I get to swim with these little guys…once in a while anyway.
not dangerous but when you come up on a half dozen, 2-3 feet long, it can be a bit of a startle. Longnose Gar are very common in Michigan. state record is just under 18 pounds and nearly 5 feet. they quite often swim in small schools and have a kinda wiggly way of moving along. sometimes they will act a bit curious and swim parallel a dozen feet or so off to the side. i’m tempted to get a waterproof camera to take along to see if i can get some usable shots from out in the lake. i grew up around these things but the heart rate admittedly does go up a bit when i run into 'em.
Worst I’ve ever seen was a dead fish I ran into head first. That’s kind of a nasty surprise. My buddy and I were swimming once when he ran into some fish with a sucker type mouth (lamprey maybe?) that attached to his back. He had a round red mark after the swim.
Did a swim in the Bahamas from an island to our boat (on a kayaking trip). At one point, I looked down and there was a barracuda about 30’ below me, going in the same direction and pretty much the same speed.
You seem like a cool, collected Swims-with-the-fish kinda guy. I have a phobia about fish swimming under me, or around me, or just being in the same body of water as me. Now I know they can’t do anything to me, but they still freak me out. I try to suck it up, and just deal with the fear, but honestly, I’m scared the first 45min or so, until I get too tired or zoned out to think. It only happens in water that is too dark for me to see anything. Swimming in a reef, that’s nice, and I don’t mind the fish at all. But swimming in lakes and oceans where I can’t see the bottom, or more than a couple feet ahead of me… yikes!
Do you have any advice on dealing with that? Anyone?
On vacation in Jamaica I was swimming from our resort out to an island. Crystal clear water, beautiful! Looked below and under me (at least 5 meters below) was a 2 meter wide ray just gliding along the bottom. He stayed within my field of vision for a good 15 minutes as I swam out.
I have the same phobia. While in Matzalan, Mexico this year I was swimming out past where the waves break and the fish kept bitting my toes. I envisioned a shark following the little fish.
remember…i admit to accelerated heart rate on initial encounter…and these are fresh water critters. the ones with teeth in the salt water are the ones that make me shudder.
the idea of mimicking a seal by donning a black wetsuit and jumping in an ocean inhabited by sharks just seems silly. (i should add that to my signature line eh?..i think i will)
the only thing that helped me get used to the gar and bowfin and all is that they are a fact of life in most of the lakes in Michigan and upper midwest. i simply could not go swimming or fishing or sailing as a kid without seeing them almost every time on the water. Dad’s advice was to remind me often as a kid that the fish are more afraid of you, than you are of them. now snapping turtles and some water snakes which like to hang around undeveloped shorelines are another whole story. i run into more snakes while fishing rivers than i ever see around the lake where i live. but just about everything out there in my area would rather turn tail and avoid a confrontation.
That image, and the thing about the lamprey are soo not making the phobia any better.