Just for future reference... Wet the table down or the surface in which you measure the fish.. Dry surfaces are not good for the fish to be on. When you see photos like Solomons or mine that show the fish on a board we wet the surface and reduce handling as much as possible during the process. We also do this very quickly and try to get the fish in water as quickly as we can. Gars produce ridiculously large amounts of slime on their scales but this can be breached quickly under the conditions shown here. If it is striped to much this can lead to infection in short order.
Otherwise always keep the fish and the surface wet....
