Question about dressing Gar?????

[fishinfranklin]

Can anyone tell me the proper way to dress out Gar fish?? I have seen it done as a kid by my uncle Frank there in Alexander La. and allways love to see it come out his cooker!!! People here in Ga. think that I have lost my mind wanting to dress an eat Gar. My goal is to go catch a few and at the next fish fry,Cook them up and just put it with the rest of the fish and see who eats it. Do you have to bleed them??? Do you scale or skin them?? And any good tips on cooking them?? It's been years since I have ate any myself and looking forward to it!!! And what size Gar are the best to eat smaller one's or bigger around 20-30lbs???

[eclark53520]

Male or Female?

You can put the female's in jeans...but putting a skirt on the males will make them extremely angry.

[TakeSonFishing]

How I remember doing it as a poor coonass kid growing up on the gulf coast;
We would felette the smaller ones. Then cut out any of the greasy off collided meet. I.e. The belly,fin,and meet close to the spine. Then cut that into chunks, wash very well then soak in water overnight. Then rinse and squeeze/massage tge meet under running fresh water. Trying to squeeze any oil out u can. You can fry it from there but we also soaked it in butter milk. Not sure why.

The bigger gar 5-100lbs we would make gar balls and use a pressure cooker. Not fried.  I would also be a little apprehensive about eating the big ones. Seems like they would be full of mercury.

Tips on picture perfect, moist, fried fish. Pre cleaned felets up to 3/4" thick. Layout on towel and pat dry. Dip in egg wash (few eggs and some water, wisked) coat in seasoned fish fry, lightly shake off excess, fry 2.5 to 3 min each side or until golden brown in deep fat fryer.  Place fried fish on pie cooling rack not papertowels. This allowed the grease to drip off keeping your batter from falling off or getting soft. Oh and as your oil is heating up put a piece of onion in it. When it starts to fry it's ready for fish. Don't let your oil get too hot. Will burn batter remnants and the oil. 

[coldfront]

you will want a hacksaw, tin snips and pliers. 

Most folks I know who prepare these things (here they are either long nose or spotted) just take the 'loins' the strips of meat along the back and leave the rest...

here are a couple recipes to look through... http://hillbillyhaven.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gamecookin&action=display&thread=5057

many guys around here prefer to take the 'backstraps/loins'...cube them up, boil them and serve with melted butter...indicate the meat has a bit more texture than most fish...but indicate they taste good (some say 'great')

[fishinfranklin]

Thanks guys!!! I can just remember eating them as a kid and loved it. I have cought a few lately in the river in the 25-40lb size. And really want to fry some up at the next fish fry we have.