Alligator gar is the focus for Mark Spitzer
In an American literature classic, Captain Ahab had an obsession about a whale, Moby Dick.
In real life, Mark Spitzer of Conway has focused intently on alligator gars, and one result is his highly entertaining book, “The Season of the Gar,” published by the University of Arkansas Press.
Spitzer teaches writing at the University of Central Arkansas, and his book accomplishes what probably most writers can’t achieve. He blends scientific facts, debunks persistent myths, works in environmental messages and keeps you chuckling and shaking a head.
Yes, he has a passion for gars in general and alligator gars in particular. He has pursued them widely, mostly in the South because that’s where most of today’s alligator gars are. They once were much more widely spread.
Spitzer, who lives at Lake Conway with wife Robin, even has a pet gar at his home — but it’s not an alligator gar.
Alligator gars today are scarce in Arkansas, largely due to human assaults on them. Mot prolific in reproduction, alligator gars drew heavy interest in Arkansas in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. People who called themselves sportsmen came from all over to fish or hunt for them, especially in the lower White River.
The general thought was killing an alligator gar was a service, a benefit to game fish populations. A prominent Texas official devised a method of electrocuting gator gars and boating of dispatching hundreds of them.
Science in the form of fish biology has proven the belief that alligator gars are menaces is off base. Research has shown that alligator gar food is almost entirely rough fish like carp, including minnows, and other aquatic life. Seldom is evidence of a game fish found in a gar stomach.
Spitzer tells it accurately and gently. You don’t plod through this and other portions of his book. You accept the real information, the correcting of those longstanding and lurid myths about gars.
At the same time, “Season of the Gars” has you laughing about this educated fellow, this professor who has worked in Paris (France, not Arkansas ) in Shakespeare educational pursuits.
He makes long-distance drives, meets up with assorted scruffy and amusing and memorable companions and goes fishing for gar.
In recent times, it has been catch-and-release fishing for the gator gars, and Spitzer has joined a cadre of UCA-connected people who go after the big and challenging fish on a low-key basis.
“Arkansas probably has about 200 alligator gars today,” Spitzer said. “There may be 80 or so in the Arkansas River.”
There are four species of gar in Arkansas — longnose, shortnose, spotted and alligator. The first three are much more numerous than alligator gar, and all four are unique among fish in that they have functional lungs and can live in areas of low or lacking oxygen.
But gars don’t attack people, as Spitzer brings out. Catch one, bring it in a boat and the fish’s thrashing with open sharp-toothed mouth could lead to injury, all right.
The old tales of gars 20 feet long and 500 pounds in weight, Spitzer relates, are just that — tales. There have been alligator gars, verified, 8, 9 and 10 feet long. Arkansas’ state record is 215 pounds, set in 1964 by Alvin Bonds of Clarksville with an Arkansas River fish. The world record is 279 pounds, a Texas fish from the Trinity River, which is still a gator gar hotbed.
Spitzer’s book is full of informational tidbits.
Example: Alligator gars were used by Native Americans for food and also for arrowheads. Their diamond-shaped scales are so tough, so sharp that they were lethal when fitted on an arrow shaft and in the hands of a skilled archer.
The subtitle of “Season of the Gar” is “Adventures in pursuit of America’s most misunderstood fish.” That sums up the volume except for bringing out Spitzer’s sense of humor and honed writing skills.
Joe Mosby is the retired news editor of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Arkansas’ best known outdoor writer. His work is distributed by the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. He can be reached by e-mail at jhmosby@cyberback.com.
Comments (2)
Add commentThat's a sad number
Maybe no more than 200 alligator gar remaining in the Arkansas River?
That's sad.
I think a feature is in order
On gar fishing in Arkansas. Joe, that sounds like a worthwhile piece, right? Maybe you, me and the good doctor could work up a bit of local research.