Quote Originally Posted by Gigmaster View Post
You'll need an axe, or tomahawk (I always carry one fishing), a pair of tin snips, gloves, some rope, and a very sharp fillet knife.

Start by cutting the head and tail off the gar with the tomahawk/axe. Then using the rope, hang it in a tree, head-down, and let all the blood run out. Next, using the tin snips, split the gar's armored hide all the way down. either on the belly, or the back. Using gloves to protect your hands, pliers, and a knife when necesary, peel the hide from the meat. Now, just fillet the meat from the backbone just as you would any other fish, and cut it into loin strips.

Now, you can freeze it, smoke it, fry it, stew it, or any other way you wish to fix it. When cooked, the meat is white, flakey and tastes a lot like crappie.

Bon apetit.
I have no problem cleaning he fish, I have an issue with the meat itself. Between each flake of meat there is a cartilage in gar meat. It's been years since I tried to eat the stuff but it was like crewing a rubber ball. While there armour plating does take some special technique to clean, the butchering isn't the problem.

Maybe I'm not describing it very well. But go out to your next Friday night fish fry and order baked cod. Now we are looking at a single piece of fish on your plate. Pick it up and break it in half. Where it breaks in half on gar flesh is where the cartilage is and inbetween each and every spot where it would break in half. I'm referring to these as flakes of flesh. Where the meat is segmented when cooked.

Now carp I have eaten and it isn't bad. I think that it is more between our ears than the taste on our tongue when eating it. I personally don't care for salmon, but that is another story.

Brook trout, bluegills and walleyes = something wonderful to eat in moderation.

Rick