Gar Identification
Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2004 12:42 pm
I was talking last night with Legend and he brought up the topic of Gar. He was curious if Gar Pike and Spotted Gar were the same thing. The concern was that the spotted gar are listed as endangered! I didn't know the answer and having one from this spring hanging on my wall....it got me extremely interested in this querry. So I did some reading.
There are in fact 4 kinds of gar. (gar pike is not a correct name, more of a nick name given to the fish because of it's slender body shape) I was pleased to learn that the gar we commonly catch here are Longnose Gar...and that is of coarse what I have on my wall!
The spotted gar are also found in the great lakes, but are extremely rare and are protected. Here is brief discription of each.
Longnose Gar
Lepisosteus is Greek, meaning "bony scale," and osseus is Latin, meaning "of bone." Longnose gar are distinguished from other gar species found in Texas by the long snout whose length is at least 10 times the minimum width.
Spotted Gar
Lepisosteus is Greek, meaning "bony scale," and oculatus is Latin, meaning "provided with eyes." This last is probably a reference to the many dark spots on the head and body. Spotted gar may be distinguished from other gar species by the dark roundish spots on the top of the head, the pectoral fins and on the pelvic fins.
I thought this was an interesting question from Legend and I'm guessing a lot of folks are not aware of the protected spotted gar.
There are in fact 4 kinds of gar. (gar pike is not a correct name, more of a nick name given to the fish because of it's slender body shape) I was pleased to learn that the gar we commonly catch here are Longnose Gar...and that is of coarse what I have on my wall!
The spotted gar are also found in the great lakes, but are extremely rare and are protected. Here is brief discription of each.
Longnose Gar
Lepisosteus is Greek, meaning "bony scale," and osseus is Latin, meaning "of bone." Longnose gar are distinguished from other gar species found in Texas by the long snout whose length is at least 10 times the minimum width.
Spotted Gar
Lepisosteus is Greek, meaning "bony scale," and oculatus is Latin, meaning "provided with eyes." This last is probably a reference to the many dark spots on the head and body. Spotted gar may be distinguished from other gar species by the dark roundish spots on the top of the head, the pectoral fins and on the pelvic fins.
I thought this was an interesting question from Legend and I'm guessing a lot of folks are not aware of the protected spotted gar.
Excellent research chum.
It would have been nice if our friends at the MNR would have been kind enough to include a description in the regs. I wonder how many of these things are actually out there?