On Thursday, September 2, 1999 at 2:00:00 AM UTC-5, Chip Taylor wrote:   
   > In article <37CEC30E.BA4AF621@iamerica.net>, TMOliver    
   wrote:   
   >    
   >    
   > >   
   > >A number of 'merkin rivers are inhabited by a variety of brands of gar,   
   > >some of which are rumored/have been caught/typical fish-taled to rech   
   > >man size.  They don't look like sturgeon, suck up dinner off the bottom   
   > >(as do paddle fish, the paddle for shoveling), and are not good to eat   
   > >(except in " and garballs", favored in Louisiana, where they eat all   
   > >sorts and conditions of acquatic critters).   
   > >   
   >    
   > Gar can indeed reach lengths of 6 feet or longer, especially if you include    
   > the long, saw-toothed bill in the equation.  The "greenback" or "alligator"    
   > gar that I used to catch in the Tennessee River as a kid were pretty   
   fearsome    
   > creatures.   
   >    
   > Chip "and that ain't no fish tale" Taylor   
   >    
   >    
   > God, grant me the Senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the   
   > good fortune to run into the ones I do, and the eyesight to tell the   
   > difference.   
      
   I used to bowfish for carp and gar (I mostly got into it because I had an   
   older cousin who owned catfish ponds, and someone had released a few carp into   
   them.  He asked me to kill as many carp as I could).     
      
   I went to a river in north Alabama when I was 12 or 13, and had been   
   bowfishing for 4 or 5 years. I spotted some gar swimming around in the 1-3   
   foot range.  There were also some logs floating just under the surface.  I   
   missed a 3 foot gar, and hit a log    
   about 10 feet long.  The damned log swam away.  I grabbed my rod and yanked   
   back hard, and that stupid gar broke 50# line like it was nothing, and swam   
   away with one of my best bowfishing arrows.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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