Big Bass Fishing Reports and more from the 200 lakes and rivers around Oklahoma
You know, there is something about the word "hoax" that is unsavory. It suggests someone took a trick picture of a smaller gar and made it look like a monster.Hoax or no hoax, this is the scariest looking gar I have EVER seen. My grandpa and my uncle both used to fish the St. Francis River in Arkansas for a living, so I have seen and heard about gars most of my life. I have a photo of a gar caught in 1958 in Lakeview, MS by a family friend who made nets. On the back it says "10 1/2 foot gar, 465 pounds." Only the length is verifiable, and then only by comparing it to the 6' tall fisherman who caught it. It does not look as scary as the "hoax" gar, because its upper bill was shot or chopped off. That's what they used to do when they brought one of these monsters up to the boat. At any rate, since the tendency nowadays is to find fault, even with a catch as spectacular and obvious as the "Broken Bow Gar", I'll just keep my picture to myself and share it from time to time with friends and family.
The word hoax was used because there is a website claiming the gar as coming from a particular lake in Oklahoma and being bigger than it actually was - all to generate business for the site owner. The photo is real, but it is a Texas record. And yes, it's one, big ugly fish!
During the 1950's my dad and a friend of his use to fish for alligator gar in the White River around DeWitt, AR. In fact, they use to guide taking people fishing for gar. I have many pictures from that time showing gar as big as 15 feet long. They also had a story published in Sports Afield during the 50's.
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3 comments:
You know, there is something about the word "hoax" that is unsavory. It suggests someone took a trick picture of a smaller gar and made it look like a monster.
Hoax or no hoax, this is the scariest looking gar I have EVER seen. My grandpa and my uncle both used to fish the St. Francis River in Arkansas for a living, so I have seen and heard about gars most of my life. I have a photo of a gar caught in 1958 in Lakeview, MS by a family friend who made nets. On the back it says "10 1/2 foot gar, 465 pounds." Only the length is verifiable, and then only by comparing it to the 6' tall fisherman who caught it. It does not look as scary as the "hoax" gar, because its upper bill was shot or chopped off. That's what they used to do when they brought one of these monsters up to the boat. At any rate, since the tendency nowadays is to find fault, even with a catch as spectacular and obvious as the "Broken Bow Gar", I'll just keep my picture to myself and share it from time to time with friends and family.
The word hoax was used because there is a website claiming the gar as coming from a particular lake in Oklahoma and being bigger than it actually was - all to generate business for the site owner. The photo is real, but it is a Texas record. And yes, it's one, big ugly fish!
During the 1950's my dad and a friend of his use to fish for alligator gar in the White River around DeWitt, AR. In fact, they use to guide taking people fishing for gar. I have many pictures from that time showing gar as big as 15 feet long. They also had a story published in Sports Afield during the 50's.
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