steveangela1

My fil had a couple of the TN Fishing guides (2008 edition) I don't know if the gar can be found on the tn wildlife website or not but but it would be worth a shot to look, anyways, in case you all cannot read the small letters around the fish:

The alligator gar (max weight 300lbs lenth up to 10 feet) then over to the side it says the snout is short and wide.

The next fish is the shortnose gar (max weight 5lbs lenth up to 32in) snout short and narrow

The next fish is the longnose gar btw this is the one rampid in the lake a mile away from my house, (max weight 50lb lenth up to 78in, tn state record 38lb) long slender snout

spotted gar (max weight 12lb lenth up to 44in) spotted head


They also have notations for us to release any alligator gar we catch, and report it to the twra to help restore a lost fish. It is a protected gar in TN.

Rbacchiega

neat page...not entirely accurate, but neat nonetheless.. ... those sizes would be more wild caught specimens...and there are better ways to distinguish between species.

steveangela1

That is wild gar, its from our fisheries book. The gar can grow to those lenths/weights and yes that is accurate I have seen the longnose at 5 feet before on average in our lake, I have grown up on this lake.
For identifing these fish in the wild looking at the shape of the snout, color, lenth that is the way to identify them.

By the way upon more research on the alligator gar, I guess it is not accurate, they have been caught larger than 300lbs in the southern US. This is an endangered and protected fish in TN.

Rbacchiega

wooooops. my bad. That's what you get for posting while hungover LOL.