# Gar Eradication



## makoclay

I have a 1.5 acre tank just outside of El Campo. I stocked it with BG and LMB 2 years ago and have had good growth on both. Somehow I have gotten catfish and gar in my pond. I would like somebody to come out and try to remove them. There are at least 3 gar and 2 catfish. I just got rid of an alligator this week and now I want to get rid of these unwanted fish. 

Send me a PM if you are interested in trying to help me. I don't care if you fish for them or bow hunt. Today I found this fish. I can only assume that it was one of the gar since it was such a clean cut.

Thanks,
Clay


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## Sunbeam

Gar do not bite through like that. They are not shark type feeders. Their teeth are only designed to grasp and hold. They only catch what they can swallow whole.
That looks like fish that died of heat stress and then had a turtle or other bream feeding on it.
You might be able to get rid of the gar. I have a few in my 5 acre lake. So far I have not been able to catch or kill one. But honestly I do not think they are hurting any thing.
I purposely stocked 250 14" blue cats about three years ago just to keep the over population on bream and small bass in check. It is working out great. The bass are big and healthy. The little bream that were eating all of the small forage have been reduced.
In just 1 1/2 years you have not had enough time to see what a good spawn of bass or bream can do by over population.
You will need some sort of predator to help control over population in such a small pond.


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## joshdebo

x2 sunbeam!


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## makoclay

Subbeam, I agree that a turtle had been eating on it. It is obvious near the dorsal fin. The cut which took its tail looks is a very clean cut. If a turtle did do that, they sure are tidy eaters. I would have thought with the shape of a turtle's mouth, the cut would have been more jagged. Anyway, thanks for the info.

I am still trying to get all predators out of my pond. I just removed an alligator (http://2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showthread.php?t=350968&page=3). My plan is for the LMB and HSB to serve as the predators......see July 2009 below. I keep pumping the BG into the pond. The history below lists everything I have put into the pond. The only addition is that I added another 500 3" - 5" BG this spring. They aren't reflected below. I also don't know if the Tilapia made it through this last winter. The water was cold but I never saw any floating either. I suspect I lost some or all of them though.


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## BullyARed

You may checkfor a bullshark in your pond. It looks like it bit the brim off . BTW, I heard Japanese paid 20K-40K for an ali gar. It was on TPWD report few weeks ago?


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## big-john

I'm just guessing but could the catfish you've seen actually been bowfin?

I've never seen it but I've been told they can bite fish in half , clean like that.


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## gar11

Gar only eat fish whole. Stop blaming gar!


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## makoclay

gar, I eat my Oreos whole but when I bite down on one if it slips and I only bite into half of it, I wouldn't spit it out.

I'm still gonna kill every one that I can. I don't care if they eat half a fish or a whole one. It is still one less fish I have in my tank and I want them out.


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## gar11

makoclay said:


> gar, I eat my Oreos whole but when I bite down on one if it slips and I only bite into half of it, I wouldn't spit it out.
> 
> I'm still gonna kill every one that I can. I don't care if they eat half a fish or a whole one. It is still one less fish I have in my tank and I want them out.


I have two gar in my aquarium and never seen them bite perch in two pieces.
I am positive that is not a gar.They don't eat that much either. I feed them 6-8 small perch once every week.


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## bowfishrp

As the others said a gar did NOT bite that bream in half but not everyone loves gar like I do so if you want to get it out of your pond I dont blame you. I would say turtle too.


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## gar11

bowfishrp said:


> As the others said a gar did NOT bite that bream in half but not everyone loves gar like I do so if you want to get it out of your pond I dont blame you. I would say turtle too.


Are you kidding me? How do you like gar? All you do is slaughter them.


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## bbridges

Out f curiousity, why the tilapia aka nile perch?


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## texas two guns

Gar11 this is a "bowfishing" area, don't come in stirring the pot. What we do is completely legal.


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## NoTreeHuggerHere

Somehow, we ended up with a few tilapia in a pond and thought it was cool. Within a couple of years, they completely took over and starved the bass out. We had to completely drain the 5 acre pond and seine everything out. Had to start all over again. I think a neighbor thought it would be funny. The bass got real skinny and the only thing in the pond that would eat a lure were the tilapia. They fought pretty good, but the bass were more fun.

As for the gar, I would remove any and all cause despite what anyone says, they are definately gamefish killers. And yes, they can and do bite baitfish clean in two. They usually bite and eat whole, but I have seen them bite bass clean in two while bass fishing.


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## BullyARed

NoTreeHuggerHere said:


> Somehow, we ended up with a few tilapia in a pond and thought it was cool. Within a couple of years, they completely took over and starved the bass out. We had to completely drain the 5 acre pond and seine everything out. Had to start all over again. I think a neighbor thought it would be funny. The bass got real skinny and the only thing in the pond that would eat a lure were the tilapia. They fought pretty good, but the bass were more fun.
> 
> As for the gar, I would remove any and all cause despite what anyone says, they are definately gamefish killers. And yes, they can and do bite baitfish clean in two. They usually bite and eat whole, but I have seen them bite bass clean in two while bass fishing.


You could have made good money from those talapia. Just call an Asian market and they take them for you.


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## gar11

NoTreeHuggerHere said:


> Somehow, we ended up with a few tilapia in a pond and thought it was cool. Within a couple of years, they completely took over and starved the bass out. We had to completely drain the 5 acre pond and seine everything out. Had to start all over again. I think a neighbor thought it would be funny. The bass got real skinny and the only thing in the pond that would eat a lure were the tilapia. They fought pretty good, but the bass were more fun.
> 
> As for the gar, I would remove any and all cause despite what anyone says, they are definately gamefish killers. And yes, they can and do bite baitfish clean in two. They usually bite and eat whole, but I have seen them bite bass clean in two while bass fishing.


I dont believe you. Get a gar in your aquarium and see for yourself.I have one and they never bite fish in half.


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## bowfishrp

Asians? seriously? Tilapia is GREAT fish to eat. We shoot as many as we can to fill the freezer. Got a bunch of bags in there now. They taste better than flounder to me...their rib bones are tough on the knife though. Those so called tilapia at the grocery store are kind of nasty compared to the wild shot ones we take.

Yes, I shoot gar and I do eat them occasionally. I have had one in an aqaurium too and they are very cool...just grow very fast. No, I dont want to slaughter them...what would we shoot then?


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## kabob

sorry new guy buttin in ...... could you possible have another gator lurking around you already took one of them out that could have bit that fish in half ........... I dont know just sayin :brew:


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## RLwhaler

bowfishrp said:


> Asians? seriously? Tilapia is GREAT fish to eat. We shoot as many as we can to fill the freezer. Got a bunch of bags in there now. They taste better than flounder to me...their rib bones are tough on the knife though. Those so called tilapia at the grocery store are kind of nasty compared to the wild shot ones we take.


I fully agree about the grocery store tilapia,Gotta try me some wild shot one soon!Thanks for the tip.

RL


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## NoTreeHuggerHere

gar11 said:


> I dont believe you. Get a gar in your aquarium and see for yourself.I have one and they never bite fish in half.


I really don't give a **** if you believe me. Pick up a bass rod and spend the hours on the water I have and you might learn something new!


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## FISHROADIE

NoTreeHuggerHere said:


> I really don't give a **** if you believe me. Pick up a bass rod and spend the hours on the water I have and you might learn something new!


My neighber owned a 6 acre lake behind me there were gar and grinnel in there they did not impact the bass fishing. You have to have some predators in there or take some fish out every now and then. Or the bass will overpopulate, and become stunted and you will end up with small bass. I know you dont give a [email protected]#k, but you should not ask for advice and then get upset over the coments. The only way you will for sure get all the gar out of you pond is to sein net them all out and even then you might not get them all. Bass in a ponds get use to seeing the same lures every day and get wise after awhile. Try some large minnows and see what happens. Small ponds can be hard to manage and things can change in them over the years. Good luck.


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## NoTreeHuggerHere

FISHROADIE said:


> My neighber owned a 6 acre lake behind me there were gar and grinnel in there they did not impact the bass fishing. You have to have some predators in there or take some fish out every now and then. Or the bass will overpopulate, and become stunted and you will end up with small bass. I know you dont give a [email protected]#k, but you should not ask for advice and then get upset over the coments. The only way you will for sure get all the gar out of you pond is to sein net them all out and even then you might not get them all. Bass in a ponds get use to seeing the same lures every day and get wise after awhile. Try some large minnows and see what happens. Small ponds can be hard to manage and things can change in them over the years. Good luck.


I don't know if you are speaking to me or the original poster but I will say that your right, you need to manage your pond to keep your bass from overpopulating, but gar are the wrong fish for the job. If you don't keep them in check, they will take over and then you will have a ton of gar and a dead pond.


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## gar11

NoTreeHuggerHere said:


> I don't know if you are speaking to me or the original poster but I will say that your right, you need to manage your pond to keep your bass from overpopulating, but gar are the wrong fish for the job. If you don't keep them in check, they will take over and then you will have a ton of gar and a dead pond.


They won't take over at all. I have a 2 acre pond full of large healthy bass and have a few gar in there. They will not over populate and they will only eat the small bass leaving a healthy pond instead of have small bass overpopulating your pond if that is what you want.


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## NoTreeHuggerHere

gar11 said:


> They won't take over at all. I have a 2 acre pond full of large healthy bass and have a few gar in there. They will not over populate and they will only eat the small bass leaving a healthy pond instead of have small bass overpopulating your pond if that is what you want.


Trolling maybe? I surely don't have a clue what I'm talking about so I will bow out now and let you argue with someone else. Have fun!


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## gar11

Dude, I'm just telling you facts.


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