Those other fish
Phil Taunton
Friday, February 27, 2009
Non-sport fish can make for some darn fine “gar-met cookin.” They are hard fighting and also provide cross training for you to hone your skills and ability to land your favorite species.
Most Kansas anglers spend their time trying to catch what is known as sport fish — crappie, sunfish, walleye and, of course, the various species of bass and catfish. But do you know some non-sport fish such as carp, buffalo, drum and even gar can be just as fun to catch, and, if prepared right, become excellent table fare?
Leonard Jirak, who gave a cleaning and cooking demonstration concerning the consumption of “rough fish,” proved just that to a standing-room fish-hungry crowd last Tuesday at the Kansas Wildlife and Parks fishing education night.
Leonard’s cooking presentation reminded me of one of my favorite outdoor experiences.
If you ever caught a fish with an elongated body that resembled a snake, covered with very hard scales and had skin tough enough to make a good pair of cowboy boots, chances are you just hooked a gar. We have three species in our area: The short-nosed gar, the long-nosed one and the spotted gar. Most fishermen just want to get it off their hook so they can continue fishing or to just get away from it, period. This prehistoric fish can be very intimidating and I personally would hate to experience its teeth on the end of one of my fingers. Several years ago I was determined to clean and cook one to see just what it would taste like.
As stories go, I had been told gar were full of bones and not very tasty, but I also had been told they never had any bones, only a gristle-like cartilage and, if cleaned and cooked right, they were good to eat. I had also been told you needed tin-snips in order to clean one — its hide is that tough. I found the trick to cleaning a gar is to first divide the body into sections with an ax or corn knife and then use a filet knife to separate the meat from the skin without cutting through the skin or scales.
How did I come up with such a prize you might ask? Well, what are friends for? I had gone down to the Neosho River on north Prairie to see if the white bass had returned to spawn. There, I met a fisherman who was locked into battle with a large carp. Bill was expertly handling the fish on light tackle, but as it neared the rapids, we both knew there was no way he could keep control of the fish. I introduced myself and then waded in and helped him land it. It was ironic that another fisherman named John had helped me with a large white bass in the same location just a week or two earlier.
Bill told me that I was welcome to the fish and, since I have had some success smoking them on the gas grill, I eagerly accepted it. He also told me he hadn’t caught any white bass or walleye but had managed to snag a couple of gar, which he released. I told him gar was really what I had wanted to try and, if he caught another, I would like to throw it on the smoker along with his carp. No such luck. After fishing for a while and exchanging lies (I mean fishing stories), it became apparent the white bass run on this section of the river was set back due to recent rains and high water.
Just as I was about to bid my adieu, I hooked and landed a nice four pound walleye and offered it to Bill in exchange for his carp. He graciously turned it down, but from the way he looked at me, I knew my sanity was being questioned. What else is new? I get the same look from Wifeus almost every day!
I was just finishing up cleaning the carp and walleye at home when the bird dogs, who had been leisurely wallowing on the lawn, began raising a ruckus and ran to the side of the house, where they encountered John. This was the fisherman who had helped me land a fish a couple of weeks earlier and he was now trying to fight his way through the jungle I call my backyard wildlife habitat conservation area. John said he had just come from the river, where he heard a story about some fool wanting a gar. I guess he figured it had to be me! He had managed to land one that was 4 1/2 feet long, weighing somewhere between 15 and 20 pounds. With a grin on his face, John asked me if it would fit the bill. Needless to say, the lead head jig and orange Twister tail was still hooked in this fish’s mouth, being guarded by all those teeth!
Well, if you are going to talk the talk, you got to walk the walk (or something like that), so I began the task of cleaning my first gar. No tin-snips, just cut the fish in sections and core out the meat with a filet knife. And I mean to say, this fish had a lot of meat. It does have bones that can be cut out and the flesh is actually whiter than most catfish. Take note though, their roe is poisonous and should be discarded. There is also a sheath around the flesh that should be cut out and thrown away.
The gar and half the walleye were shared with another friend who deep-fried the bounty for supper that very night. Nothing like fresh fish for dinner! He said his family was doing pretty good on it until he told them some of the filets were gar. That statement knocked their fish-eating enthusiasm down a notch or two. I’m glad we’re still friends, but I don’t see much of his family anymore!!!