Today I went bowfishing with a buddy of mine, and believe it or not we saw a bunch of gar in the river. Never seen gar in the Upper Iowa River before, i believe they were spawning. I'm fairly new to bowfishing, and I don't have a lot of knowledge on them. Anybody had experience with gar in small rivers, where are they usually, how come you never see them, etc. Also looking for tips on eating them, stuck a few.

Thanks

As far as cleaning them goes...check out this link. There is a "how to" on the left side bar. We cut the 'loins into 1" sections and deep fried them. I think they would be good in a shrimp/crayfish boil also.
My experience with gar is that they like to cruise the top on sunny days.

Guess it helps if I actually put the link on...

http://www.illinoisbowfishers.com/

Good Luck. Let us know how you like them.

My experience with gar is somewhat limited sinec we don't have nearly as many up here in Northern IL as other places do, but I've seen longnose gar rolling at the surface near gravel bars in the middle of a river, and both long and shortnose gar cruising the backwaters where they are clear.

I did the crab boil last weekend. EXCELLENT! Brought some to work, and they loved it. If you don't like shrimp or seafood, you wouldn't like it that way.

Man, that sounds goooooood! I'd sure like it.