How do you clean a florida gar fish? we used to eat them all the time but my dad always cleaned them.?

Question

Need to know how to clean gar for eating. i know the skin is tough. but how do you get it off? and how do you clean the fish? my dad always done it before he died and now we have to do it. Please help.

Answer 1

It is a little hard to explain. It can be a difficult task. You basically have to skin them. What we normally do is to take a small axe and chop down the back bone and cut the top fins off then take a sharp knife from that point down the sides right under the scales skinning it around the sides. I hope that this helps you, I know it is a little vague. Usually the bigger the fish the easier it is. Happy eating, Gar Fish is a very tasty fish when cooked right.

Answer 2

the skin on the gar is more like a shell than skin. we use a small hatchet to split down the back and then peal the rest downward towards the belly, it comes off but isn't the easiest thing to do. next gut the fish and cut off the head, cut the meat at each vertebrae for steaks or pull bone out and put in grinder to make fish balls with green onion and other seasoning. good stuff. the steaks we put on the grill with butter& a little wine.