DNA testing was not around then for such purposes and they do not really do it now either... and he is correct that the WORLD record Longnosed is highly suspected to be a Gator X Longnosed.
There is more being done with that than what you know.. Will leave at that but much focus has been placed on these over the past few years.Right. And in addition, Texas didn't acknowledge that longnose and alligator gar hybridized until a few years ago. There is talk of adding a record category for the hybrids. A couple of years ago the reigning record longnose was removed from the books, and the new record was something over 30 pounds. One or two larger ones were submitted shortly, but it wasn't long before another hybrid was certified as the record by a local game warden. I've seen the pics, it's a hybrid (Croc III by MFK standards). It's really not difficult at all to identify them, if a person realizes that the two species will interbreed. The characteristics are reasonably consistent. I don't really think it's a conspiracy to keep listing hybrids as longnose, it's just that a lot of people will recognize that a gar isn't an alligator gar, and the more slender nose causes a default to the longnose listing. The 75 inch hybrid that I have mounted looks more like a longnose than gator gar, but the scales show the typical "crinkling" on about the upper half, and the snout is proportionally intermediate in length and width between the two species.
Is that the taxidermy of the recorded long nose? the belly look more like in gator gar than in any long nose I see, and the head is ... not long nose or gator.Right. And in addition, Texas didn't acknowledge that longnose and alligator gar hybridized until a few years ago. There is talk of adding a record category for the hybrids. A couple of years ago the reigning record longnose was removed from the books, and the new record was something over 30 pounds. One or two larger ones were submitted shortly, but it wasn't long before another hybrid was certified as the record by a local game warden. I've seen the pics, it's a hybrid (Croc III by MFK standards). It's really not difficult at all to identify them, if a person realizes that the two species will interbreed. The characteristics are reasonably consistent. I don't really think it's a conspiracy to keep listing hybrids as longnose, it's just that a lot of people will recognize that a gar isn't an alligator gar, and the more slender nose causes a default to the longnose listing. The 75 inch hybrid that I have mounted looks more like a longnose than gator gar, but the scales show the typical "crinkling" on about the upper half, and the snout is proportionally intermediate in length and width between the two species.
Well, I'd be interested to know...I wonder what percentage of the crossbreeds might be reproductively viable rather than sterile.......
Hung, that pic is of my hybrid mount, but the record fish looks just about exactly like that one. There are some monster long nose in the FFC in Athens, pretty much typical of the fat Trinity River and upper Sabine River populations. None of the ones I saw there were hybrids. They may be a different strain or subspecies than those found in other places, though. Here's a pic of a big female longnose, crowding six feet and over 55 pounds:
lol, sorry, we forgot what this tread is all about. I think there is some members on the site have gator gar over 3ft long.
