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7-Foot Alligator Gar Caught in Texas: Largest of 3 That Day!

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Tony Maples Photography

 

Ram Reyes, a fishing guide for Texas Kings Outdoors (TKO), confirmed that a customer of theirs caught a 7-foot alligator gar in Zapata on Sunday, June, 30, 2019. The company specializes in taking its customers freshwater fishing, and this time, they reeled in a monster!

The 170-190-pound fish was the largest of its kind that TKO has ever caught. “Bigger alligator gar have been shot and reeled in by other companies, but alligator gar that big — that have been caught and released — hasn’t been recorded,” Reyes told mysanantonio.com. “Down here in this area, a lot of the people kill them instantly, but I’m a little bit more about conservation in which I like to release the fish.” He stated that for TKO’s services, this is a popular fish species, especially in Falcon Lake, in the Rio Grande Valley, where this one was caught.

7-Foot Alligator Gar Caught in Texas: Largest of 3 That Day!

Photo: Facebook/Texas Kings Outdoors

Alligator gar date back to prehistoric times and are known to grow up to 10 feet in length, sometimes weighing more than 300 pounds. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) has identified that a fish the size of that which was caught by the TKO customer might be roughly 40 years old. The record-holder for the largest catch of this species was set in Mississippi in 2011, with a fish that weighed 327 pounds. The Texas record was set in 1953, at 302 pounds. In 2009, the TPWD imposed a daily catch limit of one to ensure the conservation of the species. In addition to the 7-foot behemoth seen above, the TKO customers fished catch-and-release successfully on a 6’6” and a 5’11” of the same species on the same day.

What’s the biggest catch you ever made? Where’s your all-time favorite fishing hole in Texas? Or tell us about the one that got away!