Are Alligator Garfish Dangerous?

Did you know that garfish were once considered “more dangerous to humans than sharks”.

An article written by garfish expert Keith Sutton notes that the May 7, 1884 edition of the “Arkansas Gazette,” states, “While a boy named Perry was fishing in Shoal Creek, Logan County, a gar fish caught his right leg, which was hanging over the side of the boat in the water, and pulled him overboard. His companions rescued him, but not before the leg was terribly lacerated.”

A few years ago, I found a reference to a 1922 article in the New Orleans Times Picayune that said garfish are, “more dangerous to humans than sharks”. 

During that period, it was common to throw table scraps out around boat docks and that gar became conditioned to this and that any so-called “attacks” were probably related to someone soaking their feet among the food and not the result of human bloodlust on the gar’s part. 

In fact, the only verified gar attack I can find in modern times happened last year on Lake Corpus Christi. A woman named Joanne Garcia had her feet cooling in the water when a gar bit it.

Texas Parks & Wildlife Game Warden Lerrin Johnson said the following to KRISTV6 .

“I’ve not locally heard of any cases of this,” she said. “But, talking with some other wardens who have worked in east Texas, where we have higher populations of gar, they have heard of cases where people get nibbled on by alligator gar on their fingers or on their toes, where the gar mistake them for little fish.”

The reputation of gar as a game fish population destroyer is almost as unfounded rumors of human attacks.

In 1987, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) TPWD biologist Paul Seidensticker conducted a study called “Food Selection of Alligator Gar and Longnose Gar in a Texas Reservoir” on Sam Rayburn. By using jug lines and gillnets he and his team captured 209 alligator gar from September through October weighing from 18 to 156 pounds. Most of their stomachs were empty.

Of those that did have food in their bellies, gizzard shad made up 26.4 percent of their diet, channel catfish, 14.9, freshwater drum, 12.6, bluegill 7.9, spotted sucker, 6.8, white bass, 4.5, largemouth bass, 3.4, spotted gar, 3.4, crappie, 2.2, lake chubsucker, 2.2 and carp, 1.1. Other items include two coots, 11 fishhooks, an artificial lure and a plastic bag.

“Gar really are outcasts that are misunderstood. They have unlimited potential as sportfish but have unfortunately suffered in the court of public opinion,” said Craig Springer with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Prime examples are the past gar tournaments that were hold on lakes to help rid the waterways of them as to “save” game fish populations from their predatory wrath and sell them on the market. Author Smokey Crabtree used to win many of these tournaments by fishing in the Sulphur River bottoms in Arkansas.

“We would catch them six and seven feet long and have them all stacked like cordwood. It was a sight to behold,” he said.

Crabtree would utilize jug lines baited with live carp in the two to five pound range to catch car sometimes in excess of 200 pounds.

Whether killers or not encountering one of those while wading into a river might be a bit scary or really cool depending on your perspective.

Chester Moore