(Lewis) A Modale, Iowa man has set a new state record for longnose gar. Marvin Watts caught a 56.5-inch gar that weighed 24.1 pounds, surpassing the previous record by 1.9 pounds. DNR Fisheries Biologist John Lorenzen reports that Watts used a bow to capture the gar in the Missouri River in Pottawattamie County.
Lorenzen says Gars are prehistoric, cylindrical fish with long snouts and numerous prominent teeth. The longnose gar is named for its distinctively long, narrow snout: the least width of the snout goes about 15 to 20 times into its length, and the width of the snout at the nostrils is less than the eye diameter. Gars can breathe air if they are in water with low dissolved oxygen. The large teeth on the upper jaw are in single rows on each side.
This species’ coloration is brown to dark olive above, and it grades to white on the belly. The unpaired fins have numerous roundish black spots, and specimens from clear water often also have spots on the body.
(File Photo: Not the Record Breaking Fish)
