Interlock, Those are called Gar. Alligator gar get to be huge, but these only make it to around 4-5ft long. They are useful only as fertilizer for the garden.
A little tough to get the skin off, but gar are good eating! I have bow hunted and just got a Hoyt compound off the net to replace my recurve that broke and I'm going to get back into it. Already adapted my fishing set up to the bow and practiced with the harpoon in the back yard. I'm a lot more accurate with the compound than I ever was with the recurve, so I'm pretty pumped about getting back into bow fishing as well as hunting during archery season this year. We have one of the better rivers for bow fishing here, too, the Navidad below Lake Texana dam in Jackson county, Texas. It's about 20 minutes up the road from my house to the boat ramp where I put in.
The meat is a little tough, not like fish, but the spittin' image of alligator meat IMHO. You can slice it into little chunks and fry it like they do with alligator meat at the restaurants and I don't know if you could tell the difference. Also, the cajuns make gar balls by grinding the meat, rolling it up with eggs and spices into balls and breading, then frying. My wife is half cajun and, well, I've eaten some fine gar balls.
See, that's really why I don't wanna move from here. We have some of the best salt water fishing, some of the best bow fishing, some of the best waterfowling, some of the best deer and hog hunting, and some decent dove hunting, and fresh water fishing (mostly for cat fish, not bass) in Texas. I mean, this area is Mecca for the outdoorsman and I don't live a bazillion miles from nowhere like those Alaska guys.
Hell, I have a super walmart down the street within walking distance. How good can it get for a redneck, anyway? ROFL
Couple of more of my buddy's boy. I toss in a couple of scenic shots I took while dove hunting on my buddy's place north of Waco a couple of years ago.
about how long it takes to skin out a hog.
