Small Gator Gar

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Darrells
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Location: Lorena,texas

Small Gator Gar

Post by Darrells »

As some of you know Ron and I enjoy chasing what we call Trophy Alligator Gar (100+ pounds).Ron and I hit a different part of the Brazos via private access yesterday. We got on the river about 5:00 and proceeded downstream a couple of miles until we found a good looking spot. After unloading some gear we set off to find some bait. We can always find some shad or mullet but yesterday we could not find anything so we ended up seining some river minnows. With the minnows we were able to quickly catch a couple of Gaspergoo (drum) which weighed 2-3 pounds each. Having some bait we set out some rods and got to relaxing.

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Pretty nice spot to spend the night fishing,

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The two Northwinds. Although they are built using to different construction methods they are pretty equal in performance,

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As they sun went down and cooled off a little it become very comfortable on the sand bar. From the start we had a lot of runs on the big poles. We had a couple of good fish on during the night but were unable to land one.

I love sunrise/set on the Brazos.
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Long about 2am or so it was time for a little coffee to jump start us. To me nothing tastes as good as coffee brewed in a old style perculator.

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During the night we caught a couple more gaspergoo and two Fish Gar (longnose) in the 3-4 foot range. Also caught some small channel cat and bass.

Just after sunrise the big fish got hungry. Ron was on a solid hookup when my reel tookoff. We had two large fish on at once, less than a fifty yards apart. Some how those two fish got together and both exploded on the surface at the same time and looked like one huge fish. Shortly after that Ron's fish threw the hook so he came down the gravel bar to help me land my fish. It was another 15 minutes or so before I managed to get her up to the bank, but she was not finished just yet. Everytime Ron would run the noose down the line she would explode and tear another 100 yards os line from the reel again. After the fourth try Rone was able to get the noose around her but when he went to pull it tight the fish somehow went backwards and ripped the hook from her. The only thing holding the fish was the steel cable of the noose between her front teeth, I grabbed the lead rope off of my kayak and got it around her head before she was able to shake loose. We got her up on the bank and started taking measurements for TPWD. We also take DNA samples but had left the vials at home. She is one big fish and my personal best (so far).

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This old fish has had a hard life. At some point she had been shot but had healed just fine. More recntly she had somehow gotten a roofing capnail stuck through one of her gill plates. Did not seem to her affect her so we did not try to remove it.

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It tookm us ten minutes or so the measure her and get some oictures then she was released unharmed to grow up and fight another day. We always have a great time on the river regardless, but it's always nice to catch a big fish.
Darrell Sykora
jem
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Re: Small Gator Gar

Post by jem »

wow! That's a big fish. Those gars always looked creepy to me.
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tx river rat
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Re: Small Gator Gar

Post by tx river rat »

Another adventure in the books and as is the norm we had a blast.
I still cant believe we couldnt catch any mullet in the cast net ,you could see then jumping
but no luck catching them. Well a couple gaspers and we were in business.
The gar were hitting really light and we had over 20 takers before we hooked up with this one. That is worse than normal for these fish.
I found out I can still bounce, dang , about 2 in the morning one of the rods bowed over and line was being taken hard and fast, we had a glow stick on this rod and it was going crazy,the rod was the greatest distance from us ,about 50 yards. I jumped up and started running for the rod
about that time the glow stick disappeared ,oh crud rods probably being dragged into the water, I really hit high gear then and boooooooooooommmmmmm a limb was ticking out of the sand caught me right above the top of my boots, no chance to recover ,it was instant I was on my face sliding across the gravel bar ,I jumped up finished running to the rod and luckily it was in the grass then the gar dropped it.I bet he was watching us and laughing.

Darrel and I just sat down and rolled as I checked to see if everything still worked.
Just after daylight Darrel was taking a nap and one of my rods went off ,I let her run and then hammered her ,alright a good solid hookup ,I didnt realize one of Darrels rods went of he woke up and hammered her ,i started putting presure on the fish and she swirled ,Dammmmmmmmmm that fish was twenty feet long ,then I heard Darrel yell and realized both fish were together in front of me ,Darrels fish made a run and cut my line. Oh well we still have one on.
The gar was giving Darrel all he wanted ,he commented about how strong this fish was , after awhile he finally got her up and she was still full of fight , every time I would start to snare her she would go balistic peel a hundred yards of line off. Finally we got her landed
thats when Darrell really got a look at her she was huge.
We taped her and checked her for tags and then I noticed where she had been shot in the head right above her eye.
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then Darrel noticed the roofing nail in her gill plate

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I can imagine how that got there it is solid bone, took a heck of an impact to drive that nail through it
We took the measurements from her she was a blocky heavy fish,I tried picking her up, I started grinning looked at Darrel and said buddy you have your 200 lber , try to pick her up and he couldnt . He looked like a kid with a new toy.We were laughing because the gar was growling at us, and expanding her head to about twice the normal size
We released her and she lazily swam of ,that was one tough ole gal
Now Darrel isnt a little ole boy but this pic gives you an ideal of the size of this fish.
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To wrap this up another good trip , two boats that are awesome and a friend that cant be beat.
Ron
cjbfisher
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Re: Small Gator Gar

Post by cjbfisher »

Darrell,
That is one awesome fish. Well done. I'm guessing that they have some fairly serious dentures.
Chris
Darrells
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Re: Small Gator Gar

Post by Darrells »

Yes they do.


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Darrell Sykora
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