Friday’s are when fish are on the menu both at Wisconsin restaurants and your trusty blog. Today, we’re taking a break from our “Fishes of Wisconsin” challenge and mixing things up with a more “southern-fried” piece on alligator gar via the World Fishing Network’s blog.
“If a fish can be said to have a public image then the biggest switch from a bad one to a good one has occurred in the image of the alligator gar,” wrote Matilda Tuohey (in 1962). “In the last 20 years or so the picture of the big and ugly gar has changed from that of a dangerous predator which must be eliminated to the glamorous but still ugly object of exciting sport fishing. Instead of encouraging wholesale slaughter, the parts of the state which promote gar fishing are now becoming concerned about the decreasing population of the gar.”
Unfortunately, by this time, says former alligator gar guide John Fox, now of Ocklawaha, Florida, the big fish already had disappeared from some of the state’s rivers. Continue reading –>