will remember that day!  Hope you do!


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## FOD

Heard that 25-30 or so years ago,south ga had quite a few,kinda dissappeared since


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## FOD

No shortage of longnoses though.


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## castandblast

milepost43 said:


> there was one on allatoona i mised that came up and was a good 5 foot cause it was right side the boat, he was in the channal in sweet water creek



I can promise you that was a long nose, and NOT a gator gar.


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## yellingrebel78

they are a few smaller one in coosa we caught 2 of the about 2 ft long last year and I know they wasn't long nose because I have caught plenty of them these look diff. from them I've been told by the older people that there some bigger ones in it but never seen them just those 2 smaller one but if they are more in there I'm sure I will catching more this year


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## Bowfisher

yellingrebel78 said:


> they are a few smaller one in coosa we caught 2 of the about 2 ft long last year and I know they wasn't long nose because I have caught plenty of them these look diff. from them I've been told by the older people that there some bigger ones in it but never seen them just those 2 smaller one but if they are more in there I'm sure I will catching more this year



More than likely a spotted gar or shortnose gar..It wasn't a gator gar!


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## yellingrebel78

Bowfisher said:


> More than likely a spotted gar or shortnose gar..It wasn't a gator gar!



I'm not for sure all I know it they wasn't long nose but I f we catch some more this year I will make sure to get a pic. one other thing I notice about them is that there teeth was diff. to


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## Bowfisher

Gator gar have two rows of upper teeth...


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## Bowfisher

over 4000 views on this topic and no more than a handfull of "sightings"  of alligator gar in GA..this has potential to over take the panther topic!


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## yellingrebel78

Bowfisher said:


> Gator gar have two rows of upper teeth...



I don't know if they had 2 role but they were wider than the long nose gar I know what those look like because I've pulled them out of my hand before


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## castandblast

Bowfisher said:


> over 4000 views on this topic and no more than a handfull of "sightings"  of alligator gar in GA..this has potential to over take the panther topic!



I think your more likely to see a panther than a gator gar!


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## Hard Core

Alot of times, those sly old gator gars are under docks eating crappie minnows. The only ones we have shot in Ga had DNR tags in their dorsal fins. They send a letter if you call it in for there records


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## Michael

Hard Core said:


> Alot of times, those sly old gator gars are under docks eating crappie minnows. The only ones we have shot in Ga had DNR tags in their dorsal fins. They send a letter if you call it in for there records



We too used to shoot a lot of gator gar on Sinclair, but then the cougars started spooking them out from under the boat dock out to deeper water


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## bullardsls1

alot of cougars in the alanta aera i no this for sure just not 4 leg'ed 
Gggidi Gggidi Goo


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## Hard Core

When corned under a dock, the smaller males will sometimes leap into the boat attacking the bowfisher. I barely saved Nathan from being a double amputee on Allatoona.


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## Michael

Allatoona... sure looks like Lake Sinclair water to me


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## benosmose

i caught an alligator gar in the oconee river near millidgeville caught it on a shad freelined he got off 4 times before i finally got him he would just sit there behind a stump and eat whatever came his way bout 3 feet long i let him go and did not think anything of it till one of my friends told me they should not have been one there there are others in the river never seen a real big one though i will get yall a picture this spring and i do know the difference.my avatar pic is of a long eared sunfish and those are not native to our river system either .


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## castandblast

yea allatoona is kinda  looking like the that water down there around south texas ...


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## markland

Ben I would like to see that since I have not seen a gator gar in GA in many years, sure would be nice to know they have a foothold in some waters somewhere here in our state.  I figured the only remaining ones would probably be in Seminole, but you never know!


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## fishfryer

benosmose said:


> i caught an alligator gar in the oconee river near millidgeville caught it on a shad freelined he got off 4 times before i finally got him he would just sit there behind a stump and eat whatever came his way bout 3 feet long i let him go and did not think anything of it till one of my friends told me they should not have been one there there are others in the river never seen a real big one though i will get yall a picture this spring and i do know the difference.my avatar pic is of a long eared sunfish and those are not native to our river system either .



longear sunfish(Lepomis megalotis)native to all the southern states see: Georgia Sport Fish identification pocket guide free from Ga. DNR


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## benosmose

I was told by the state fisheries biologists that they are not native to the oconee river or the watershed that we are in.They said they were more from western ga and alabama coosa river i think he said but over the years they have been transplanted i called because i wondered why there was not a river record for that species and i will catch another one of those gar.


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## yellingrebel78

if you look at the wikipedia they are native for ga http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alligator_gar


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## bwarnock

http://www.sdafs.org/alligar/AGar_Maps.html


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## fishfryer

benosmose said:


> I was told by the state fisheries biologists that they are not native to the oconee river or the watershed that we are in.They said they were more from western ga and alabama coosa river i think he said but over the years they have been transplanted i called because i wondered why there was not a river record for that species and i will catch another one of those gar.



Apparently your fisheries biologist was correct,at least the "Peterson Field Guide"Freshwater Fishes agrees with him.I personally have caught a few (longear sunfish) in the Ocmulgee river.Peterson's book shows a range map that agrees with your fisheries biologist.The book further states that in all areas not shown(GA,Fla,and all the way up the Atlantic coast)the fish were introduced.The same book shows the range of the Alligator Gar as the Mississippi River drainage,including sw. Ohio and s. Illinois south to Gulf of Mexico;Gulf coastal plain from Enconfina River,Florida,to Veracruz Mexico.Georgia is not included on that map.There was no mention of this fish being introduced elsewhere.Hope this helps.


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## castandblast

yellingrebel78 said:


> if you look at the wikipedia they are native for ga http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alligator_gar



sorry man, not to be an jack leg, but wikipedia is crap for scientific data. It simply compiles things that are posted or typed in google numorous times to use as their "data". You go type in on google "all polar bears are left handed" enough times and wikipedia will say that "all polar bears are left handed." College professors will not except wikipedia as a reference when you write a research paper.


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## yellingrebel78

just because the biologist say they not here in ga doesn't me they are not here I believe they are here just not as big as ya'll want them to be I been staying on the river alot more and I been seeing diff. stuff on the river You would have to be there everyday of the week 24-7 to say they are not there


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## castandblast

as a water ecologist that specializes in the coosa basin, and as a advid hunter and fisherman; I do have a 99.9% certainty that there are not alligator gar in the coosa. Again, if you feel so strongly that they are post pics, and have them where a background can be seen that can identify where your at. 
I just have to feel that because people say they see, ghost, aliens, bigfoot, etc... doesn't mean it exist. There is just not one shread of actual scientific data. 

I would be over joyed if you could prove that they are, Just doesn't seem like its going to happen.


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## Tarbaby 212

JC missed a gator gar last night on russel.


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## Michael

Tarbaby 212 said:


> JC missed a gator gar last night on russel.



He didn't miss... he was just scaring it off the bank so no cougars will get it before we have our state shoot tomorrow


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## gregg dudley

Can't believe how many people call any big gar an "alligator" gar.  When I got back to the boat landing with this one, I had three different people tell me that it was a nie "gator gar."  I didn't even argue with them.







Also had people call big pike and even a sturgeon an alligator gar...


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## vagrantprodigy

bwarnock said:


> http://www.sdafs.org/alligar/AGar_Maps.html



That map isn't right. I've seen pictures of my relatives with some alligator gar caught in the everglades back in the 80's...


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## TripleXBullies

Half the "fisherman" call all gars gators. REAL gator gars are available at several exotic fish stores in GA... And they grow FAST. With good aquarium conditions 2-3" per month. Then they outgrow tanks and get thrown in to lakes and rivers. So of course they can get caught from time to time.

I had a very nice hybrid once. About 36" shortnose X alligator I called a crocodile gar.


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## runswithbeer

TripleXBullies said:


> Half the "fisherman" call all gars gators. REAL gator gars are available at several exotic fish stores in GA... And they grow FAST. With good aquarium conditions 2-3" per month. Then they outgrow tanks and get thrown in to lakes and rivers. So of course they can get caught from time to time.
> 
> I had a very nice hybrid once. About 36" shortnose X alligator I called a crocodile gar.




where did u release him?


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## runswithbeer

i was diving under a dock a sinclair early one am, tying up some bass for a local fisherman who was fishin a tourney the next day, when i saw  a cougar swimming above me after a gator gar.


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## markland

There are more and more hybrid longnose/alligator gar showing up in TX lately but have not heard of any pairing with shortnose gar.  They are unique looking but lack the double row of teeth common with the alligator gar.  Have seen some go around 70# or so.


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## TripleXBullies

I didn't release him. I sold him with my 450g tank a few years ago. He was made in a lab, so he was 100% hybrid alligator X short nose. I'm not just guessing here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCBYEYP7_yw


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## markland

Was that a arapaima in there as well?
Well cool, guess they mix just about anything but he sure looks like a shortnose with longnose colorations, pretty cool!


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## TripleXBullies

The double row of teeth is NOT a 100% giveaway. It's likely, but not 100%. I have seen FL and shortnose gars that were born in aquariums with double rows.



markland said:


> There are more and more hybrid longnose/alligator gar showing up in TX lately but have not heard of any pairing with shortnose gar.  They are unique looking but lack the double row of teeth common with the alligator gar.  Have seen some go around 70# or so.


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## TripleXBullies

no, no pima. And yes, the fish keeping industry is mixing all kinds of things now... However you want to look at it.


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## milepost43

the one i was talkin about was a long nose


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## Energy

The black ones are worth a lot of money- as long as they don't have an arrow through them.


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## BigSwole

Big gar dont have to be gator gar. Castandblast has said it many of times, since this is what he does as a career, instead of trying to tell him wrong listen and learn something.

My buddy and i went for a trip here in south georgia. We shot this nice sized one and we lost one that would have been bigger than this. 

And guess what..its not a gator gar. 






Just so you know...we didnt shoot at that landing. Go there if you want but you will be in the wrong place. Had to disguise our location from internet predators lol


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## BigSwole

And btw. That fish and the other was called a gator gar by every person who saw it. After correcting and explaining about 10 times i just gave up.


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## OneCrazyGeek

castandblast said:


> I can promise you that was a long nose, and NOT a gator gar.



.x2


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## guyman5

*gar*

Ok I've google this and my own experance this I've have caught in a private pond in roswell many yrs ago but any way there's a youtube video with someone in the hooch catching one plus I found this on google lake oconee NGTO? Message board pretty intresting but I do know the one I caught was a gar of some sort just not that long of a nose


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## bullardsls1

Lol there are several types of gar in ga needle long nose spotted just not gator gar


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## tail_slider3d

I have heard tales of fishermen catching.them around riverbed on the hooch.  A guy swore to me that he catches them in the 80lb range all the time.  I didn't believe him but later that summer I saw one laying up on the bank dead and half rotten.  He looked to be a solid 5 or 6 feet long and as big around as my waist.  Granted he was bloated and I was a good 30 yards away.  Perhaps it was a supersized long nose with the nose chewed off?  I didn't investigate because at the time I didn't really care.  This was before my bowfishing days.


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## Bow Only

I can't speak for Georgia, but in the Florida River just off the Apalachicola River, I once saw an 8 or 9 footer.  No one thought they were there either.


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## Nicodemus

Bow Only said:


> I can't speak for Georgia, but in the Florida River just off the Apalachicola River, I once saw an 8 or 9 footer.  No one thought they were there either.





Tom Mann had an alligator gar in his Fish World back in the mid 70s that he said he caught in Lake Seminole.


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## markland

There are gator gar in FL and probably some remnants in isolated areas in GA but not like they use to be.  I have seen them in that bay as well Matt, they looked like telephone poles laying out there from the bridge, but they are protected in FL.
Tom Mann use to have an aquarium in Eufaula and had a 70# gator gar in there that he caught out of Lake Eufaula back in the 70's sometime, but have not heard of anymore being seen or come out of that lake, more then likely it traveled up from Seminole and got locked in the lake.  Dams have limited the expansion of those fish on many rivers now so they are not able to spread or establish populations in many places they use to exist.


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