So they were doing civil war re enactment by our place and my wife wanted to see it. We took the boat over and gar were going crazy jumping everywhere.  Got some video and finally landed one after feeding them tons of cut bait 

 

Grew up catching those suckers on the Cahaba, never seen them spawn, that's cool.  

 

Miss that type of wonderment in fishing, rivers are so diverse in the South.    Shame we had to Dam so many.   In terms of biodiversity, Alabama is considered the Amazon of North America, and rivers play a huge role in that.  

 

"There are 350 species of freshwater fish in Alabama, like the darters in this photo and below, about one-third of all species known in the entire nation. The turtle population is even more singular. The system's delta, the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, has 18 turtle species. That's more than the Amazon. More than the Nile. More than the Yangtze. More than the Mekong. More than any other river system on Earth."

 

Journey into wild Alabama: America's Amazon | AL.com

28 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Grew up catching those suckers on the Cahaba, never seen them spawn, that's cool.  

 

Miss that type of wonderment in fishing, rivers are so diverse in the South.    Shame we had to Dam so many.   In terms of biodiversity, Alabama is considered the Amazon of North America, and rivers play a huge role in that.  

 

"There are 350 species of freshwater fish in Alabama, like the darters in this photo and below, about one-third of all species known in the entire nation. The turtle population is even more singular. The system's delta, the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, has 18 turtle species. That's more than the Amazon. More than the Nile. More than the Yangtze. More than the Mekong. More than any other river system on Earth."

 

Journey into wild Alabama: America's Amazon | AL.com

I’ve fished mainly the Alabama river between Montgomery and mobile and it sure seems wild! Massive gators and crazy birds in every direction. We catch some gar down there but they are usually smallish. We always see monster gar and paddlefish jumping all day tho!!! Sounds like a refrigerator landing in the river. It really does feel something like the Amazon, muddy and flooded with lots of bugs and not many humans haha

4 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I’ve fished mainly the Alabama river between Montgomery and mobile and it sure seems wild! Massive gators and crazy birds in every direction. We catch some gar down there but they are usually smallish. We always see monster gar and paddlefish jumping all day tho!!! Sounds like a refrigerator landing in the river. It really does feel something like the Amazon, muddy and flooded with lots of bugs and not many humans haha

You're blessed to live on such a beautiful and diverse river.

 

The homelake drains into the Cahaba River so I think lots of the big fish eating birds go back and forth.  Discovered a new critter the other day, the American Bittern.    Dang cool critter.....took me forever after analyzing what I thought was a living creature to realize it was indeed alive.

 

1 minute ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

You're blessed to live on such a beautiful and diverse river.

 

The homelake drains into the Cahaba River so I think lots of the big fish eating birds go back and forth.  Discovered a new critter the other day, the American Bittern.    Dang cool critter.....took me forever after analyzing what I thought was a living creature to realize it was indeed alive.

 

Those are cool, I’ve only seen them in Alabama and maybe Florida. They make a crazy sound!!!!

1 minute ago, TnRiver46 said:

Those are cool, I’ve only seen them in Alabama and maybe Florida. They make a crazy sound!!!!

Yeah I never knew what was making that sound or passed it off on another species until I was learning about them.   

 

I was gonna come to you but posted it in the lake FB group, and somebody ID'd it. 

 

Back in my teens we would fish for Alligator Gar in the Atchafalaya River and hooked some monsters. It was a hell of a rush trying to bring one of these to the boat. The biggest problem was if we did get one to the boat was getting it unhooked. They are one tough fish to deal with.