Cruise, I don't know if this will help but here goes. I've never cleaned or eaten gar but my Dad who came up when times were hard and people lived off of the land passed this off to me years ago. Supposedly gar has either stringy meat or strands of stringy whatever in it, making it not the best to fillet and cook. What they did way back then was to fillet and leave the skin on. With the flesh side facing up, they used a spoon to scrape the softer flesh off of the skin leaving the stringy stuff behind. Then the flesh that was scrape off was combined with seasoning, onions, garlic, green onions and what ever else, and then formed into balls or patties. It was then fried in pork lard and the feast began. Just never eat the eggs, they are poison.
"gene"