You may be surprised that the largest, freshwater fish in North America may be swimming in the Mississippi River under the I-20/Hwy. 80 bridges at Vicksburg as you are reading this. The Alligator Gar is a monster-sized fish, capable of exceeding 300 pounds described as a beautifully grotesque fish in Mark Spitzer’s book “Beautifully Grotesque Fish of the American West.” Many scientists refer to Alligator Gar as a “living fossil” because they have remained relatively unchanged for over a 100 million years.  The broad snout and double row of upper teeth resemble an alligator, hence their name.

During most of the 1900’s, Alligator Gar were considered a “trash fish,” essentially useless, and possibly damaging to the environment, similar to carp. Because of their size and voracious appetites, fisherman assumed they were eating their prized sportfish, like Largemouth Bass, crappie, and Bluegill. They were targeted for elimination by state wildlife agencies and the numbers of Alligator Gar quickly diminished. More recently, scientific studies have shown that this species primarily eats forage fish, like Gizzard Shad, and also occasionally enjoys an unwary duck or a feisty beaver swimming along the surface.

Modern ecology has warned us not to eliminate apex predators from the environment without unintended consequences. Maybe that is one reason invasive carp continue to spread throughout the Mississippi River basin – there are no natural predators large enough to consume that many carp to make a difference in their growing numbers, except maybe the Alligator Gar. Now, state and federal agencies are stocking these fish back into their native ranges and numbers are steadily increasing.

Who wouldn’t want to catch a 300-pound fish? Actually, the Mississippi state rod and reel record is 215 pounds, bow and arrow record is 234 pounds, but the largest Alligator Gar caught in the state was in Lake Chotard in 2011, right upstream from Vicksburg, weighing 327 pounds!

Not only are Alligator Gar fun to catch, many people enjoy eating them like Cajun gar balls, usually fried, and I have heard that the backstrap is delicious. A word of caution – do not eat the greenish eggs for they are toxic to humans. But there are other uses. For those of you who live close to the Mississippi River during the spring, I recently read that gar oil was used by the people of Arkansas as a repellant for those pesky buffalo gnats coming from the river to bite you and leave week-long sores on your skin after they consume your blood to nourish their developing eggs. On a lighter note, the serrated ganoid scales that cover the fish, resembling a coat of armor, are used to fashion jewelry such as necklaces.

Folks sometimes ask if it’s safe to swim in the Mississippi River. During the summer, the Louisiana shore across from Vicksburg often resembles the Mississippi Gulf coast during spring break with boats tied together, umbrellas lining the beach, and people wading, swimming, and riding their jet-powered water bikes. The Mississippi River may have more sandy beaches than all of the beaches in Florida combined.

So other than an occasional bull shark (that’s another story), I am not aware of any other fish in the Mississippi River that will intentionally attack a human including Alligator Gar. In fact, Jeremy Wade of “River Monsters” concluded in one of his shows that there has never been any evidence that Alligator Gar attacked or killed humans.

Alligator Gar are a keystone species roaming around in America’s greatest river providing recreational fishing opportunities, food for humans, and control of invasive species. Maybe you will encounter one of these “beautifully grotesque” fish one day.

Jack Killgore, Ph.D., is a resident of Vicksburg. Prior to retirement, he was a long-time employee of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ERDC). He also serves as an enrichment speaker on the Viking Mississippi and teaches river science courses at Tulane University. He can be reached at kjkillgore@gmail.com.

Read his first column, “How Deep is the Mississippi River?,“ by clicking here.