Gar are stocked in some bodies of water to control very large, stunted, panfish populations.

I realize it is sometimes said gar are stocked for that reason, but have not found a nursery providing them, and so far no modern examples of prescribing gar stocking. We have far more effective chemical controls followed by total restocking of ponds. Could you link me to a current example of a fisheries biologist prescribing gar for controlling "very large" panfish or stunted panfish? Very large ones tend to attract panfishing patrons. if stunted they indicate a nutrition problem such that no other gamefish would survive if the undesirable fish species were removed.

The keyword is "pond", not a natural lake or river where restoring an endangered gar species is the situation. I can't imagine any pond owner aiming at feeding some gar their stunted or overgrown panfish. Once the panfish are removed you would have a pond full of gar. I don't think I've heard of a pond owner raising gar on purpose. To have gamefish reintroduced would require a pond deadening and restocking.

For about 6 years one of my jobs was to evaluate farmsteads towards owners qualifying for federal and state cost share funding to improve the environment. I found many pond owners who had to accept really bad news, having done some dumb things like introduce a hardy predator fish to try fixing problems. "Well, my neighbor swore by it." All it takes is a little bucket of the wrong fish or exotic crayfish. Introducing gar into a closed pond system could result in having to spend tens of thousands of dollars to repair the damage, or abandon the pond except using as a stock pond. If it's to deep even that use might require some filling in so cattle can use it.

From my angle I still have a want-to to try preventing bad mistakes, though retired and out of that loop. Even if a fisheries biologist were to recommend gar, I'd get a second opinion. A much cheaper and rewarding way of removing oversized panfish would be to seine them out and maybe donate them to a homeless shelter. Put desirable fish over the seine to swim again.

I'd like to say that lots of advice given here probably gets carried out without researching the advice as applicable to some local area. Anyone giving advice needs to consider that possibility. Most counties have access to university agri dept county agents that can at least send you to a professional that knows what's best for your area.

Off the stump now.

Definately bow fishing. You don't need a real strong bow, anything from 25-40 lb draw works great. It also works great on tilapia.
><>Jake<><

That would do, if you know how. It takes a lot more skill to shoot em right.

best way to take care of your gar "problem" is to harvest them. using a basic river rig to fish off the bottom with a 5/0 circle sea hook and a min. of a 12 inch steel leader (a few dollars for a pack). best bait is a live bluegil. the gar will come up to the bait, chew on it for a while, and then once he finds the hook he will fight hard. You just have to be patient sometimes because I have had a gar on the line for up to ten minutes before he found the hook and really started to fight. if you attempt to set the hook before the hook is entirely in his mouth he will drop the bait and leave. when you are trying to land these beasts, I have found that a lip grabber(I use a 50 pound lipper scale when fishing) is much better than a net. it also makes it easier to control the fish while you use your needle nose pliers to extract the hook. these guys can be really energetic once you get them on the bank (or in the boat) so its a challenge until you learn how to read them. keeping the gar in a water system, as has been said before, can benefit the balance of fish populations. But you also need to control them, because it is frustrating as hell when you want to cat some game fish (i.e. catfish and bass) and all that bits are gar. so my advice, keep a gar every once and a while so that the populations dont boom and hurt the fish you want to keep popular. gar have nice backstraps and can taste pretty good if you cook em up right. I have gone with some friends to an area where we caught over a dozen gar per person within a few hours. we ended up frying those beasts in a cajun batter. almost as good as some southern catfish!

Wait, so some of you goofballs consider Gar to be a junk fish or "ugly" or a "dinosaur fish?" They are awesome! I don't fish for them I live up North but I know Gar are a great fish and why not leave them alone and let them grow in your pond? They are already endangered from what I understand and one could argue that they are a better game fish than bass considering they are much more difficult to catch and much larger! I say give this fish the proper respect if you are a true angler.

,Never saw a bass get that big...