One Heck of a fish tale - 300lb Alligator Gar caught in Texas

[DFWRocket]

http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/...alligator+gar/

(picture at linked page)

thats one heck of a battle - props to him and his dog..



Whether Brent Crawford has captured the world's largest alligator gar will never be known -- his scale bottomed out emphatically at 300 pounds and he filleted the prehistoric-looking fish after attempting to obtain its weight.

But this much is clear: The gar Crawford landed while bow-fishing recently in Texas' Lake Corpus Christie is among the largest specimens ever captured -- and it was captured in a manner like no other gar captured beforehand.

(The largest-known alligator gar caught while bow-fishing weighed 365 pounds. The largest caught on rod and reel weighed 279 pounds.)

Crawford, who has lived on the lake for 20 years, was alerted to the presence of several giant gar in a wide canal feeding into the lake: an enormous female swimming with about five smaller males.

His reaction, according to the Corpus Christie Caller Times, was simply: "Oh goodness. That fish right there was worth chasing."

The newspaper's outdoors columnist, David Sikes, produced a detailed account of what transpired next. The following is a condensed version:

Crawford, with his fishing bow, stalked the great fish carefully, knowing he might only get one shot.

When he finally fired, he scored a direct hit, unleashing the fury of the 8-foot, 2-inch beast, which created an explosion of mud and water before it ran toward the lake.

Big problem, because the nylon cord had become tangled at Crawford's feet, and when he grabbed the line, as it began to tighten, it became wrapped around his hand.

The line went taut and the fish yanked the fisherman into the water headfirst. That's when Crawford's dog, Bleux, grabbed him by the cuff of the jeans, creating a bizarre riverbank tug-of-war.

Crawford ultimately was able to free his hand from the cord and stand knee-deep in the shallow canal, gripping his fishing bow, the cord still attached to the mighty fish. "There was no doubt who was in control and it wasn't me," the fisherman recalled.

The gar stole 200 feet of cord in a battle that lasted 45 minutes, before Crawford reeled it to the bank. Soaked and exhausted, the fisherman straddled the fish, reached for his cellphone -- which he had kept in a waterproof case -- and dialed a friend.

The friend arrived with a pistol, which resoundingly ended the struggle, and the two men used a rope and an ATV to drag the quarry to Crawford's house.

It wasn't until after Crawford had carved up his catch that he learned the Texas bow-fishing record for alligator gar is 290 pounds, and the overall state record is 302 pounds.

Record or no record, it was a monstrous gar and one of the wildest angling feats in Texas history. It's a shame that there isn't a category for that.

[EddieWasSnubbed]

As someone getting into kayak fishing, this is amazing. It's unfathomable to me, never having caught a fish like that, that beasts like that exist in freshwater.

[Yonkers]

Holy crap.... 8 foot 2 inches.

[boomboom]

HO. LEE. CRAP.

[DonnyMost]

I remember catching little gars out in Sabine as a kid.

When I found out they could grow that big, I nearly pooped my adolescent pants.

I wonder if that creature holds the world record for largest possible percent increase in growth from baby to adult.

[DFWRocket]

Hemingway should've wrote about this guy. I think we can let him keep his man-card.

[HombreDeHierro]

are those edible?

[napalm_black]

THAT IS A LARGE THING.

[Yung-T]

This is why I don't like swimming in huge lakes, there's some crazy fish in there.

[KingCheetah]

I've seen some six or seven foot a-gars before when me and my buddy threw a bunch of KFC chicken into a canal behind our high school, but i've never seen anything like that river monster.

[Han Solo]

Do they eat people?

[RocketsPimp]

Originally Posted by Han Solo Do they eat people?

Lazy Rebel scum

From Wikipedia:

The Alligator Gar is a relatively passive, solitary fish that lives in fresh and brackish water bodies in the southern U.S. It is carnivorous and feeds by lurking amongst reeds and other vegetation, ambushing prey.[13] Alligator gar have often been suspected in attacks on humans[14][unreliable source?], but none of these attacks have been officially confirmed to be the work of this species.

[teknokid]

Originally Posted by HombreDeHierro are those edible?

Yes. Aligator Gar is actually really tasty.

[REEKO_HTOWN]

That's a dinosaur.

[Convictedstupid]

I wish I was a real man like him.

[the futants]

I used to be scared of them when I was a kid. Landed a few on a rod and reel over the years. Sadly, this ancient giant is vanishing. They look terrifying, but they're completely non-threatening to humans.

[marky :)]

Never swimming in a lake/river ever. I dot want to be first confirmed death by an alligator gar lol.

[Classic]

DAYUMMM

[cdain3]

Originally Posted by napalm_black THAT IS A LARGE THING.

That's what she said.

[DaDakota]

Good eating right there boys !

DD