Gaspar Goo
Anyone on here ever caught a 'Gasper Goo'?
I'm pretty sure we don't have them here in SC unless they are in another part of the state and I don't know about them. But dang if they ain't almost everywhere else. The article below says they are "the most wide ranging species in North America."
They are more or less considered a rough fish like a carp. Folks I've heard talk about them says they are damn good fighters. They have tournaments for them in Arkansas and some other states. They mostly use crawfish for bait.
They are sometimes called 'Rock Heads' because they have some kind of rocks or mineral balls in their head. A fellow from Arkansas said he has even found the rocks among Indian artifacts like points and bowls. He said he figured the kids played with them.
Why they are called Gaspar Goos I have no idea. But I Googled "Gaspar Goo" and it says they are a species of freshwater drum. I know the guy in Arkansas said they taste just like blackened redfish if you use Chef Prudhomes Blackened Fish Magic on them.
Here's what Wikipedia says about them:
Freshwater drum - Gaspar Goo
The freshwater drum, Aplodinotus grunniens, is a fish endemic to North and Central America. It is the only species in the genus Aplodinotus. The freshwater drum is a member of the family Sciaenidae, and is the only North American member of the group that inhabits freshwater for its entire life. Its generic name, Aplodinotus, comes from Greek meaning "single back", and the specific epithet, grunniens, comes from a Latin word meaning "grunting". It is given to it because of the grunting noise that mature males make. This noise comes from a special set of muscles within the body cavity that vibrate against the swim bladder. The purpose of the grunting is unknown, but due to it being present in only mature males, it is assumed to be linked to spawning.
The drum typically weigh 5–15 lb (2.3–6.8 kg). The world record was caught on Nickajack Lake in Tennessee, and weighed in at 54 lb 8 oz (24.7 kg). The freshwater drum is gray or silvery in turbid waters and more bronze or brown colored in clearer waters. It is a deep bodied fish with a divided dorsal fin consisting of 10 spines and 29–32 rays. It is also called shepherd's pie, "perch", silver bass, gray bass, Gasper goo, Gaspergou, gou, grunt, grunter, grinder, wuss fish, and croaker, and is commonly known as sheephead or sheepshead in parts of Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Geographic distribution
Freshwater drum are the only North American member of their family to exclusively inhabit freshwater (freshwater family members in genera Pachyurus and Plagioscion are from South America, while Boesemania is Asian). Their great distribution range goes as far north as the Hudson Bay, and reaches as far south as Guatemala. Their longitudinal distribution goes as far east as the eastern Appalachians and stretches as far west into Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Freshwater drum are considered to be one of the most wide ranging species in North America.
There is no information available that records the species to be declining or being extirpated from any part of its range. It is possible to have isolated fish kills due to chemical spills and other disasters of the kind. The freshwater drum can handle a wide variety of climates, and to kill off or extirpate it from an area would take a huge shift in habitat. If an event of that nature happened, it would certainly mean the death of other species long before the freshwater drum.
Ecology
The freshwater drum prefers clear water, but it is tolerant of turbid and murky water. They prefer the bottom to be clean sand and gravel substrates.
The diet of the freshwater drum is generally benthic and composed of macroinvertebrates (mainly aquatic insect larvae and bivalve mussels), as well as small fish in certain ecosystems. Freshwater drum show distinct seasonal differences in their diet. In April and May, the drum feeds on dipterans. During these months, dipterans make up about 50 percent of the freshwater drum's diet. In August through November, they tend to eat fish (which are primarily young-of-the-year gizzard shad). The percentage of fish in their diet at this time ranges from 52-94 percent. Other items in the drum's diet are mollusks and crayfish.
The freshwater drum competes with several organisms. During its early stages in Lake Erie, it has been shown to compete with yellow perch, the trout-perch, and the emerald shiner. During its adult lifetime, it competes with yellow perch and silver chub in deep water, and competes with black bass in the shoal areas.
Predators on drum include humans and other fish. During its first year, the freshwater drum serves as a forage fish for many species of predatory fish. These include smallmouth bass, walleye, and many other piscivores. After its first year, the primary predators on freshwater drum are humans. The drum is an important commercial crop on the Mississippi River, but in other areas it constitutes only a small portion of the commercial catch. Consistent with other Sciaenids, freshwater drum are strongly nocturnal with the bulk of most catches being derived from night angling/sampling. Commercial fisheries are present for this species, although market price tends to be quite low. Thus, many freshwater drum are harvested as by-catch from targeted higher-value species
Life history
During the summer, freshwater drum move into warm, shallow water that is less than 33 ft deep. The freshwater drum then spawn during a six to seven-week period from June through July when the water reaches a temperature of about 65 °F. During the spawn, females release their eggs into the water column and males release their sperm. Fertilization is random. Males generally reach sexual maturity at four years, whereas females reach maturity at five or six years. Females from six to nine years old have a clutch size of 34,000 to 66,500 eggs and they spawn in open water giving no parental care to their larvae. The eggs then float to the top of the water column and hatch between two and four days. Due to the broadcasting of eggs in open water and lack of parental care, many eggs and larvae fall victim to predation upon hatching, the pro-larvae average 0.13 inches long. The post larval stage begins about 45 hours after hatching and a length of 0.17 inches is attained.
Females grow at a faster rate than the males and adult characteristics start to form at a length of 0.59 in. Females continue to outgrow the male throughout their lives reaching a length of 12 to 30 in. Usually the freshwater drum weighs 2–10 lb, but they can reach well over 36 lb. Freshwater drum are long-lived and have attained maximum ages of 72 years old in Red Lakes, Minnesota and 32 years old in the Cahaba River, Alabama. Using sectioned otoliths from archaeological sites near Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin, freshwater drum have attained the age 74 years. Though they can reach a very old age, the average age of a freshwater drum is between 6 and 13 years.
Current management
There are not currently any management practices that could be found for the species. The freshwater drum is not federally or state listed by any states. In all of its range, the freshwater drum is abundant and in no danger of over-harvest. Although the commercial harvest is up to 1 million pounds per year, they are in no danger of over-harvest. In the Mississippi River alone, the commercial catch has reached about 300,000 lb in recent years. Due to its abundance, many states allow bowfishing and other non-conventional means to harvest the fish.
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