This image was taken last Sunday by a runner running on the banks of the James River at Scottsville, Virginia. The fish was left hanging as you see on a barricade right on the banks of the river. This looks somewhat like an Alligator Gar, but they are not resident to Virginia. Anybody have a clue?

 

It looks kind of like the "Houndfish" shown in this Virginia angler's guide:

 

http://www.mrc.virginia.gov/vswft/Angler_Guide/angler_web_guide.pdf

 

But that pamphlet seems to be exclusively about saltwater fish, and I see that Scottsville is well inland.

 

Though the Alligator Gar appears to be found only in the deep south, Wikipedia references two other fish in the Gar family that may be found in freshwater throughout the east coast.

 

The "Shortnose" Gar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepisosteus_platostomus

 

And the "Longnose" Gar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepisosteus_osseus

 

Perhaps one of those? Kind of hard to be sure, as the fish in the photo looks somewhat the worse for wear!

Definitely Gar family and I would say Long Nose. I grew up in central Indiana where some of the local waterways were heavily populated with them. The Ohio river and Mississippi have some that are HUGE! How one of those things got into a Virginia waterway would probably be explained the same as alligators in the sewers.

 

Regards,

Mel