How to Clean a Gar Fish

Drive a nail in the head to keep it stationary when you hit under the dorsal fin and along the back. I used a hachet because that's what I've always seen but the ones we would catch were 150+ pounds. I think I'm going to use some snips next time and just cut down the center.






After you remove the strip from the back, take a knife and run it along the scales. They’re very tough and you won’t cut through them so stay on the scale side and don't risk losing any meat. This picture shows when I started.






Here’s what you’ll end up with. You can roll it out. It's a big tenderloin-looking piece of meat. It is picture still in the scales after I'd run a knife along and separated the meat.






I've never had gar balls. I hear it's very good like that. We always chilled it, cut it into steaks and threw it on the pit. I'm not a white meat guy but bar-b-qued gar is pretty white. VERY good flavor and almost melts in your mouth.