My New Wild FL/Spotted Gar & BowFin

[mrwinkle]

My Wife and I when fishing yesterday and caught two fish very quickly that sent us home early. Her first catch was this 18" Bowfin, seen below. Her second was a 16" FL or Spotted Gar, I am not sure which one it is. I say her because i didn't catch anything, because i was preoccupied with baiting the rods for my wife. She screamed: "I GOT ONE!!!!!!!" as she quickly landed the enormous Bowfin and brought it over to me to unhook it. It was the first and largest i had ever seen. Five mins later after taking my freshly baited rod she screams: "I caught a baby one!!!!" Which was followed by: "I CAUGHT A GAR!!!!!". This was truely the best catch of the evening because we already have a 8" FL Gar in our 300g. So we thought i was best to end the evening on that spectacular note.

Here are some pics, they are a little fuzzy. I don't own a DSLR, YET
Tell me what you think.

 

[kevinfleming21]

Way cool, bowfin will get HUGE though. What size tank do you have now?

 

[mrwinkle]

Way cool, bowfin will get HUGE though. What size tank do you have now?

i have them in a 110g temp tank for now the will be moved to my 300g in a little while

 

[SpJc11]

be sure they dont have parasite or you could be looking at a huge lose if they spread

 

[mrwinkle]

most defiantly what do you recommend i do to kill the parasites?

 

[tankboi]

Beautiful WC native specimens!

 

[Ego Sum Lupus]

Awesome what did you catch them on? Was it at a lock or spillway?

 

[iloveoscars702]

yeah def treat them for parasites, but if i remember gars dont handle some medications so well, so id watch em closely before adding them to the main tank.

 

[AOmonsta]

Nice catches man. I see your from GA. Where did you catch these guys?

And the gar looks to be a Fla.

 

[Rays of Sunshine]

Hey mrwinkle, you got your natives!!!! Let me know how they do in the 300!!!.

On Wednesday and Thursday that passed, I have all the fish I wanted except for the pumpkinseed on long-ear sunfish. I don't think I will have room even when I get the 300!! I bought 5 warmouth from aquabid(thanks to you got them on Wed. and I caught a blue gill. I went fishing with my Dad on Thurs. caught 2 more Warmouths, 1 large mouth bass and another blue gill, all of them went in the tank. WHEW!!!

So far all are getting along, the dominant blue gill is trying to throw it's weight around with the warmouths. Dad caught a common musk turtle, it's living with my other 4.

I should have the 300 by the end of August.