hook and line is great for the bigger ones. light saltwater/heavy fresh tackle on the banks of the St. John's river in FL yields a crazy variety of fish and catching Gars, Stingrays, Largemouths and channel cats all in the same spot felt weird the 1st time. I was shocked there were stingrays that far upriver, probably 200+ miles from the mouth. I heard Gar tastes really delicious
Good that you keep your fish to eat but I still don't understand why DNRs don't either legalize the shooting of all non-threatened species or completely illegalize bowfishing. If you can shoot Buffalo, you should be able to shoot Bass as well. If you can't shoot Bass, then you shouldn't be allowed to shoot Buffalo. Largemouth are just as prolific as Bigmouth Buffalo so I suppose they also need "management" for their populations to thrive.
What species of Gar are you catching down there? I heard there's supposed to be Shortnose in certain places which would be an awesome catch!
I'm still not positive 10 years later, but I have narrowed it down to a native FL species that grows over 36". You got a candidate in mind?
honestly, forget the gar, the size of the Plecos down there would make your head spin. We snorkeled and swam in the springs the manatees use for the winter, where the water comes out 72F all 12 months/365 days....Don't ever let anyone tell you Plecos can't grow over 3 feet. I swear I swam with some that had to be close to 4'.
To be honest, I think you're a little nutty and extremely radical. Compare a walleye to a sucker is like compare apples to oranges. Most roughfish species are not that good to eat, other than smoked or pickling. Also most roughfish are less likely to be caught on a line and hook and there is great numbers of them remained unharvested. It is naive for you to comparing a buffalo to a bass in terms of fishing and palatability, who the hell anyone would eat a buffalo if they ain't in clean waters? I've eaten buffaloes before and they're not that great. You would puke if you ate a buffalo or drum. Most buffaloes i caught were snagged. Not on the mouth. Sturgeons/catfish are technically gamefish, not roughfish. Let's be realistic, you can't get the public to eat these less palatable fish and make them as sportfish.
I love it! The backstraps ain't bad. Just not much meat since the gars here ain't big.
I know that I am radical, and I could say the same about you, but at least I'm radical about defending fish and not killing them! Bigmouth Buffalo taste great if they come from the right waters, and if you've never tried fried Great Lakes Drum then I urge you to give it a try before you judge it!
Dive master, I'm far from radical and I just find it to be funny when you're compare a buffalo to a walleye. It's like compare a vulture to a chicken or an old male wild boar to a commercial pig. Sure they're palatable, doesn't mean they're delicious. Yes I had drum, but only less 15" ones and they're good. Big ones is no-good, tastes like a common carp. I've had buffaloes from clean waters and they're no better than buffaloes from dirty waters. I'm all for managing the healthy ecosystems, that means killing some fish to balance them out. It's all about have common senses. But you have to realize that not all fish are made to be delicious. What do you think why the common carps were abandoned as a food fish when we came to the America.
Hmm, well that rolls out Floridas and Spotteds and to my knowledge there's no 'gator had in FL (I could be wrong though) so they're either Longnose, Shortnose, or a mix of both.
